This year I really wanted a Christmas
garland to go down our banister.
With Christmas just around the corner
though most of my spare cash is being put aside for Christmas presents. A nice
shop bought garland can range from £14.99 to £49.99, and the cheaper ones don’t
quite have the look I wanted. With that in mind though, I thought I could use
the cheaper garlands as a base to make a garland that was just how I wanted.
What I used
(by the way, I didn’t use
everything in my pic in the end)!
- Cheap
garlands (I found mine in Poundland and used three – most cheap shops will
sell a basic, or value garland that could be used instead)
- Wire (I
needed thicker wire than the beading wire in my pic)
- Decorations
for your garland. I used flowers and holly off some more cheap garlands I
found in a local cheapy shop - £1.25, cut up berry napkin rings I found on
a charity stall market - 60p and pine cones which you can find for free!
- Handmade
felt decorations for the end decoration (felt 30p a square, thread around
£1) P.s I’ll show you how I made these in another post!
- Scissors
and wire cutters
Total cost – around £7-£8!
Time - about 3hrs
Obviously you can decorate the
garland however you want. Baubles, ribbons, maybe even use some sprigs of real
holly. Just scour your local shops, charity shops and markets to find what
suits your theme and tastes.
Step 1
Measure your garland by wrapping
round your banister then cut to size. You’ll be able to see further on in step 4 I didn’t
end up wrapping it in the same way as below as once I’d added branches as it was too bushy to wrap like this!
I was able to cut about a foot of the end of the length but I’d still advise
wrapping as per step 1 to start with as it’s better to have it longer rather
than too short!
Step 2
As you can see my garland was only
one strand to start with so I needed to make branches. If you have a garland
that already has branches you could still add to it to make it a bit bushier or
just go straight to the decorating stages!
Making
the branches
Take the second and third garland and
cut up to make branches.
Cut a length double the size you need
as you’ll be wrapping the branch around the main garland. As you’ll be wrapping
them round the main garland they will end up shorter than you cut. I cut mine into
30cm lengths then when I wrapped around they ended up about 13cm branches.
Step 3
Bend each length in half and then
double wrap around the main garland. As there was wire already in my garland I
could just wrap this around without gluing or wiring. If your garland isn't wired you could wrap the branch around wire to give it some
structure.
Keep wrapping until you have done the
whole garland.
Step 4
Test it on the banister to see if there
are any bare spaces (if there are just add a few more branches).
Step 5
Wire your decorations and add onto
your garland in even spacing.
I did mine on the floor to give me
more space, this also allowed me to rotate the garland as I wired to ensure
there is coverage all round.
I started with my pine cones then the
flowers, leaves and berries from the napkin rings (and the cat wanted to help too)!
Step 6
Test it again on your banister and add
any further decorations where you think necessary!
I’ll upload another picture when I
officially put it up for Christmas, I might also add some LED lights and
ribbons but here's the finished article!
If you haven’t got much time before
Christmas comes around then this is a quick and easy way to make a personalised
stocking.
