Looking for a creative new idea to decorate your house around the holidays. Try any of these festive garland techniques. They can be used to decorate your tree, to hang in windows, or even suspended along the mantle. Lots of lovely ways to use them!
Garland 1
This specific garland chain is a spin-off of the traditional one you made when you were little. You can use different colors of paper depending on your theme or time of year, but specifically I chose to go with a blue and red theme.
Supplies are easy, most of them you'll probably already have around the house.
You'll need:
- Paper - your choice of colors and patterns. The amount you need depends on the size of each circle and the length of the overall chain. I recommend starting with about 6-8 pieces of paper and see how much you have left and go from there.
- Hot glue gun and hot glue (holds stronger and sets faster than a glue stick)
- Paper cutter
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- Start by cutting your paper into different size strips as shown above (small strips: 2"x3/8" and large strips: 3"x 3/8" ). It is fun to mix and match different patterned paper with plain, solid colors to achieve a textured look.
- Once all of the strips are cut out, just plug in the hot glue gun and start attaching the circles! The specific pattern that I chose for this garland began with gluing together about 4 small circles, then on the fourth circle I attached a large circle along the outside of the small one. Then continued right along with a few more small circles alternating the blue and red pieces in just a random pattern.
- Once the desired length is reached, Voila! You have a fun, festive decoration for your house around the holidays.
Garland 2
This second garland strand is another fun and easy decoration to hang around the house. But what I like to do is use this garland as a ribbon to dress up my christmas gifts.
Supplies are easy, most of them you'll probably already have around the house.
You'll need:
- Paper - your choice of colors and patterns. The amount you need again depends on the size of the whole punch you use and the length of the overall chain. I recommend starting with about 8-10 pieces of paper and see how much you have left and go from there.
- Hole punch - any shape and size ( I chose a one-inch basic circle, but you could change it up and use a star, snowflake, or even a heart hole punch).
- Sewing maching ( This could be sewn by hand but I think it's much faster if you use a sewing maching)
- Thread ( match the thread color from the paper )
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- Start by selecting your pieces of paper, and go ahead and begin hole-punching. I find it easier to punch out all of the pieces before you go to the next step.
- Next I recommend laying out your selected pattern on the floor or table to make it easier to run the papers through the sewing maching.
TIP: If you choose to use scapbook paper for the garland and don't want the white backing to show, I would suggest combining two circles back-to-back of the same pattern.
- Then when your pattern is laid out, thread your sewing machine and start sewing the circles end to end with a straight line down the center, it's as simple as that.
You can make the garland as short as one foot in length to fit around one small box, or as long as ten feet to wrap around your tree.
Garland 3
This third garland strand is by far my favorite. The idea sparked from the traditional cranberry garland that is strung together around the holidays. Instead of buying several bags of cranberries I found a cheaper alternative by using small marshmellows and painting them red.
Supplies you will need:
- One bag of small marshmellows ( If you can buy the off-brand bag to save some money).
- One can of red spray paint
- A needle with a spool of thread ( I chose red thread to blend in with the marshmellows at the end)
- Newpaper to lay underneith the strands while painting
- Colored paper for the garland embellishment
- Circle hole-punch
- Scissors
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The first step in creating this garland is to thread the needle using a piece of thread about two feet in length. The shorter the strand the easier it will be to thread the marshmellows. Then begin threading the marshmellows together leaving about three inches of string at the end of the strand.
TIP: Place the bag of marshmellows in the freezer about 30 minutes before you begin. By doing this the marshmellows stiffen and become much easier to string together without the stickiness.
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Once you have several strands strung together, lay down some newspaper and begin spraying the marshmellows remembering to rotate each strand so that all sides get covered with the paint. Then separate the strands to dry competely.
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The next step which is always optional is to create the colorful embellishment placed through the garland. Start by punching out several colored circles in a color of your choice. Then take the scissors and cut about ten small slits all the way around the circle with one of the slits cutting all the way to the center of the circle.
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Now you can begin assembling the garland. Start by tying together the first two strands, then about every 18" insert the colored circles by sliding each one in through the longest slit in the circle. Alternate circle, marshmellow, circle, marshmellow, circle.
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Once all of the marshmellow strands are tied together and all of the embellishments are added into the strand, you can then fluff the paper by pulling apart the tabs all the way around each of the circles.
Then you're finished and ready to hang your garland!!
