Making a Keepsake Wreath

I have a bunch of great stuff I have collected at the beach or walking in woods.  I try to use some of these things in my wreaths to make them special one of a kind creations.   If you have a  similar collection of items, you can simply display them as a table centerpiece in a clear glass container or use them to make a keepsake wreath. 

You can use any kind of grapevine wreath.  Here is a heart wreath that I used to make a wreath with sea shells that I painted sea foam blue.

Grapevine twig heart with spanish moss base

Using hot glue - glue a base of spanish moss around your grapevine base or where you want to add your flowers.  Here I have added it all around the heart twig form.  Adding moss first really makes it much easier to attach and secure your flowers or other items.

Sea Shells painted sea foam blue

You need a filler, backround material (like silver king or german status), accent flowers (roses, celosia, globe amaranth), and something long like larkspur, eucalyptus or even lavender.  You can use either silk or dried flowers.  You can add anything you may have collected like seashells, pine cones, interesting stones, twigs, bark, or what have you.

Finished heart with sea foam blue seashells

There are more photos of the heart wreath above in my Artfire Shop.

keepsake wreath with driftwood, seashells, seaglass and dried flowers

The wreath about is one that I made as a gift for my mother.  I used sea shells we collected together on the beach, along with driftwood and sea glass.

After you have glued the spanish moss on the wreath base, take your filler material - break the branches into two or three inch long pieces and begin to glue each piece into the moss until the whole base is covered.  Rather than a glue gun, I use a glue pan. With a glue pan, you can just dip each stem into the glue and then place carefully onto the wreath base.  If you are using something sturdy for the long stem material like eucalyptus you can add that next in the same manner.  Break it into short pieces somewhat longer than the filler so it will stand out and hot glue it to the spanish moss base.  You might need to tear off the bottom petal of the eucaluptus so you can push it into the moss base.   If your stem material is more fragile, like lavender or larkspur add it last so it doesn't get damaged while you work.  Once you have the filler and stem material evenly distributed around the wreath you can begin to add your accent flowers.  Apply hot glue to each flower and carefully attach to wreath.  At this point take your keepsakes and also glue those harmoniously about the wreath.

Grapevine Wreath

The above grapevine wreath is available in my Artfire Shop. Spanish moss was added to the above wreath just at the top where the flowers were glued.  Silver king was used for the filler.  The accent flowers were off white globe amaranth and velvety pink celosia.  The eucaluptis and larkspur and twigs are the long stem pieces. 

 

Grapevine with soft white dried flowers and sea shells 

This wreath is in my etsy shop  -  The filler used for this wreath is a soft green emerald king.  The accent materials are globe amaranth and seashells.  The long stem materials used are wheat sprigs, and soft white larkspur.

I hope you can follow these instructions and will create a keepsake for yourself to remind you of a special place that you have visited.  Here is a special place we visited where I collected sea shells that I'm reminded of when I work on my wreaths.

Rockport, MA