Wreath Week: Cinnamon and Orange Wreath Tutorial

Welcome back to Wreath Week. Just one more day to go until my very first linky party.

{Eeeeek! }

If you'd like to proudly wear a Wreath Friday Party button on your blog, it's just over to the right on my sidebar. All the cool blogs are doing it, dontcha know? And you want to be cool, right?

{Oh, my marketing skills are just pure wizardry, aren't they? ;-)}

The time has come to present to you my all time favourite wreath in the whole wide world ever.

 It sums up everything that's traditionally Christmassy. Cinnamon and orange together are a match made in heaven, don't you agree? Extreme yumminess.

With this wreath, I worked in the opposite direction from the natural wreath. With this one, I started with the bigger items, the bunches of cinnamon, and worked down because this wreath doesn't need to be covered in the same way as the last.

 

This is what you need to make this exact one:

• A totally stunning Wreath base - I have heard a rumour that there's a great tutorial knocking about somewhere....ahem!!
• Dried orange slices
• Cinnamon sticks
• Raffia
• Pine cones
• Bendy wire

As a quick aside, do you know how to make dried orange slices? You just buy some cheap-as-chips BIG oranges and slice them through the middle to get the star shape of the segments.

{Take out as many of those dang pips as you can.}

Now, the trick is to get every last drop of juice out by drying them VERY sloooooowly...otherwise they go mouldy, which I think we all agree is not a good look on a Christmas wreath....

 Lay them on a tray and pop them in the oven on its lowest temperature for a day or so.

{Yes, really, that long.}

Alternatively, put them on a plate in the microwave and set it to its lowest power for about 3 hours. 

{Hooray for Mr Microwave.}

Still quite long but the bonus is that it fills the house with a lovely orangey smell. Yum!

Now......onwards and upwards to the Cinnamon and Orange Wreath tutorial....

Step 1

Take small bunches of cinnamon sticks and trim them down to the size you'd like your bunches to be. Wrap some raffia several times around each bunch and tie really, really firmly. Yes, really, really, reeeeally firmly.

{Unless you want to lose them later on...}

Loop a piece of wire through the raffia and attach the wire to the wreath base by twisting it round the stems.

I've used five bunches of cinnamon...but I am a total cinnamon maniac so feel free to use less.

Step 2

Using an awl, poke a whole in the end of the pine cones. Pop a piece of wire with glue on in the little hole and leave to set. Twist the other end of the wire around the wreath base.

Step 3

Now use the oranges to fill in the gaps. It doesn't need to be completely and utterly covered. The gorgeous base you've made (Have you made one yet? Have you? Have you?) ties in so beautifully with the colours of the cinnamon, oranges and pine cones that it becomes one big wreath of scrumptialiciousness.

It looks weird just having one little orange slice all in its own so I pile them up in groups of three or four slices together. Poke a piece of wire in through one segment and out through another.

Do this slice by slice and wrap the end of the wire around the wreath stems to attach the oranges.

OR you can poke a piece of wire through three or four slices at a time and them attach them all together to the wreath. Both methods give slightly different effect so I did a mixture of the two.

{I like to live dangerously, don't I?!}

And there you have it. A homemade, gorgeously lovely Christmassy Cinnamon and Orange wreath!

Ta-daaaaah!

I wish I could explain how beautiful it looks and smells in real life. The heady scents mingle in the air as you walk past it. And the colours just glow.

I'm off to Harrods in London today for a spot of Christmas shopping! Yes, I do that most days, you know.

{NOT!}

See you tomorrow at my Friday Wreath party. I've picked out my dress already.....and I have matching shoes!

 

I'm linking up to my favourite linky parties in my side bar....