Palm Frond Christmas Wreath

So I've got to break down and accept the fact that it's almost that time. I'm a Summer girl, and in Florida for me, it's hard to get into the Holiday Spirit among the palm trees and the ocean. So, I love to incorporate our natural surroundings to decorate instead of the goofy evergreen pine wreaths sprayed to look snowy.
Last year, I made a Holiday project using palm fronds, so I wanted to do this again since we are getting ready to trim some fronds off our tree to clean up our yard for the Winter. I used cut green palm fronds from our Cabbage palm in the backyard:

Our backyard Cabbage palm

I took a frond, cut the leaves off, and stripped individual leaves for use:

Stripped off leaves



Next, I got a Styrofoam round wreath to use for my base. I picked up a green Styrofoam wreath so that if I made a mistake, the green could show, and it's not glaring white underneath. I also trimmed each palm leaf into a straight strip, squared off at each end. In addition, I'm going to use straight pins to secure each leaf strip as I wrap.

 

First, I took a strip and secured it on the back of the wreath with a straight pin:



 

 Next, I wrapped the strip around the wreath, moving the strip a bit over as I wrapped, securing the end with a pin:

 

 I cut this flush, then overlapped the first leaf onto the next, using the same pin:

 

 I kept wrapping like this, securing the leaves by the straight pins to the back, having the front clean:

Front of the wreath

Back of the wreath

Completed wreath

If you have significant gaps showing, you can keep wrapping more over the top of the others. It takes a while, but this is meant to last the whole season, so take your time.

For a bit of flair, I added a red grosgrain ribbon (best type for outdoors) by wrapping it in the same way:

Plus the ribbon

Next, I made a little bow by wrapping a few fronds like a pretzel, then securing the middle with a twist tie:

 

Finished bow

 

I covered up the twist tie with a ribbon, then tied it around the back to keep the bow secure on the wreath:

Tying the bow, knotting it on the backside

Here it is completed:

 

After a while, the green leaves will turn gray-green, then brown, so it will become kind of an earthy wreath, which is cool. Nice way to start off a beachside Christmas!