A rustic wreath

After Christmas , my front-door always looks so bare without a wreath , so I decided to see what I could come up with as a wreath on an almost zero budget.
Here is how I made a rustic wreath to cheer up a dull day and a dull door.

I look around in the garden , and saw some potential in the bare branches of my miniature weeping willow.
It is vastly overcrowded and would not miss a few branches.
If you don't have a garden , you might take a trip to the country-side and seek out some willows...they grow very fast and will have lots of branches...just leave enough for other people !!!

So here was my fabulous for-free starting material.

I had some help of course with making the initial wreath...

Tilda is always fantastically helpful....she felt the branches needed trimming...she was right of course !!
First, you tie some branches together with twine , then form it into a circle , and attach the two ends by overlapping and then also securing with twine, like below.

You now have your willow wreath and you can start decorating.
I decided to add some moss and some ivy for a rustic effect.
Ivy is almost like a weed -you can find it practically everywhere- in cities as well as in the countryside.
It makes for a pretty decoration so you can always have a few ivy tendrils on top of your basic wreath.
Just tuck the ivy between the open bits of the wreath and secure the moss with twine to the wreath. I added some dried hydrangeas..which I had from last year-( this is why I grow them- they're a bit boring but perfect when they dry, as the colours are nice and faded).

You can then add a pretty ribbon and some more fresh flowers if you like.I added some hellebore from the garden.I just love the speckled insides and the flowers are so pretty and early in the year.

I made a posie with the hellebores , wrapped some damp kitchen-towel and aluminium foil around it to keep the flowers fresh, then wrapped moss around it

and added them to the wreath like this.

 Then it was time for a pretty ribbon- I decided to go for fuchsia, but a gingham ribbon would be just as sweet.

And then it was time to hang it on the front-door..
Here is a detail..

and some more detail..

And here is the final result.

You could also use it for a a nice spring flower display indoors like below.

Have a go- it's great fun !!

I am linking this to
Show and tell Wednesday
Wassup Wednesday
Transformation Thursday
Opne House Party Thursday
French Inspiration Thursday
Junkin Finds Friday
Frugalious Friday
Flaunt it Friday
The friday Flair link party from Whipperberry
the charm of home
At the picket fence
 Pink Saturday
saturday mornings strut your stuff
  smile with me saturday blog-hop 
A lovely crafty weekend link party
Make it Yours
Amaze me Monday
and Wow us Wednesdays link parties
I'm loving it Link party