Santa's Workshop

Enjoy this lovely video, and then play it 

all over again when you make 

Santa's Workshop tutorial below!

How about a Festive Swag to adorn your front door? 

This project is quick, gratifying and uses materials you 

already have on hand. I love that!

My smartly dressed front door.

Yes, I admit it needs lights, 

but that's a project for another day.

So, let's smartly dress your front door:

 Step 1: Round up evergreens, wire/twine, a focal point
and 40" of wide, pretty ribbon.

Hand held pruners and wire snips will come in handy.

Evergreens:

I cut 3 pine boughs roughly 18" in length (far right), 

1 -16" branch of golden thread cypress (far left),

and 2 boxwood stems about 10" in length (center).

What you clip is entirely up to you, 

but this will hopefully help you see 

how little it takes to get a decent sized swag.

Focal Point:

  Jingle bells, red holly berries, a metal or wood ornament, 

you get the idea. I wouldn't recommend anything fragile.

 Step 2: Stack the sturdiest branches and arrange 

so that they fan out. Wrap an 18" length of wire or twine 

sturdily around & around at a spot about 3" down from 

the cut ends, weaving through some branches if you can. 

That's kind of a prickly job.

 Step 3: Stack the next layer of evergreens 

and repeat the wire wrapping step.

Repeat with the final layer of evergreens, 

in my swag's case, the boxwoods.

Arrange and fan the branches as you go.

 

Step 4: Add the focal point.

Hopefully your focal point has a loop or 

some easy way to secure it with wire or twine to the 

swag. The jingle bells I used have a loop so this step 

was easy & fast, and gladly so because 

I made this in this morning's cold wet snow.

 Step 5: Make the hanging loop. 

Take one last piece of 18" wire, wrap 

all branch ends together really well, and use 
the last 5" of that wire to make a loop. 
Use about 3.5" to shape your loop, then twist the last 

1.5" of wire around the base of the loop 

enough times to hold up to snow and winter winds.

If you're using twine, simply make a loop and knot (twice.)

Test to make sure the loop holds.

 

Step 6: Hang the swag, tie a pretty bow to cover the tips,

stand back and admire!

 Warmly welcome all of 

your friends & family this season!

Come back next Wednesday for another 
fun edition of Santa's Workshop, Silver Trumpet Style.