Elegant Front Door Holiday Basket

Materials and Tools:

large curved basket
large (5") silver balls
medium (3") silver balls
black felt floral sprigs
silver beaded sprigs
black wired wrap stars
silver jingle bells
wire
wire snips
black wired ribbon
4 bunches of greenery — we used 28" Japanese pine

Figure A

Steps:

1. Arrange the four bunches of greenery in the basket (figure A).

Figure B

Attach by wrapping each bunch with wire and feeding the wire through the back of the basket (figure B). The greenery will form the background of the arrangement, we placed the greenery mainly on one side for an asymmetrical look.

Figure C

2. Add large glass balls to the basket, wiring them to the greenery (figure C).

Figure D

3. Next, add the beaded silver sprigs, wiring them to the arrangement as you go (figure D).

4. Wire on the black felt floral sprigs next.

Figure E

5. Add a few small silver balls, these can be wired to the basket with the rest of the arrangement or can be hung with ribbon from the basket's handle (figure E).

6. Add jingle bells to the bottom of the basket, no need to wire these into place, leaving them loose in the bottom of the basket ensures that they will sound whenever anyone opens the door.

Figure F

7. Using the black wired ribbon, make six to eight loops 12 inches long. Then make your last loop longer than the previous loops, wrapping the end of the ribbon around the shorter loops several times to finish the bow. Attach bow to the basket with wire (figure F). Create a "swallowtail" design on ribbon ends by folding each end in half and cutting diagonally upwards.