Crafts for the Uncrafty

Suddenly Surrounded By Makers

There’s no friend like a friend who’s willing to paint with you.

I was on the phone with Francesca the other day and we were talking about my solar fountain project and my mortar brick project and the park strip redo and the bananacakes and all the other things that you can find on Ramshackle Glam lately in the category of Awesome Things I’ve Never Done Before, and she said, “Huh. So…you don’t really have to come up with ideas for your website anymore. You can just hang out with your friends.”

This is true.

I swear, I didn’t hold a casting call for Content Generators Who Also Like To Drink Wine With Me the second I moved out here: it’s just that the friends I’ve made since we arrived in the Bay Area have turned out – without exception – to be bizarrely creative and talented and energetic. Like me, they are interested in experimenting with decor and food and DIY, but unlike me, they are usually able to quickly and capably execute whatever cool idea pops into their heads. They can whip on a drill bit like nobody’s business. They own things like burlap swatches and craft wire and fondant, just in case.

Who owns fondant?

Well, me, nowadays. But before I moved here, fondant was not a thing I knew how to pronounce (it’s FON-dant, as opposed to fon-DAHNT, which doesn’t make sense but whatever), let alone apply to pastries. And now? Now I know.

(They are also smart and caring and flawed and weird and wide-open, which is obviously the best part.)

Moving on to the point of this post, which is that I learned how to make one of the (many, many) things I never in a million years thought I’d find myself making. See, it’s all I can do to get it together to hang a store-bought wreath at Christmastime; actually creating seems like a pastime best left to people who…I don’t know. People other than me.

Except Mollie makes wreaths, and she showed me how she does it.

And so now? Now I make wreaths.

“I love the way wreaths look hanging on the front door, but buying or DIY-ing entryway wreaths for each season feels like a bit much. My strategy is to pick up some basic supplies, then update my wreath over the course of the year with stuff that I happen to have laying around the house. You can make this wreath with any store-bought fruit and greenery, of course, but I like citrus fruits: they stay fresh for a long time, and also give your entryway a nice, fresh scent.” – Mollie

What You Need:

  • Wooden wreath (you can get one at any craft store)
  • Lemons
  • Leaves or greenery (I used fresh leaves from my lemon tree, but you can use fake leaves if you don’t want to have change them out).
  • Green craft wire
  • Needle-nose pliers
  • Wire cutters
  • Scissors

What You Do:

  1. Wash and dry the lemons and leaves.
  2. Cut the wire into strips approximately 12″ long
  3. Stick the wire through the lemons (be careful not to pierce the lemon too close to the skin, or it’ll be more likely to fall off).
  4. Wrap the wire around the wreath and use the needle-nose pliers to twist it to secure the lemon in place. Cut off any excess wire.
  5. Attach the rest of the lemons however you like, then push the leaves into the spaces between the lemons (using additional wire to secure them if necessary).

what you need to make a lemon and leaf wreath for spring

how to make a simple wreath with lemons

how to make a simple wreath with lemons

how to make a simple wreath with lemons

how to make a simple wreath with lemons

how to make a simple wreath with lemons

how to make a simple wreath with lemons

how to make a simple wreath with lemons

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