Christmas Wreath Making Workshop in Newcastle - An Evening with House of Botanics at Stack

* This is a collaboration with House of Botanics

Long time readers of New Girl in Toon may well remember the disaster that was "the time I tried to decorate cupcakes" or when I embarrassed myself by "trying to make a 3D bird" - it's safe to say that me and crafting do not go hand in hand and you'd be hard pushed to find anyone as useless as me when it comes to creating something beautiful. So you might be wondering why on earth I would sign myself up for a Christmas Wreath Making Workshop in Newcastle.

Despite my limited crafting skills I have always quite fancied a go at making my own Christmas Wreath. I LOVE Christmas, enjoy decorating my home and, with the promise of mince pies and the chance to hang out with some lovely people while listening to seasonal music, I couldn't resist saying yes when House of Botanics in Stack invited me to try out their Christmas Wreath Making Workshop.

Brace yourselves folks, Chloe is about to attempt to make her own Christmas Wreath!

If you're yet to properly explore Stack, Newcastle's super cool container park at the old Odeon site on Pilgrim Street, then you may not have discovered House of Botanics. The most adorable little plant and flower shop - they sell a wonderful range of plants for your homes, gorgeous flowers for that special someone in your life, create beautiful displays for weddings and run botanical workshops throughout the year.

Stepping into their little haven away from the bustling high street was the kind of calm I needed after a hectic run up to Christmas. As soon as the doors swung open I was greeted by the most beautiful earthy smell of plants and making my way through the green wonderland of the shop I found my way to the back of the store and owner Naomi's little workshop where she hosts her botanical classes.

Workshops at House of Botanics are intimate and are the perfect place for a fun activity with your friends or to make new likeminded friends in the city. There were six of us at the Christmas Wreath Making Workshop which was ideal for ensuring that we had plenty of one on one help at creating our wreath and also ensured a wonderful laid back atmosphere.

Once we were all kitted out in our aprons (despite my limited crafting skills as soon as I had that apron on I did suddenly feel like a florist!) it was time to begin. We were each given a pair of cutters and our wreath rings already covered in moss as a great starting point to begin our creation. Naomi had already started the process to save time but she did also give us a demonstration on what she'd done to get us to this point just so we knew exactly what was involved and then went on to explain what we needed to do to start our wreath.

We then got to work creating our wreaths. The table was packed out with loads of lush green foliage and we had our pick of Holly, Ivy, Spruce and Fir which we picked out in little bunches to cover our moss ring.

I have to say as someone who isn't great at crafting this part of the process was an absolute joy because wreaths actually look better if they aren't put together perfectly. Being able to pick up whatever foliage I fancied, mixing it all up and attaching it to my ring wasn't only super easy but it was also quite simple to make my creation actually look like a wreath.

Attaching the greenery to the rings was pretty simple and it was just a case of winding wire round the branches and then using the next pieces to cover up the exposed wire. I loved that it was so simple and I could actually chat whilst creating my masterpiece without needing to concentrate too hard and before I knew it I had completed the full circle and it didn't actually look half bad.

Christmas Wreath Making Workshops at House of Botanics include festive refreshments so once we'd attached all of our greenery it was time to stop for a little breather and indulge in a nice hot cup of tea and a few mince pies while we assessed our progress. I have to say looking round the table all of the wreaths were really taking shape and looking rather fabulous!

The next step to creating our own Christmas Wreath was the all important decorating and this was where a little bit of creativity came into play (uh oh!) we made our way over to the selection of decorations on offer and each chose different bits and bobs to go on our wreath. The real beauty of Christmas Wreaths is that no two will ever look the same and there's no right or wrong when it comes to picking out your decorations.

We had plenty to choose from and I went for some dried oranges (I'll admit I spent most of my time smelling them because they were absolutely delicious and reminded me of Christmas every time I had a whiff), pine cones and cinnamon sticks. Attaching the decorations was a little more fiddly than the greenery and it took a bit of care to push the wires through the oranges and wrap them round the pine cones but Naomi was on hand to help out whenever we got stuck.

Leaving some room at the bottom for a bow we attached our decorations in little groups and when I had a slight paddy over not being able to get mine look quite right, Naomi was over within seconds to help me rearrange my pieces into a design that I was happy with. I do think that some of us have a natural creative flair and some of us don't and unfortunately I don't have a great eye for arranging things to look beautiful but with a little bit of help I managed to create a wreath design that I was happy with.

The trickiest part of wreath making was definitely the bows. We had some beautiful ribbons to choose from and I went for a very seasonal red and green glittery ribbon which I knew would really give my wreath some extra festive cheer. We all watched Naomi create a ribbon a few times but, most of us gave up after a couple of attempts as it was a little fiddly. Super Naomi came to our rescue and, if I'm honest, I think she ended up doing all of our ribbons cos we all wanted perfect bows!

Our 2.5 hours at House of Botanics was over before we knew it and as we headed out into the night proudly carrying our wreaths I couldn't wait to get home to show Simon my handy work.  I like to think we're now the envy of our neighbourhood with our gorgeous homemade wreath hanging proudly on our door! What do you think?

Follow House of Botanics on Facebook to keep up to date with all their botanical events and workshops. If you fancy making your own Christmas Wreath their next event is on Sunday 16 December at 5:00 pm and costs £35.00 per person.  Book your place here.

Find House of Botanics at:

Unit 23
Stack Newcastle
Pilgrim Street

stacknewcastle.com 
facebook.com/floralandbotanicalstyling/

We were invited to House of Botanics for a complimentary Christmas Wreath Making Workshop.