Last time I showed you how I made a quick and easy Christmas swag for my front door.  I prefaced by saying this:

Waste not, want not.  A penny saved is a penny earned.  Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.  A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.  Do what you can, where you are, with what you have.

These wise sayings make a lot of sense when you really consider the message, don’t they?  We live in a small rural town (about 1400 people) on the east coast of Canada.  My Love likes to tell people we need to drive an hour to buy a pair of socks.  That’s mostly true…in a pinch you just may find an acceptable offering at the local grocery store (which also has a small hardware area and a few other necessities).  Because of this, we have learned to take some of these sayings to heart.

Case in point:  the Christmas tree.

We brought home our tree a few days ago and let it settle in.  Before decorating, we decided we needed to remove some of the lower branches if we were ever going to put gifts under there.  My Love dutifully cut until it was just right.  And I had a significant pile of boughs.  I had a few projects in mind for those branches.  A wreath.  A swag.  A centrepiece.  A bucket of greenery with branches and such.  I began working to see just how far those boughs would go to saving me some moolah…and a trip to the big town.

Today, I’ll show you how I turned those trimmings into a simple wreath.

Again, first order of business is collecting materials:

• a base for the wreath, I had a few different ones, but I decided on the wire form
• various lengths of greenery, one kind or a variety
• wire for attaching greenery to the form
• ribbon or ornaments, as desired

• I began by trimming the branches into smallish sprigs of varying lengths, arranging them into bundles so I could move quickly once I started the wiring process.

• Next comes the wiring.  This part is a little tricky at first, but once you find your groove it moves along at a good pace.  Place a bundle of greenery on the frame and wrap the wire around the bundle near the cut ends a couple of times twisting the end of the wire to secure.  Don’t cut the wire…it will be a continuous piece going around the whole wreath.  Leave the coil of wire at the back of the form.

• Grab another bundle, place it overlapping the cut end section of the previous one.  All of the bundles will go in the same direction.
• Wrap this bundle in the same way as the first.
• Continue around the form in this fashion until there’s one bundle left to place.

• The last bundle is kind of finicky to wire on as the end needs to sneak under the first bundle.  Take the wire to the back of the wreath, twisting it around the first couple of wraps to secure it.  Make a hanging loop and trim the wire.

• Flip the wreath over and fill in any sparse areas.  If you like, you can trim the wreath, but I like it a little more natural and rustic.
• This is when you’d add any ornamentation that you’d like.  I decided I just wanted it plain, hanging from a strip of red burlap.

I hung it in my kitchen window (you can see it was dark by the time I was done).  The next day I decided to add a wooden star, hanging in the centre.

I give the greenery a spritz of water each day to help maintain freshness.

I still had some branches left over, so I finished my session with a centrepiece.  I had a reclaimed barn board box and a candle in a glass hurricane.  I simply added the boughs and sprigs around the candle, completing the look with a few pinecones and ‘berries’.

The moral of the story?  Don’t toss the tree trimmings!  I didn’t have enough to do my potted greenery and scavenged branches and berries, but I got three great projects out of  the gleanings…not to mention a beautiful tree!

Merry Christmas, friends!

Be inspired along with me over here:

Happiness is Homemade @ Blogghetti
Best Friday Features @ Tatertots & Jello
DIY Salvaged Junk Projects #456 @ Funky Junk Interiors
Nifty Thrifty Sunday #365 @ Meet Our Life
The Scoop #357 @ Worthing Court