Christmas Grapevine & Evergreen wreath (made with free tree cuttings!)

I am excited to kick off our Home for the Holidays series today!  I am collaborating with 4 other blog friends this week to bring you some ideas to decorate and enjoy your home for the holidays.

What better place to start decorating then the front door?  I love my new, almost-free, evergreen + grapevine wreath!

I stopped by Home Depot this weekend to pick up some other supplies for another Christmas project in the making and remembered to check out in the garden center for some free tree clippings.  Did you know you could get free evergreens?  Most stores that sell trees and maybe even those tree lots you see too cut off bottom stems to trim the trees for people that buy them and they usually just throw those stems in a bin or pile and will give them away for free.  I got a huge pile and didn’t even touch what they had as I am sure it was a busy weekend with people buying their trees.  You can then use these clippings to make a garland for your stairs or mantel, add it to your table, make a wreath, add some extra stems to your tree and get to enjoy the wonderful evergreen scent in your home for the holidays. 

I used my small hedge clippers to cut off smaller pieces off each large branch so they were ready for my wreath.

And then I just stuffed and placed the stems into a large grapevine wreath from my stash.

Next I wanted to add some pinecones.  Again FREE!  Just check your backyard, your neighbors back yard or visit your local park with a bag in hand. 

To attach them to my wreath, I just wrapped some floral wire around them and then used the wire to attach them to the wreath.

But ignore the picture below… because I ended up taking off the pinecones and brushing them with white paint (to simulate snow and add some color).  So just imagine white tipped pinecones below.

The only things I bought were 4 berry picks from Michael’s – less than $3 for all of those. 

I got some red burlap ribbon in my swag bag at Haven from Online Fabric Store.net and I have been waiting till Christmas to use it!    The red burlap box finished it off!  (See why I ended up painting the pinecones?  They sort of got lost especially with the grapevine wreath, so I thought they would be seen better if they were brushed with white.)

So here’s the finished product!

I love it!  And it smells amazing!

I am hoping with the cold and moist air outside that it will last through Christmas.  I may mist it with water a few times a week and see if that helps.   I bought a real evergreen wreath 2 years ago and it lasted till Valentine’s Day as long as it was on my porch out of the direct sunlight.

How do you make real evergreen wreaths or garlands last through the season?

Love that the wreath was almost free to make using lots of things from nature.  This is sort of the theme for my Christmas decorating this year – ots of red, lots of natural elements, and almost free!

What kind of wreath do you do for Christmas?  Real evergreen, faux evergreen, grapevine, or something else like an ornament wreath or pinecone wreath?

Be sure to check out the next post in the series tomorrow over at Angie’s blog – Slipcovered Grey.  I know what she is making and I want it for my house too! 

And you can check back at the bottom of this post later this week to see all 5 projects linked up.