Decorate a wreath - safely

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Live evergreen branches bring two dangers into your house immediately, one much more serious than the other. Over time, the pine needles dry out and get so prickly that you will cringe as you handle them. They poke your already dry hands, and you will actually need to wear work gloves when you go to remove your greens at the end of the season. More important, however, is how flammable they become. It sounds bizarro, but Christmas tree fires are a huge problem. (If I was a more generous blogger, I would fact check this for you so that you would be impressed/frightened by a number of annual Christmas tree fires. And PS, those of you who call it a Hanukkah Bush are not exempt from the threat.)

A week or so ago, Heather and I worked with the Safety at Home campaign, sponsored by UL, to host a wreath decorating party. I wanted it to have a little bit of crafty Rookie Moms flair, so I came up with a simple scheme for decorating wreaths quickly as our guests would be duos of parents with kids.

We used artificial wreaths, a string of UL-listed lights, and some kid-powered energy.

Our basic craft supplies included:
+ Colorful paper
+ 1/2″ Ribbon (or yarn)
+ Circle template
+ Alphabet stickers

The key to this project is the circle punch. It allows you to transform any paper into an amazingly round circle. No scissors required.

I bought an expensive one (around $20 at Michael’s) but was thrilled to find that the one Wendy brought is $8.33 on Amazon.

We used holiday-ish paper intended for scrapbooking. However, when I got home and saw some of the holiday catalogs and magazines in my mailbox, I thought those would be just as good for creating festive circle-shaped ornaments.

Here’s what to do:

1- Wrap a string of lights around your wreath.

(Safety tip: make sure lights have a tag with the UL mark. Never daisy chain more than three strands of lights together.)

Alert your partner of the challenge you are about to present: How are we going to hang this wreath on the door AND enable it to plug in to an outlet? You will need an extension cord. At this point, you may be denied the lights option.

2- Punch about 10 circles out of paper ideally using a convenient circle punch.

3- Punch a small hole in each circle through which you will be able to string ribbon.

4- (optional) Add sticker letters to your circles to spell out your child’s name (if you are hanging it indoors) or “P-E-A-C-E”.

5- Thread ribbon through small holes and tie “ornaments” to wreath.