Whether you’re looking for a way to infuse cozy, winter-inspired fragrance into your home atmosphere and seeking unusual ideas for holiday gifts for friends and family, consider crafting a handmade winter potpourri. Use your choice of luscious essential oil, aromatic spices, and ingredients foraged from gardena and woods to make a signature potpourri unlike anything available in stores.

From the Woods

The ideal winter potpourri has a wood-sceneted base, so gather small, aromatic pine cones such as those from hemlock or cedar as well as wood chips if you’ve got an available source. If your Adair home is located near a park or other wooded area, take along a paper or canvas bag on your next walk and gather cones, acorns, and fragrant pine needles to get your potpourri off to a good start. If available, get a few magnolia or beech leaves — these both impart a lovely fragrance when dried. Wildflowers such as Queen Anne’s Lace or chicory also make excellent potpourri ingredients. It’s wise, however, to refrain from taking petals from publicly owned flower gardens.

From Your Garden

Your own garden is a treasure trove of winter potpourri ingredients. Fall-blooming flowers such as asters, dahlias, and mums all provide a tart, spicy fragrance that beens well with scents of pine cones, wood chips, and other woodsy ingredients. Even if your rose bushes have stopped producing flowers, use red rose hips for a striking visual accent. The leaves of culinary herbs such as mint, rosemary, and sage are welcome additions to any potpourri project. You can easily dry the flowers and leaves using a food dehydrator, or, if you don’t have one, laying them out on a flat surface for a few days in your home in a dry location where they will not be disturbed. After everything has thoroughly dried, gently mix them together in a large wooden or plastic mixing bowl. Using a metal bowl may negatively affect the scent of certain ingredients.

From Your Kitchen

Cinnamon sticks, cloves, nutmeg, apple pie spice, bay leaves, and anything else that has a warm and wintry fragrance can be included in winter potpourri. Try adding a little of each until you achieve the desired results. You can also add dried fruit slices by cutting apples and oranges into slices and drying them in the oven or in your food dehydrator.

From the Crafts Store

Choose from a large variety of essential oils to provide your winter potpourri with a finishing touch. Carnation oil blends exceptionally well with the spicy scents of kitchen. Other good choices include bayberry, clove oil, cinnamon oil, and pine oil. Create your own custom blend of from a mixture of oils or use just one if you prefer single note scents.

From the Fabric Store

Once the winter potpourri is all mixed and ready to use, make small sachets using material scraps and bright ribbons from the fabric store. Place these around your home for seasonal fragrance and decoration or give them out as gifts to friends and family.