Decking the Halls with Hobbycraft {DIY Christmas Hanging Branch and Wreath Installation}

I don’t know about you, but one of my favourite things about Christmas is the opportunity for ALLTHECRAFTING. This year I was lucky enough to team up with the King of Craft Shops, Hobbycraft, and create a hanging branch wreath installation to adorn the wall of my open-plan kitchen. I absolutely loved the process of making it and am so happy with the finished result. It’s the first thing you see when you walk into our home, and will make the perfect winter centrepiece above the Christmas table.

All the bits you need for the installation are from Hobbycraft (except for the branch – we foraged ours from a local wood). I used eucalyptus on the biggest wreath, ivy on the medium wreaths and pepperberries on the small wreath. Two brilliant things about these wreaths: One – although the foliage is faux, it’s very realistic. Our Creative Director, Adam, genuinely believed it was real eucalyptus and ivy when he popped round to take the pics. Two – because the foliage is faux, the wreaths will last forever. So these babies will be adorning the wall of the Soeno kitchen for many Christmases to come. Or the Soeno lounge. Or the Soeno front door. (You get the picture).

Most of the other decorations you can see in the pictures are from Hobbycraft too – from the peg board to the beautiful felt swans (look at their glittery silver crowns!) to the wooden candlesticks to the jute table runner to the place cards. (DON’T look too closely at the place cards. They were my first ever attempt at calligraphy and the closest thing to a calligraphy pen that I had to hand was one of Lyra’s felt tip pens). Can we also talk about the Christmas crackers? These were plain kraft crackers and I just stuck on a load of teeny pom poms stuck with Pritt Stick – a really fun and easy creative project to do with little ones.

Anyway. Back to the festive branch, and how to create one yourself.

DIY Christmas Hanging Branch Installation {What You Will Need}

Rattan wreaths (I used two mediums, one large, and one small)
Eucalyptus spray
Ivy garland
Pepperberries
Casuarina
Murri heads
Hobby wire
Glue gun
Ribbon
Fishing wire or jute twine
Command hook
A branch

DIY Christmas Hanging Branch Wreath Installation {How to Create}

1. Pick a focal area and lay the wreaths on the floor beneath that focal area to get a rough idea about sizing and how you would like the finished installation to look. I went for the wall above my dining table because we’re hosting Christmas this year, and I wanted to make the whole space feel festive and welcoming. I reckon it would also work well above a fireplace or sofa, or to add interest to a bare wall.

2. Lay the foliage against the wreath to get an idea for how much you need. One tip I picked up from a flower arranging course was to see which way the flowers/foliage naturally lean and work with that. So with sprigs that naturally curled up and left for example, I put to the bottom left hand section of the wreath.

3. Once you’ve worked out which sprigs would look best and where, cut off those sprigs.

4. Attach the sprigs to the wreath using the hobby wire. I found the easiest way to do this was to bend one piece of wire in half (creating a kind of hairpin shape) and piercing the wreath with the two ends of wire, either side of the sprig. Then intertwine the two ends of the wire around the back of the wreath, thus attaching the sprig to the wreath. With the ivy it was just as simple as wrapping the stem around the wreath. I didn’t need any hobby wire – the stem was thin and malleable enough to just twist around on itself.

5. Use a glue gun to stick on the causarina and murri heads in little clusters nestled amongst the leaves.

6. Suspend the branch from the wall using jute, string or fishing wire (I used a nail to suspend mine, but am kicking myself that I didn’t think to use a clear Command hook). Attach your wreaths to the branch using the ribbon.

Ta-da! One Christmassy hanging branch.

I popped the leftover berries and casuarina into fillable baubles and strung them from shelves and from the Christmas tree, and also used a couple of the baubles to decorate presents.

My next craft project? Using my newly acquired calligraphy skills (jokes) and a silver Sharpie to create personalised wooden Christmas Eve boxes for Lyra and Jenson.

Anyone else obsessed with crafting?

Will you be doing any Christmas crafting this year? If the answer is YES, then you can get 15% off ALL online orders at Hobbycraft (excluding sewing machines) use voucher code RMWXMAS at the checkout. Offer valid online until New Year’s Eve 2018.

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This post was sponsored by Hobbycraft, but you know us, we only work with brands that we are genuinely passionate about.