Woodland Centerpieces for Thanksgiving

Woodland Centerpieces

I won’t be spending Thanksgiving with my friend C and her family this year, and I will miss her and well, truth be told, I’ll also miss her flowers. I have shown you her amazing floral arrangements before. Always gorgeous and modern. So, as I’m prepping for Thanksgiving here at our house with friends this year, I’m remember a few little tricks that C has taught me (and that I’ve just kind of picked up along the way). I thought it would be fun to share.

 


I purchased a bouquet from our local marke, nothing extravagant…a few roses and some green berry, rosehip type sprigs. I used a short, wide-mouthed glass vase- pictured above. You can pick these up at thrift stores for next to nothing. (I used to be afraid of vases with large openings, thinking it would take a lot of flowers to fill them, but it really doesn’t.) Fill it with cold water and dump at least a packet of the flower-fresh powder they give you with these bouquets, more if you have it (don’t be stingy with it). De-leaf all the flower stems. Using a sharp kitchen steak knife, trim each stem down so that the flower will only come to the top of the vase (really tear off that stem with the knife, to expose plenty of the stem to water, no clean cuts necessary). Do this will all the flowers first, placing them to distribute their color nicely. Like this…
Woodland Centerpieces

Woodland Centerpieces
Now work on the green, leafy foliage, cutting down of the stem and dispersing its color. Keep the entire arrangement close and tight to the opening of the vase, with no space showing.

Woodland Centerpieces

You could leave it like this and it would look great. Or you could wrap any large leaves on the inside of the vase to disguise the stems, which is my C taught me to do. But my favorite part of this arrangement comes next.

Woodland Centerpieces

I have a couple sheets of bark (I got these from C, but you can purchase them online). These sheets can be cut pretty easily with a good pair of scissors and I only needed to cut it to the height I wanted (and the best part is I have some leftover for another project!)
And there you have our woodland-y, non-Thanksgiving, and yet Thanksgiving, centerpiece.
Hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving day (or Thursday if Thanksgiving’s not your thing). I will be preparing the whole soup-to-nuts feast and am looking forward to it (happy to say I haven’t ruined a turkey yet, she says as she knocks on a sheet of bark). Be well! xo

15 Comments
  • tif

    November 24, 2009 at 10:59 pm

    love the bark!!!

  • Lise

    November 25, 2009 at 4:56 am

    Beautiful!

  • Erin | house on hill road

    November 25, 2009 at 4:59 am

    i’m doing the whole feast, too. well, except the gravy – that is fatty’s job.
    happy thanksgiving to you and yours!

  • blair/wisecraft

    November 25, 2009 at 6:05 am


    you too! (Peter does the dishes, I wouldn't let him near the gravy : )

  • Deven

    November 25, 2009 at 6:47 am

    Beautiful! I’ll do this for New Year’s!

  • Toni

    November 25, 2009 at 7:37 am

    Your centerpiece is so lovely! And I’m so into the “woodland” theme right now, think it’s maybe because we’re in Germany? 🙂
    Happy Thanksgiving to the wise craft family!

  • rosamaria

    November 25, 2009 at 7:50 am

    simple beautiful!

  • trish

    November 25, 2009 at 9:54 am

    awesome, it’s lovely. I did not know you could get bark sheets online, thanks for the tip. Have a great holiday, too.

  • blair/wisecraft

    November 25, 2009 at 2:24 pm

    would be really fun to do a teensy bit of sparkle in there for New Year’s!

  • blair/wisecraft

    November 25, 2009 at 2:25 pm

    Trish, once you buy some, you will find all sorts of ways to use it, its great stuff.

  • wishes, true and kind

    November 26, 2009 at 8:06 pm

    Beautiful! Very impressive!

  • Heather

    November 26, 2009 at 9:05 pm

    You make all of us who sclupted the mashed potatoes and set it in the center of the table and called it a “center peice” look bad!!

  • Christiane

    November 27, 2009 at 6:10 pm

    Hi Blair, very cool center piece indeed – love it. I’ll hire you for my next big job, OK?
    Also, off track: Katrina and I just browsed your Halloween photoshoot you had worked on earlier this year. We LOVED, loved it! Gosh, that must have been so much fun – you are so super creative!!

  • Allie

    November 28, 2009 at 9:10 pm

    Beautiful arrangement!

  • Jaime

    November 29, 2009 at 9:17 am

    thisis so beautiful

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