Ribbon Wreath Tutorial

As I promised, here is a quirky project for you to try out this Christmas. You can make yours any size you like, you will just need more or less ribbon, the list of materials bellow are for a wreath that is 30cm in diameter.

You will need:

• Thick craft wire that is 95cm long (or you could use any small hoop that you have)
• 3m of 8 different coloured 1.5" ribbons (24m in total)
• 8 jingle bells
• A small amount of thread
• Lighter or candle (optional)

Step 1:

You may not need to do this step if you are using a hoop. If you are using craft wire, bend it and tape it in to shape, place it under a heavy stack of books or something similar for about an hour (however this will depend on how tightly the wire was coiled when you brought it.

Step 2:

While the wire is being shaped cut your ribbon in to strips of about 15cm, it doesn't have to be perfect and you can use any short pieces that you have when you get to the end of the ribbon.

Step 3:

Burn the ends of the cut pieces lightly so that they don't fray. We quite like the tatty look so we only did this with our glittering gold and silver ribbon as it seemed to fray quite badly.

Step 4:

By now your wire should be pretty flat so you can start tying pieces on to the wire, all you need to do is tie a simple knot.  You can put the ribbon on at random or you can have a set order, we has a set order but with 8 different colours it just looks like you did it at random which I think is a lovely effect.

Step 5:

Once all the Ribbon is tied on you can pick where you want to place your jingle bells. We opted to look at it like a clock and put one at 12, 3, 6 and 9, then we placed the remaining four bells in between each of these hours. We used some basic black thread and tied them quite close to the wire, they are hard to see but you know they are there because it jingles whenever you open the door.

Step 6:

Get a basic piece of thread, or go fancy with a nice thin ribbon and tie it to the top of your wreath, this will be used to hang the wreath.

And that’s it, you are done! So simple and so beautiful.

If you are interested, the eight colours we used where: red, green, yellow, gold, silver, aqua blue, pink and orange. But you could always get creative, what about doing it in all green and adding a big red bow at the bottom for a traditional style. Go for a winter wonderland with blue, sliver, white and purple or go for this year's John Lewis look of metallic silver, gold and copper (I don't know if that is the same everywhere but it's those colour in Milton Keynes and I think it is fantastic!)

Well, I guess I will see you back here next Sunday for 'The Ultimate Christmas Gift Guide'.

Till then, Happy Crafting!

Claudia x