December 7, 2011

DIY JOY Garland


We had a lot of burlap to use after we took down our Friendsgiving tables, that went through 3 rooms in our house! Luckily, burlap makes for some very cute Christmas decorations too. Brooke sewed stockings for all 4 of us out of the burlap, and I made this little JOY garland that we hung from the mirror in our living room.

It was super easy and fun! All you need is:
 a few feet of burlap (more or less depending on how many triangles you want)
twine , rope or thick string of some kind
 red embroidery floss (that you make friendship bracelets out of)
a large needle with an eye wide enough to fit the red floss 
 white acrylic paint
 letter or shape stencils
whatever you would like to add to your garland (I used red bells and some greenery cut from a tree in our back yard)

I simply cut out 3 large diamonds from the burlap, and folded them over the twine (so you have 2 triangles, one on each side of the twine), stringing the bells in between each one.

Using a large needle and your red embroidery floss, sew each half of your diamonds together with a large stitch (this will attach your diamonds to the twine, and create the triangle shape. Do the same to the other 2 diamonds, so you end up with 3 double sided triangles.

Then just stencil whatever wording or shape you would like onto your triangles, add a little greenery (I just poked mine into one of the holes in the bells) and TADA!


-Whitney

Merry Mantles

The mantle is my favorite part about Christmas decorating! Maybe because it's such a focal point for most houses. Or because it frames the fireplace, which is where you want to be during the winter time, and especially Christmas. Here are some mantles that have caught my eye this year:

Love the greenery on this mantle with the pops of red, and the lanterns are perfection!
These silver hanging glittery stars are so fun! I really like the white stockings against the lit fireplace.
The logs in this fireplace are amazing, and i love the peace garland!

The simplicity of this one works very well with the awesome Santa portrait!

 
I love decorating with pine cones, so i was naturally drawn to this one! The natural colors are awesome, and with just subtle hints of Christmas, this could stay up all winter long.

These bright red wreaths really pop on this mantle, and I really like the spacing of the hanging stockings.
This one is a little overkill, but kind of fun! I wonder how long that took to make, and how the heck do you store that??

Images via Pinterest

 Here are a couple pics of our mantle. Brooke made the burlap stockings from the burlap we used for our Friendsgiving dinner! (tutorial to come soon!)

The PEACE stocking hangers we got last year from Hobby Lobby, of course! And the pre-lit garland is from Target.

What's your mantle style??

-Whitney & Megan