Date : December 2, 2018
The Australian Bush has such wonderful natural colours, textures and shapes. You can make a beautiful Australian Gum Nut Christmas Wreath like this using a collection of dried leaves, twigs and gumnuts found on the ground amongst the Gum trees in the bush. We collected various sizes and shapes of gum nuts, fallen twigs of flowers and small branches of different shades of green and pink leaves.
You will need:
Hessian Fabric – 8 metres approx. 15cm wide.
Wire Coat hanger
Collection of Gum nuts and leaves
Ribbon for finishing
Glue Gun & Scissors
Instructions:
- To start we’ll need to cut the Hessian fabric into lengths. Hession is perfect for this project as it is a natural product, its colour and texture compliments our Australian bush colours. It is pliable and its wide weave makes it easy to feed the wire coat hanger through.
Cutting the Hessian into lengths makes it much easier to manage. We used eight one metre lengths each with a width of 15cm.
- The coat hanger is going to be the shape of your wreath. Bend the coat hanger to form a circular shape then carefully unwind the ends. You will want to twist it back together at the end so try not to bend the twists out just gently unwind.
- Now we’re going to fold and feed the Hessian onto your wire wreath. Using one hession strip start from the end and fold all the way concertina style. We folded about every 4 cm it doesn’t have to exact just a guide.
- Once you have completed one length feed the fabric onto the coat hanger. Using the straight end of the coat hanger (not the hook end) gently feed the folds onto the wire. Once it’s on push it all the way around to the hook end.
- Repeat the folding and feeding on the coat hanger with all the lengths of Hession. Once the last piece of Hessian is on twist the two ends of the coat hanger back together. Your wreath shape should be complete, pop it aside whilst we make the Australian Bush Posy.
- To make an Australian Gum Nut posy start with a larger branch or twig with some leaves on it this will be your base. Check it fits on your wreath and you like its size. Now before you start gluing it all together just have a play, find your favourites and plan out your posy.
- Once you have your ideas start constructing your posy, gluing your gumnuts and bush treasures together.
- Once you are happy with your Australian Gum nut posy you can hot glue it onto your wreath. Make sure you glue it in a few places so it doesn’t fall off your wreath once it’s hung.
- Add a festive touch by gluing a festive bow and you have a beautiful Australian Bush Gum Nut Christmas Wreath.
This is a contribution from Crafty Bel! Crafty Bel is here to help stimulate little imaginations and spark a creative flame in little people. Inspired by May Gibbs’ own passion for creative writing and art, Bel helps educators and mums to embrace nature inspired creativity. You can find more of Bel’s work at Mums Take Five.
https://www.mumstakefive.com/
