DIY: Magnolia Leaf Wreath

Nothing dresses a home in winter better than a wreath. You can place them multiple places indoors and out, adding a touch of class to your home.  This season, why not make your own special wreath out of magnolia leaves? All you need are just a handful of supplies to get you going.

What you need to get started:

• Wreath form
• Wire cutters
• 22 gauge floral wire, pre cut into 2.5 inch long pieces before starting
• Bunches of magnolia leaves

Materials can be found at your local craft store. Leaves can be found in nature, or at a floral mart!

 

Our branches had a variety of sizes so for the design process, we used the smallest leaves in the innermost part of the wreath, medium size leaves in the middle and the largest leaves towards the outermost part of the wreath.

1. Once you have all your supplies and take your ceremonious Instagram “before” picture, pluck the leaves from its branches and separate them by sizes: small, medium, and large. Note: Depending on what kind of leaves you have, you might only have two sizes, small and large.

2. Bundle the leaves into groups of 5. Starting with any size pile, grab 5 leaves, and stack them on top of each other.

 

 

3. From there, grab the pre cut floral wire and wrap it around the leaf stem. Insider tip: Use a combo of just wrapping the wire 4-5 times or doing a combo of both a wrap and a sandwich tie twist, whichever you feel comfortable doing. Then fan out the leaves slightly. Continue bundling the rest of the leaf groups. For this wreath we were left with a pile of small leaf bundles, medium size leaf bundles and large leaf bundles.

After you are done bundling the leaf groups, it’s time to start applying them to the wreath form!

 

4. Grab a small bundle and attach it to the innermost ring by either wrapping it around multiple times or doing a sandwich tie twist method. Then grab the larger leaf bundles and tie it to the outermost ring. Moving slightly down the wreath form, tie a middle size bundle which should overlap a the small bundle and the large bundle continue along the wreath form until it is full.

5. Judgement time! Hang the wreath and see if there are any holes or lopsided sides. If so, fill in accordingly with extra leaves.

 

Take pleasure in your hard work and also accept that your magnolia leaf wreath is going to have character! Embrace some of the different textures of the leaves and that some just don’t want to “bend that way.” Plain green is great, but feel free to add a bow, holly berries, or paint the tips of the leaves! Whatever your heart desires.

A couple additional tips: 

1. If time isn’t on your side and you’re not opposed to seeing the wreath form from the side, a grape vine wreath form fakes fullness. Simply bundle leaves and then with your wire wrap them around the form.

2. If you have extra leaves on hand, throw them in a vase for a chic and quick room pick-me-up. Check out a few examples here and here.

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This post was created in collaboration with Etta & Eve. Keep up with their adventures on Instagram.

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