Faux Magnolia Wreath DIY

Back in May, my sweet Hubs surprised me with a trip up the road to Waco, Texas home of Chip and Joanna Gaines of "Fixer Upper" fame!  We visited their Magnolia Market at the Silos, and Ed was super generous and helped me choose a few things for our home.

One thing that wouldn't fit into our budget was the Magnolia Wreath that Jojo has made into her signature piece:

Original Magnolia Wreath available at Magnolia Market

The very next day, I was browsing Pinterest and found this Pin to make one of my own!  Debbie, over at Refresh Restyle, had the same reaction as mine on the price of the Magnolia Market wreath. We both loved the wreath, but neither of us could "pull the trigger" on purchasing one.  Instead, the DIYer in Debbie (and me, after seeing her tutorial), gave it a go with great results.
Here's Debbie's version:

(Please pop over to see Debbie's tutorial on her original post.)

For my version of the Magnolia Wreath, I used the following supplies, all from Hobby Lobby, my very favorite crafting supply, and home decor store!

• One large bunch of Magnolia leaves
• Floral Pins
• Floral foam wreath 14 or 16 inches
• one package of sheet moss
• Mod Podge (white glue works, too)
• scrap of burlap ribbon for the hanger

For the life of me, I couldn't find a floral foam wreath that had moss on it, and finally I asked Debbie about it. She admitted she probably took apart an old wreath that already had moss on it. So, I did the next best thing and covered mine with sheet moss.

Cut and fit the sheet moss before gluing it on to the foam wreath, to make sure there is enough to cover completely.  Then, after gluing it all in place, put on the burlap ribbon hanger, since it's easier to attach at this phase.

Next, detach the faux Magnolia leaves (they come off in threes) from the stems and use the floral pins to put them in place. I didn't poke the ends of the leaves themselves into the foam wreath, I just pinned them on the stems, going in the same direction all the way around. The overlapping leaves cover the pins completely. Oh, here's a hint: on every other trio of leaves, I turned one of the outside leaves around to the brown side.  This gave it a more realistic look, and visual interest.

So, a couple of things about the differences between my wreath, and the one sold at Magnolia Market.  

1. My leaves are obviously darker green, and have a shine to them.

2. The original from Magnolia has more layers of leaves, showing some as a tan-ish brown, which is how natural magnolia leaves look on the back. (We have one in our backyard, so I've seen it.)

Hints: You could use a grapevine wreath of similar dimensions as your base, and use floral wire to attach the leaves.  Or do as Debbie did, and upcycle a wreath you already have.

Keeping my awesome Faux Magnolia Wreath on my pantry door allows me to enjoy it every day!

I'm pretty happy with the way the wreath turned out, all in all, the differences are so minor, and I only spent $25 for all my supplies.  The Signature Magnolia Wreath is $95 online and in the store.  (I recently saw that Hobby Lobby online was selling a Magnolia Wreath for $25 on clearance, but those are all sold out. It looked nearly identical to mine.)  

Special thanks again to Debbie of Refresh Restyle for the original tutorial!