Interesting Garland Making Ideas

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

..."The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nickolas will soon to be there."   This is one of the lines in The Night Before Christmas and rightfully so.  Today, I have invited a guest blogger Named Rita, who will to show you some interesting garland idea for your tree or around the house.

Christmas is probably the most sparkly and fun holiday we have the pleasure of experiencing every year. It is a time when families get together, religious people express their faith, everyone shows their love and affection by presenting gifts, trees light up, colourful lights flicker all around and the walls get new garland outfits!

Today’s markets present us with ample choice when it comes to Christmas decorations. New and more intricate designs are brought forth every year making the shopping and decorating process all the more fun. There are some enthusiasts among us, however, who like to do some of the things themselves. If you are one of those and are wondering what kind of garlands to make this year, you might want to review these simple yet beautiful ideas.

If you prefer the natural approach to things and the lovely smell of evergreens on Christmas day morning, you can fashion an evergreen garland using only evergreen trimmings, scissors, floral wire and twine. First you need to cut the trimmings to about 6 inches and collect them in small bundles with the stems pointing in the same direction. Cut a piece of the twine as long as you want your garland to be, make a loop at the end of it and attach the wire there. Then attach your evergreen bundles one at a time, securing them to the string with the wire. When you are done, make a knot between the wire and the string.

Another great garland idea is with pom poms made of yarn. Of course, it can be done with any type of yarn but to remain true to the Christmas spirit, you should use a sparkly one. You can use a pom pom making tool, or you can make one yourself: First you need to cut two “doughnuts” out of cardboard. Keeping them together, you wrap the yarn around until you make a nice big fluffy doughnut. Then you cut the yarn between the two cardboard pieces with scissors and add a string of yarn between them. Then you pull the cardboards on each side, fluff up your pom pom and you are done. After that all you have to do is tie your pom poms to another yarn string and your garland is ready.

A similar technique is used for paper or tissue pom poms. You can use holiday paper napkins, or wrapping paper, cut them into rectangles, tie them with a string in the middle and then spread the separate layers to make it look like a pom pom. Again, you then tie the separate pom poms to a string of your choosing.

Anything you attach to a string can become a Christmas garland. After all, all it takes is a little sparkle so stock up on gold and silver spray paints, colourful brocade and anything else you can think of and turn, for example, ordinary white print paper into golden leaves hanging above the family portrait. All you need to make a garland beautiful is a large number of similar patterns stuck together. You can really get creative and put anything you like – Christmas cards, popcorn sprayed with silver, snowman pictures, flowers, etc. In order for your Christmas decorations to be truly yours, they have to come from within your own hearth and mind.

Rita Rova writes arts and crafts articles for Oz-Coupons.com, the Australian coupon code website that lists the latest discounts for arts and crafts supplies.