How to Make a Swag in Minutes!

 I absolutely love flowers and I really love gorgeous flower arrangements, whether they are in a vase, wreath, swag, or other form.  And although I know a good arrangement when I see one, I've never been particularly good at arranging flowers myself.   I've made a few swags and wreaths in my life, and a lot of people would think I was a good at it, but I only consider myself adequate.  The swag I created below I made in just a few minutes, and if I can do it, anyone can!

It all started because of this nail above my hallway mirror.  This nail is here to hold my Christmas swag.  But when Christmas is over, I hate to stare at this ugly nail.  And if I remove the nail, well then I get to stare at an ugly hole in the wall!  So I decided to buy a swag that could hang on my wall year round and cover up that nail.  Yes, I'm that lazy.  So off to Michaels I went and guess how much they wanted for a swag?  $49.99!!!!!  Even with a 50% off coupon, that's still $25.00 and more than I want to spend.  

So I took a picture of the swag I liked the most and decided to make it myself.  Sorry it's so blurry, but I think I was shaking because I thought I would get caught trying to take a picture in the store!  I'm sure it would have been fine, after all I did buy something when I was there, and I was only going to use the picture for inspiration.

Because I already have a plethora of flower arranging supplies, and four totes of artificial flowers and plants, all I needed to buy was this swag of grapevine stems.  (And I probably didn't need to buy this either, we have plenty of sticks in my backyard I could have gathered and bound together.  But that would have involved me going outside in the bitter cold, and I just don't do that! :) )  The swag is already nicely bound, and included a wire hook on the back.  It was $9.99, but I used a 50% off coupon and got it for $5.00.  Still too much for a bunch of sticks if you ask me.

Then I just dug through my totes and pulled out all the items I wanted to use in my swag.

 I chose a solid green ivy.

Some pretty blush roses.

Some white and green ivy, a little blush and wine berries, and a few sprigs of tiny white flowers (see upper right corner in picture below).

The only other supplies I used was a mini glue gun and a pair of wire cutters.

I first cut all my stems and did a "fake" arrangement of my swag.  I basically just stuck them into the grapevine swag till I got a general idea of where I wanted them.  Then I pulled them out, and one by one glued them in place.  I put a nice thick drop of glue at the bottom of each stem before inserting it into the swag.

The first stems I inserted were the long, tiny white flower stems.  I put two on each end of the swag.

Next, I poked in some green ivy in random spots.

Then I put my prettiest rose right in the middle of the swag.

I then added another rose to either side of the center rose.

Then I filled in my empty spots with the pretty white and green ivy sprigs.

I thought the swag needed more roses, so I added two more. I normally work in odd numbers when arranging flowers, but when I tried five, it looked too crowded to me.

I finished the swag by tucking in the pretty rose and wine berries on the ends.

 Here is what the hallway mirror looked like before I added the swag.

And here is what it looks like after I added the swag.  Much better, eh?

Looking at these pictures now, I realize I could make a swag for every season.  I could hang a winter swag up now,  and put this one up for spring/summer, and then make a fall one.  Maybe I will do that next year.  I'm very busy renovating my son's old bedroom now, and that is taking up so much of my time, I don't have much time left over for crafting.

Because I already owned everything but the grapevine swag, the entire project only cost me only $5.00 and I literally had it completed in less than twenty minutes.  It was so easy.  I'm not sure if it would be cost effective to make one yourself if you didn't already own a lot of floral items already, as all these items individually would quickly add up to $25.00 or more....the cost of the original swag.  BUT, if you want to personalize the colors for your own home, well then it is definitely worth it.

Have a great day!  Amy

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