Welcome to Day 24 of 31 Extraordinary Days to Be…  Or…simply: Be…
Together, we will learn to Be… to live fully and beautifully in our “skin”
and in our homes and beyond.  If you missed The Introduction or you’d like
to follow the entire series, you can find each post listed here.

If you’ve been following this blog for even a little while, you have a pretty good idea of how much I enjoy God’s magnificent creation.  So for fun, I thought I’d put together a little vignette.

As so often happens…one thing morphed into another.

It started with some wild grapevines from the neighbor’s yard and a tomato cage and pretty soon I was making grapevine wreaths, purchasing a pumpkin, and trying to decide how to decorate one of the wreaths I constructed.

This day I chose to create a natural fall wreath.  Since I have no stash of goodies right now, I decided to walk out the door and see what nature had to offer.  Nature did not disappoint.  Dark purple berries, maple leaves, crab apples in several colors and sizes, the last of the goldenrod, and some seed pods.

In the end, simplicity won out in decorating this natural fall wreath.  I used just maple leaves and the dark purple privet berries.

Natural Fall Wreath Tutorial

Materials needed: Plain Grapevine Wreath (available at the craft store), Paddle Wire, Wire Cutters, Pruners, Leaves, Berries

Leaves…

• Gather colorful fall leaves from the tree.
• Stack leaves in groups of five alternating colors and placing the leaves large to small in the stack.
• Unwrap about 8 or 10 inches of wire from the paddle.
• Holding the stack of  leaves in your hand, punch a hole in the leaves with your wire from the back and draw through to the front.
• Next bend that length and punch a hole in the leaves from the front and draw the wire down to the leaves.
• Place the stack of leaves against the wreath and using the two tails of the wire, pull the wire around the wreath, firming the stack of leaves to the wreath.
• Tightly twist the two wires together, trim, and fold the excess into the back of the wreath.

Berries…

• Gather sprigs of berries from shrubs.
• Cut the sprigs of berries to about 4 inches.
• Unwrap about 8 or 10 inches of wire from the paddle.
• Place a group of 3 or 4 berry stems in the center of the wire and wrap the wire around the stems once.
• Place the berries on top of the leaves, but place the wire, just below the leaves and pull the wire around the wreath to the back.
• Draw tightly and twist the wires together.  Cut. Fold the excess wire into the back of the wreath.

Repeat the process for as many leaf and berry groups as you wish to place around your wreath. 

Hang your wreath and enjoy!!  Or lean it on a bench like I did here.

Creating a natural fall wreath is a fun activity.  I didn’t have a plan…only a pile of freshly gathered items.

If you decide to try your hand at creating a natural fall wreath, go with the flow, have fun.  I could have added more gatherings to the wreath…but this just felt right.  Maybe another day…when it warms up again…I’ll do something different.

Nature gifts us with a delight of color and texture…whatever you choose to do…it will be beautiful.  This is not a time to worry and fret about perfection.

Keep in mind…this is a fresh natural fall wreath.  It will be short-lived.  If you bring it inside where it’s heated it won’t last long.  Outside it should last for a week or two depending on the weather…maybe longer.

Day 24 Challenge:  Go outside and look at nature’s bounty.  Walk around with your pruners and clip or pick natural elements in gorgeous colors and textures.  Make a natural fall wreath, a garland, or simply gather some stems and place them in a vase or a crock.  Be creative with nature’s offerings.

Emily Freeman has been talking about making art in her new book, A Million Little Things, and on her blog, Chatting at the Sky.  From constructing the wreath and grapevine tree, to decorating both, creating a vignette, and photographing the setting….this is my art.  Today.  Tomorrow my art may become something else.  Ideas morph.  Big and little.  It’s my art and it makes my heart sing.

Be…Creative!!

Diane

I hope you’ll consider visiting each day during this #31Day series.

All the posts in the series will be added to this page each day of October.
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What a wonderful adventure this will be as we journey together to Be…