Absolutely natural! Christmas Wreath Making Tutorial

Christmas is here, and many shops on the street are decorated with Christmas trees and Christmas wreaths, which are extraordinarily lively. It's just that these Christmas decorations are good-looking and good-looking, but they are not very environmentally friendly - they are all fake flowers and trees made of plastic.

We suggest that everyone take a look at the "Museum Brand Christmas Wreath" created by our magazine's illustrator Li Congying: The wreath is made of fruits that are usually picked up on the ground. If there are no red fruits and green leaves, you can draw them yourself, which is environmentally friendly and beautiful. Handicapped parties can also do it, if you don't believe it, take a look!

After reading this tutorial, you can make the same Christmas wreath.

not a wreath to wear

The main body of the Christmas wreath is green branches, but where to find green branches in winter? Wait a moment! We don't encourage everyone to break plants, so we want to teach you how to draw them! But you can't draw blindly, you have to draw plants with a strong Christmas atmosphere.

Looking at the photos of Christmas wreaths online, the main body is often a circle of polygonal green leaves with thorns on the edges, dotted with strings of small red fruits, giving a sense of vitality. This plant, called European holly, is a common decorative element at Christmas. Evergreen holly leaves are also full of vitality in the dead winter, and are woven into garlands by Europeans to drive away evil spirits. However, this wreath was not meant to be worn around the neck, but to be hung on the door. Otherwise, a circle of thorny holly leaves will have to be tied to the neck.

European holly

There is no European holly in China, we have a plant similar to European holly - wolf bone. It is also of the holly genus holly, and looks very similar to European holly, except that the spines on the edges of the leaves are longer and sharper.

wolf bone

Wreath background drawing tutorial:

Find a piece of watercolor paper, draw a circle with a compass, draw a sketch with a pencil, and then dye it with watercolor, and a circle of bright holly green leaves and red fruit will appear on the paper.

After painting the holly wreath, does the Christmas atmosphere come out? But it always feels a little monotonous, you can embellish some cedar branches. Its leaves are typical pine needle-like, extending upward, very graceful.

Cedar is native to the western and southwestern Himalayas. It is cultivated all over my country. It is tall and straight and evergreen in all seasons. Especially when it snows, it has the charm of "heavy snow presses the green pine, and the green pine is straight and straight".

The background part of the Christmas wreath is finished.

What's on the Christmas wreath?

The green wreath is drawn, but it's really just a background. All kinds of natural collections are the protagonists, sticking them on the wreath can make the whole wreath three-dimensional. See what our illustrator has picked up from her baby collection:

Natural collection for making Christmas wreaths

Production Notes:

Here are two things to keep in mind:

1. When sticking the fruit on the background, be careful not to be too greedy, it will not look good if the green leaves are blocked;

2. Fruits are generally heavier, and handmade white glue is not sticky, so it is recommended to use hot melt glue. Be careful when pasting to avoid burns;

3. All the collection locations mentioned in the article are Beijing, the city where the editorial department is located. Friends from other cities can refer to and collect plants in their own cities.

Insert the solid glue strip into the glue gun, the glue strip will melt after the power is turned on, and the sticky glue can be squeezed out by pressing the "trigger".

Be sure to leave the background to look good, don't cover it all.

Garland Element Identification and Collection Locations

Toona Capsules (Meiaceae Toona)

Pickup time: December

Pickup location: can be found in many communities (because I love toon)

Cedar cones (Cedaraceae)

Pickup time: late November to early December

Pickup location: Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences

The rose-like cones in the wreath come from cedar. Whole cedar cones are exceptionally large, with layers of scales arranged in a spiral. Before it matures, it is green and has a layer of white powder on the surface, which is really cute. When ripe, it turns brown, and the seed scales open, dropping the seeds along with them.

Because of this, we rarely pick up whole cedar cones, but only the tops of the cones. The remaining cones are also of high value, like a graceful rose. Be careful when making a wreath, though, as the remaining seed scales are quite fragile and can fall off if you're not careful.

The complete cedar pine tower, which was originally loose, was glued together. If it is not sticky, it will soon fall to the top (the red circle).

Arborvitae cones (Arboraceae)

Pickup time: December

Pickup Location: One of the trees in Beijing, there are everywhere.

Those little four-petaled cones in the wreath belong to the arborvitae. The leaves of arborvitae are scale-like and gather into flat, upward-stretching branches, as if flattened by a book. This is different from another type of cypress, Juniper, which is full of gentle scale leaves, which are not thorny to the touch. Juniper has two kinds of scale leaves and thorn leaves, which are more thorny than that of arborvitae.

Platycladus orientalis cones are small, bluish-green fleshy balls with some protrusions before they mature. 10 The moon fruit gradually matures, turns woody, reddish-brown, and cracks like a small flower. The cones of Juniper do not crack, and they are not as good-looking as Arborvitae.

Pinus tabulaeformis: (Pinaceae)

Pickup time: December

Picking up location: The most common pine tree in Beijing, there are in major parks and green spaces.

The pine cones, which are one size smaller than the cedar, come from Pinus tabulaeformis. Compared with cedar, it is much smaller in size, and the scales are thicker and slightly raised. The seeds inside are usually small and not full, so they cannot be eaten.

In addition to these fruits, you can also use various natural collections you can find, such as:

Liriodendron fruit

Metasequoia cones

white bark pine cones

After filling the garland with your favorite material, you might as well add a homemade double-layer bow, red and green, for a Christmas atmosphere! Then add a wooden photo frame to the Christmas wreath, and it looks good when hung.

Gather the materials you need, move your hands and they will become:

How about it? See here, have you learned?