A Step by step guide to creating a rustic green spring wreath with Bay leaves right off the Bay Tree!
Who doesn’t love a nice green farmhouse style rustic wreath?
So when my amazing aunt who has a massive Bay Tree sent me “some” Bay leaves along with her awesome homemade Jam for the year, knowing I would use maybe a dozen Bay leafs for cooking, I started pondering what else I could use the leaves for.
I adore rustic magnolia leaf wreaths but I don’t have access to fresh magnolia leaves, so I tried my hand at making a lovely spring wreath with the excess leaves.
Supplies:
- Heart Wreath Form
- Hot Glue Gun / Glue
- Fresh Bay Leaves
This wreath was super simple, only needing a few things to get it done. Don’t have a Bay Tree or access to one? With the magic of Amazon, you can order a baby Sweet Bay Laurel plant, and with some love and time it will grow and produce tons of leaves for you! The best part is you can harvest year round and they grow nicely in the ground or in a pot.
Just be sure to check your climate zone and watering instructions, Bay Laurels do best in zones 8-11.
Ok, first you will want to rinse off your leaves if they have any dust or dirt still on them. I just gently wiped mine off with a damp cloth.
Next, start gluing the leaves down on your form! Super easy!
Now, I’m a bit OCD, so I organized mt leaves first, arranging into piles of like size first. Which is probably overkill, but that’s how I roll.. lol.
I started with the bottom layer of the form and glued down the largest leaves as a “backdrop” with the points of the leaves outward.
Before moving on the next row, I turned the form over and added a layer of glue to the back of the leaves tracing the form to make sure they were nice and secure.
Next I glued down the middle layer, using the smaller leaves and the point running parallel to the form, so as to mask the stems from the outer layer. Again, tracing the back side with more hot glue to secure them.
I saved the medium size and prettiest leaves for the top layer and I was more meticulous about the spacing and having equal sizing on the opposite sides of the heart… again, probably too much attention to detail. But I love the way it turned out.
Now I think the wreath is pretty on its own, however you could easily add some berry sprays for added detail and a pop of color.
Here is a view of my wreath a couple weeks later, now that it has dried out – I still love it! The leaves has curled a bit as they dried giving it even more texture.
