Welcome Summer to Your Front Door!

Summer is in full swing, and there’s no better way to celebrate than by giving your front door a bright, cheerful refresh. Today, I’m sharing one of my favourite projects from our live summer series: a rustic lemon grapevine wreath complete with a hand-lettered foam board lemon slice sign, a vibrant bundle bow, and gorgeous floral accents.

If you’re new to wreath making, don’t worry at all. This tutorial is completely beginner-friendly, and you can easily grab most of your supplies from your local dollar store or craft shop.

Materials List

To make this rustic lemon wreath, you’ll need the following supplies:

• Grapevine Wreath Base: 14 to 18 inches
• White Foam Board: 1 sheet
• Text Template: Printed in the Apricots font (saying “welcome”). Get your FREE downloadable here. 
• Paint & Supplies: Yellow craft paint, black chalk paint, fine liner detail paintbrush, medium flat brush, ballpoint pen or pencil.
• Adhesives & Tape: White craft glue or paper paste, masking tape, hot glue gun, and hot glue sticks.
• Ribbon: 2.5 inch wired ribbons (lemon pattern, solid green, and solid white or yellow accent)
• Florals & Greenery: Faux sunflowers, small white daisies, yellow accent blooms, and faux greenery leaves
• Tools: Craft knife or scissors, white chenille stems (pipe cleaners), and a toothpick or craft stick

Step-by-Step Tutorial

Step 1: Crafting and Painting the Foam Board Lemon Slice Sign

To give the wreath a fun, custom touch, I made a lightweight lemon slice sign from scratch using foam board.

1. Cut and Layer the Base: Cut two identical lemon slice shapes out of white foam board. Layer the two pieces together using paper paste or white craft glue, then seal the outer edges with masking tape. Double-layering gives the sign extra durability without adding heavy weight to your grapevine base.
2. Paint the Base & Rind: Coat the front and taped edges in white paint to create a clean, uniform canvas. Once dry, paint a bright yellow border around the outer rounded edge to form the lemon rind.
3. Detail the Lemon Segments: Leaving a small white gap near the rind for the pith, paint yellow triangular wedge segments across the center to form the pulp of the lemon slice. Leave thin white lines between each segment to make the inner pulp pop!

Step 2: Hand-Lettering the “Welcome” Sign

Once your painted lemon slice is dry, it’s time to add the hand-lettering!

1. Trace the Lettering: Print out your text template (I used the Apricots font for the word “welcome”). Position your paper template over the center of the painted lemon slice. Using a ballpoint pen, trace firmly over the outline of the letters. This scores a light depression into the surface, creating a faint guide for your paint.
2. Paint the Letters: Take your fine liner brush and black chalk paint to fill in the scored lettering. Remember my favorite exhale trick: gently breathe out during long, steady strokes to keep your hand nice and steady. Keep a damp rag nearby just in case you need a quick touch-up!

Step 3: Assembling the Multi-Ribbon Bundle Bow

A big, bright bow brings instant cheer to any summer wreath! For this design, I used a mix of lemon-patterned, solid green, and white wired ribbons.

1. Form the Loops: Layer your ribbon strips together and form simple loops, making sure the colourful patterned side faces forward.
2. Bind with Pipe Cleaner: Secure the center of all the loops tightly using a single white chenille stem (pipe cleaner). Twist the pipe cleaner firmly at the back, leaving the extra length long so you can attach it directly to the wreath base later.
3. Finish the Tails: Gently fluff the loops and dovetail the ends of your ribbon tails by folding them in half and cutting at a diagonal. If the tails feel a bit too long once placed on your wreath, you can easily trim a few inches off until you like the proportion!

Step 4: Attaching the Sign and Bow to the Grapevine Base

Instead of hot gluing the sign directly to the wood, which can ruin your grapevine for future projects, I prefer a simple attach-and-reuse method!

1. Secure Pipe Cleaners to the Sign: Flip your dry foam board sign over. Apply a generous pool of hot glue near the lower middle section. Press the center of a pipe cleaner into the hot glue using a toothpick (keep those fingers safe from burns!). Once it sets, add a top coat of hot glue over the pipe cleaner to lock it in place.
2. Attach the Sign: Thread the pipe cleaner ends through the grapevine twigs on the bottom half of the wreath and twist firmly at the back.
3. Attach the Bow: Position your bundle bow at the top-left corner of the wreath. Thread its pipe cleaner legs through the branches and twist tightly behind the wreath.

Step 5: Layering the Faux Florals and Final Touches

Now comes the absolute best part: adding all the bright summer blooms!

1. Add Focal Flowers: Start with your largest focal flowers, like two cheerful sunflowers. Secure one near the bow and another near the lower corner by your sign using a small dab of hot glue.
2. Fill in with Accent Blooms: Tuck smaller white daisies and yellow blooms in trios around the focal flowers to create a natural, organic look. You can even tuck a small daisy right into the ribbon loops of your bow!
3. Tuck in Greenery: Add a few sprigs of faux greenery underneath the flower heads and ribbon loops to bring in that lovely rustic contrast against the yellow lemons.
4. Shape the Ribbon: Give your ribbon loops a final fluff, curving the wired edges downwards for a beautiful draped style.

Final Thoughts

I’m so thrilled with how this rustic lemon wreath turned out! It’s bright, welcoming, and brings so much summer joy right to your front porch. Remember, crafting is all about enjoying the process and having fun rather than striving for absolute perfection! Don’t stress if yours doesn’t come out perfect, that just makes it extra special if you ask me.

If you enjoyed this project, don’t forget to watch the complete step-by-step tutorial replay and subscribe to the IHC Craft Room channel for more beginner-friendly DIY ideas. I’ll be back next Saturday at 2:00 PM Eastern with another summer wreath project that you won’t want to miss. Toodaloo!