Every year I've wanted to make a Christmas Garland for my front door. However, when we built our home I put in a lovely tall door - the only problem was it left me no clearance for a garland. This year I decided to work around the problem. By bringing the garland forward a little, working with the 10cm clearance I have from a change in the roof height at the front of the pillars, and making sure the decorations around the door itself were tightly packed and not too big, I decided I could create an outside display. Making a garland for outside is no different to making any other garland. Decorations are all attached either with pipe cleaners or hot glue gun. To create this garland the materials I used are:
- 2 x 2.7m garlands
- 1 x roll 25cm wide deco mesh
- 2 x 12cm decorations with picks for my central display
- Pipe cleaners
- 200 warm white LED lights
- Mix of decorations ranging from 10-15cm diameter plus smaller scatter pieces and picks.
Step 1: Run the lights through the garland
Always fluff up the garland and string your lights first. I find it easiest to work with the lights on, and as my 200 lights consisted of 2 strings of 100 that connect to each other I ran one string through each garland which means I can easily keep the garland decorated, but separate the two lengths, when I need to store them away. From the image below you will see I lie the lights across the garland zig zagging them pack and forward. Once I'm happy with the general coverage of the lights wind the garland branches around the lights to keep them all in place.
Step 2: Deco mesh through the garland
As I want to be able to store the two separate garlands at the end of Christmas, I'm working from the middle to either end with two pieces of deco mesh. Using pipe cleaners the mesh is pinched and tied tightly to the stem of the garland. Try and weave the mesh to the top and bottom of the garland rather than just across the middle.
Step 3: Attach larger ornaments
A garland has so much more 'wow' factor if you use larger decorations throughout. Create your centre display and then match up bunches of baubles to the left and right of the centre, trying to keep symmetry to the placement.
Step 4: Hang and fill
Once the large baubles are in place I hang the garland (see image below). Then I can see where I need to fill the garland with more stock. For this display I used large foam snowflakes I could attach with hot glue, as well as larger (slightly heavier) snowflakes that are tied onto the garlands down the side. Another great way to fill out the garland is to pull about picks and attach small pieces throughout the display. For this garland I've used small foam balls from picks, as well as a pack of white foam glitter balls which are glued throughout the garland.
And that's it. Not difficult but a wonderful way to set a stylish festive tone for your home.
Happy Decorating!!
Nicole
