If you love having an arts and crafts project to work on, you’ll know Christmas is the best time of year for it. There are so many cards, decorations, and stocking fillers that you can make, it’s easy to feel spoilt for choice. But, if you’ve spent many festive seasons painting traditional baubles and sewing stockings, you might be interested in trying something a little bit different this year.

To give you some inspiration, we asked Nicky Roeber, Online Horticultural Expert at Wyevale Garden Centres, to share some ways in which you can use plants in your Christmas crafting. Read on to find out more.

1 Create your own wreath

Wreaths are quintessentially festive and can be found on the doors of most UK homes throughout December. Why not stand out from the crowd this Christmas with a really special home-made wreath?

To create a wreath, you’re going to need some supplies; they are all affordable and widely available. Your tool kit should consist of a metal wreath form, some floral wire, and some pruning shears.

To start with, you will need a selection of evergreen branches and berries. Head out into the great outdoors, be that your garden, a local park, or the countryside, with secateurs in hand. I would recommend taking 6–8” clippings from any evergreen shrub or tree that takes your fancy; pine, spruce, holly, cedar, yew, or box — simply let your imagination go wild. If you have a choice, a mix of different foliage types will work well. Finally, you’re going to need some decorative bits and pieces like pinecones, berries, and satin ribbon.

Begin creating your wreath by making a few small bunches of greenery. Then you can start to attach these to your frame using the floral wire. Repeat this process until your wreath looks lush and vibrant, then you’ll be ready to add some extra decorative touches. Again, you can attach pinecones and bows using your floral wire. Once everything’s in place, you’ll have a wreath that you’ll be incredibly proud to display on your door this year.

2 Make a table centrepiece using garden foliage

Bring the outdoors inside this Christmas by creating a table garland or centrepiece using greenery from your garden. A simple collection of potted plants that you’ve sprayed with glitter or tied ribbons around — possibly interspersed with some large white candles — can look very tasteful, and you could even add some succulents for extra style points.

If you would like to go slightly more traditional, you can scatter ivy and eucalyptus leaves along the length of your dining table once it’s laid, and then jazz this up with ribbons and glitter confetti. Or, to ensure everything is as festive as can be, you could make a centrepiece out of tiny Christmas trees, which you can dress up with mini baubles and tinsel.

3 Use pinecones to make festive baubles

If you often craft in autumn and winter, you’ll know that pinecones are invaluable, as they can be used to decorate anything and everything. But have you ever gone back to basics and used them as ornaments on your Christmas tree?

Start by spray painting a selection of pinecones white, silver, or gold. When this is dry, you can glue or tie ribbon to the stems of your pinecones and hang them on your tree. They’ll look great, and will be sure to impress your friends and family.

4 Scatter sprayed leaves around your home

You can easily dress the likes of your window sills and mantelpiece by collecting fallen leaves from your garden, spray painting the prettiest ones gold, and scattering them around your home. This is a wonderful way to bring the outdoors in without too much effort and will look incredibly stylish. Plus, it’ll cost you very little.

If you have any leaves left over, you could use them as decoration in a lot of the other craft projects I’ve mentioned. They would look very pretty attached to a wreath and are great for adding some sparkle to centrepieces.

5 Fill vases with evergreen clippings

If your Christmas tree isn’t enough and you would like to inject more greenery into your festive décor, consider filling clear vases with evergreen clippings and placing these around your home. Clippings from pine, spruce, holly, or cedar trees would work well, or you could use ivy and eucalyptus. You could even add spray painted pinecones, fairy lights, or miniature baubles to your evergreen arrangements to make sure everything is as festive as can be.

Using plants within your Christmas crafting can be a lot of fun, and you’ll end up with lots of beautiful decorations that will add some natural colour to your home. These five projects are a great place to start, as they’re quite simple but very effective. So, grab a handful of leaves and get crafting! wyevalegardencentres.co.uk