Anyone create their own wreaths for the door? I want to make a small one for the back door and am looking for suggestions.

Martha, where are you? We know you're out of jail. Will you please visit us at BWS?

What sort are you interested in making? I do my own at Christmas and have made pine cone ones for the inside of the house. One which is easy to make means scouring the neighborhood for dried plants or reeds or anything which strikes your fancy. You can use a base which you purchase or just wrap the plants and grasses arouns the form (did I tell you that you need a round form). I use string when tying. Grap a handful and tie at an angle onto the wreath. Go around until you've covered the form. The fried handfuls generally overlap so you cover all areas. If you need any more info, just let me know.

Dotsie I have a pile of wreaths that I've made for our front door - several Spring/Summer ones, two Fall ones and a Winter one. I really enjoy making them and customizing them depending on what colors I'm using my front gardens with my annuals. They are easy to make - I use the grape vine wreaths as my base then decorate them in all kinds of ways....it's fun and easy.

Everything you will need is at your local craft store and if you want to use "natural" items, Kat's right - there's plenty to choose from courtesy of "Mother Nature". The only problem I've ever experienced with the "natural" ones, is birds will fly up and steal some of the dried flowers, etc. to use in their nests!

Pam I think it would be worth using dried flowers just to get the birds to fly up to the doors. I just adore birds of all kinds. I have a huge bird feeder in my yard and its usually full of wonderful birds. We have wild canaries here and some sort of little blueish bird. Then there are the hummingbirds that love the sweet water I put out. My friend has a garden window that opens from the outside and she leaves it open with birdseed inside and we can watch all the birds while havng coffee. Very relaxing...

I adore the birds too....and I don't really complain when they steal pieces of my wreaths either....I know you can BUY wreaths that are totally made out of "bird nest friendly" materials just for that purpose in fact.

We have two large bird feeders (which occasionally are also deer feeders!!!) - and five bird houses so we have a LOT of birds around. Especially gorgeous are the blood red cardinals in winter on the beautiful white snow.

Thanks for the ideas ladies. I tend to use flowers and articles from the craft store. I like the idea of birds among the flowers. I'm going to try that.

The love the idea of using fresh items, but my back door gets so much sun everything will dry out within a couple days. Anything I put in wreaths ends up fading.

One of these days (when I'm no longer feeding kids) I plan on becoming a bird feeder/watcher.

Thanks for the ideas.

Dotsie I brought this topic back up because today I made a NEW door wreath for the front door to add to my "collection"....I did it because I decided to use RED as my "color theme" out front this year. I planted a lot of red geraniums last weekend and needed a new wreath for my door since none of the others had any red in them. I just hung it up a few minutes ago and it looks great! I used a grapevine wreath, and tied on lots of red silk geraniums, some silk ivy, and as an accent, some tiny white silk flowers - then a big red wire ribbon and voila! It really does look pretty on the door with the red geraniums in the front garden. I have two BIG clay pots that I put on the front porch every year and I'm going to fill them with red AND white geraniums with some trailing ivy.....

Did you wind up making your wreath for the back door Dotsie? I put the "natural materials" wreath that I was using on the front door around back on the deck door so while the birds will be slightly confused with the red geranium wreath, I'm guessing they will find the relocated natural one so they can build their nests with the materials (as usual) !!

Pam, your wreath and yard sound like they are perfectly matched.

I tend to stick to the pinks, purples, and white for our yard. I don't use any red. Isn't that funny? I think red clashes with the accent color on our home. How anal!

I ended up using something I had hanging in the house. It's an off white tin type basket that I got through a Southern Living home part. I put silk pink and lavender hydrangea with a little bit of white verbena scattered about.

Sounds beautiful Dotsie! I'm like you though about "color clashes"....Our front door and shutters on the house are dark green so the red and green look nice on the door....our house itself is very pale gray.

Since I posted the note about this newest wreath, I added some more "reds".....red cushions on the wicker rockers on the front porch!

With this beautiful weather I was also able to get my tomatoes in, AND planted bean and squash seeds. Also some annuals. My back's killing me but it was worth it (I think).....!

Pam you may not feel it now because of the sore back BUT you will feel exhilarated soon when the buds begin to sprout and poke their tiny heads through the earth. That always nearly brings me to tears but then I am a mushy softy....