every holiday our season seems to have its symbol we have jack-o'-lanterns for Halloween and hearts for Valentine's Day and for the harvest season or the season of Plenty we have the horn of plenty or the cornucopia now we felt these big horns with lots of things spilling out of them a pretty neat and wanted one but thought they were a little bit too complicated to make until I came up with an idea that's really easy to put together and doesn't take much time and it starts with some unlikely materials like chicken wire some grapevine and moss I started by cutting a 2 foot by 2 foot piece of one inch mesh chicken wire then I rolled it diagonally from one corner to the other creating a cone to hold it together I've bent the ends of the wire into the body and curved the closed end into the classic cornucopia shape for the open end I just rolled back the edges to form a lip I made the opening large enough to hold an 8 inch container since this is going to be a door hanging I wanted to make sure that the container was lightweight and waterproof so I chose a paper mache liner now with the frame made I'm ready to cover it I'm using sheet moss and attaching it with hot glue and I found that smaller pieces of Moss are easier to handle as a final touch I wrapped the entire horn and grapevine this gives it a nice accent and helps to secure the moss and I just use some hairspray to keep the moss from shattering now I'm ready to really get creative and fill this with all sorts of things that symbolize the harvest season like dried fruits and vegetables as well as living things like kale mums and Ivy this particular cornucopia is going to be a door hanging but before I fill it to get myself maximum flexibility I'm using a waterproof paper mache liner so later if I want to use fresh flowers in here it's not a problem but in this case I'm using dried materials so it's really not necessary and for the living things I'll put them in little plastic bags let's get started I begin by placing floral foam in the container and I push it toward the back to leave room in the front for other things then I secured it with floral tape I build the arrangement from the back toward the front using tall spiky things like silver and Russian sage for the larger living things I'm moisten the roots whip them in a plastic bag this will help them last longer and they'll fit easier into the arrangement now I filled in with gourds corn dried flowers and ivy across the front to cascade that's ready to hang on the front door it'll be fresh and beautiful until I'm ready to hang that Christmas tree from the garden I'm allen Smith