Christmas decorations - holly bell
Evergreen decorations from the florist or supermarket cost the earth, but they do look gorgeous and many of us feel that we wouldn't know where to begin in making such complex designs. Actually they are much easier than you might think (florists love them because, unlike flower displays, the material doesn't bruise or tear and is almost impossible to spoil while you're working on it) and making one yourself doesn't just save you a small fortune to spend on presents or food, it also gives you the satisfaction of mastering a new art.
You need
- Florists foam
- Chicken wire
- Florists wire
- Gloves!
- Holly
- Around 5 metres of green ribbon
- A dozen cheap green plastic Christmas decorations as 'just in case' items.
For this one we reverse the process and begin by cutting the foam into a cone shape, then we wrap the chicken wire round it. It's much easier than trying to make chicken wire into a cone first! Once that's done, soak the foam in water so it's well saturated while you pull on your gloves, cut your holly into sprigs and grade them from short to long. Now all you need to do is push the holly into the foam, short sprigs at the top, moving down in length so the longest ones are at the bottom which accentuates the bell shape, and use some of your ribbon to make a big bow for the base of the bell, wrapping the rest around the wire that you will use to hang the decoration up. And those baubles? If you find you have any bare patches, make a wire V and use it to fasten the baubles into the gaps.
This keeps for about two weeks if it's hung in a sheltered porch or cool room.
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