Magnolia Leaf Wreath

I have really been loving the wreaths I've been seeing on Instagram and Pinterest that are made of magnolia leaves.  Several of my neighbors have large magnolia trees and I'm sure they would let me have some of the branches, but I wanted something a little bit more permanent.

I browsed the flower aisles at Michael's today. Their florals are 40% right now, so I picked out a two stems of large silk magnolia leaves.

I knew wasn't enough to cover an entire wreath, but being a bit of a tightwad, I searched for a more affordable option.  I found these smaller leaves (not Magnolia, but a decent filler) for just $1.99 a branch, plus a discount.

My splurge was on this stem of white Japanese magnolia blossoms.  The actual magnolia blossoms looked too fake for me and these were a nice creamy shade.

After cutting off the magnolia leaves, I glued them to a green styrofoam ring and filled in the blank spaces with the ficus leaves.

Finally, I tucked in the blossoms, securing them with hot glue.  Voila! I want to get some ivory satin ribbon to hang it, but until then, this lace ribbon will do.

Quick Wreath Re-Hab

I've been saving an old grapevine wreath for a while now.  The flowers on it were faded and it was tired and ready for a makeover.

After looking through some supplies I bought last year and never used, I figured this was the time.   I stripped everything off the wreath while my glue gun heated and then set to work.  I glued on a red, white and blue garland I found on sale at Joann's, then made a large burlap bow and added it to the side of my wreath.

I removed the flowers from the old stems and glued the greenery that was left on each side of the bow.  After adding in the carnations and a few of the leftover daisies, I called it "done" and hung it on the door.

The whole process only took about 15 minutes and things are looking a lot fresher now . . . and a bit patriotic, too.