Natural Wreaths: This is perhaps the easiest and most popular of the nature crafts! You can use any number of collected items for these, and you can add household objects too, you are only limited by your imagination!

Of course you could purchase materials from a craft store if you don’t have access to wooded areas or if nature just isn’t your thing. I think it’s more fun to collect them yourself though – in the end you’ll feel accomplished knowing that you hand-selected each item from the great outdoors (um, not to mention – they’re free!). Use whatever you find interesting – pine cones, acorns, seed pods, nuts, twigs, decorative roses from dry orange peel – variety is wonderful!

You’ll need a wreath form as your base. I ended up using a grapevine wreath that I got from Amazon. Originally I bought a cheap flat floral wreath form that was made out of MDF or compressed cardboard or something, but then I realized that this type of wreath would look best to have a more dimensional base where you can attach items all around the sides. You can use the traditional styrofoam wreath forms too.

Grab your hot glue gun and go to town! I decided to cover the wreath with the medium and large pieces and use the smaller items later. A surprising amount of thought and concentration has to go into this part – try to get a good balance of color, materials, sizes, & directions. I usually planned out 3 or 4 pieces at a time before I glued anything.

Make sure to check out your wreath from all angles & fill in any empty spots on the outer & inner edges. I think it’s fun and I like it! What do you guys think? Anyone else make their own wreath?