Creating natural arrangements for Christmas

Arranging natural materials creatively requires knowledge of balance and proportion.  Some people seem to have natural instincts in this area but  the skills can be learned from floral arranging books. 

Drooping

While there are many places/ways to start, I usually start with the hanging material (spillers) to cover the edges of the pot. These have to be set in almost horizontal if you want them to hang down.

Favourites are:

- Spanish broom

-  pine

-spruce branches 

Uprights

Sometimes if I have interesting tall materials (thrillers), I arrange them first to establish height and then work out and down. 

Some of my favourite tall branches and twigs are:

- dried goats beard stalks

- corkscrew hazel

- yellow - twig dogwood, red dogwood

- spirea with dried seed heads

- forsythia stalks (which are very light and work well with dogwood branches)

Sometimes uprights look good all by themselves!

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I certainly have nothing this interesting to add to my arrangements. 

Fillers

Once these two aspects have been arranged you need to fill our the arrangement (fillers) by applying the branches at roughly 45 degrees. I have lots of possibilities in my garden:

- boxwood

-yellow mound cedar

- holly 

- blue spruce

- rhododendron leaves 

- dried hydrangea blooms

Accents  

These are the final touches that hightlight and brighten your arrangements.   The sky is the limit here. 

- sprayed grapevine spheres

- brightly coloured plastic ornaments 

- wooden Santas

- plastic ribbons 

- plastic Christmas flowers
- artificial birds 

 woven twig stars

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berries, pinecones, pods

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fresh fruit or plastic fruit

 

 

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and even birdhouses!

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Rich and Simple Table Settings

 Christmas entertaining calls for an extra effort  in the decorating department.  Don't let  a busy lifestyle and budget restraints put a damper on your table settings.  A little ingenuity and do it yourself  is all you need to wow your guests.

Rich and Simple

 The addition of gold charger plates, simple gold  ornaments,  and a puffy silver and gold garland can  tile a table setting together.Of course, it helps to have beautiful china  and crystal, but your could  use plain white tableware and spray assorted napkin rings with gold metallic paint. Dollar stores offer a range of inexpensive containers for tea lights.

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A Little Crafting
Your table setting can echo metallic decorating schemes with a little crafting. White  napkins can be decorated with metallic paint using a stencil.  Check out Lumiere fabric paint. Ribbon and simple gold decorations complete the setting.

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A winter theme
There's nothing like blue and silver to give your that cool, shimmery feel of winter.  The white snowflakes, small clear glasses  and silver glitter balls can be found at most dollar stores. And who knows what other ideas you will get when you start to look around for inspiration. 

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 Do you have a favouite table setting you would like to share?

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