Beefing up those Plain Garlands

Most of us have bought that plain, prelit garland that all the craft stores carry.  The problem is, it is very skimpy and not all that pretty.  But, there’s an easy way to beef it up and make it look so much more expensive, just by adding a few greenery picks to it.  Then, when you add in ribbon and some extras like hanging ornaments, it really makes a statement.

This is the plain prelit garland I bought last year from Target after Christmas and this is doubled.  You can imagine how slim just one length of it is…definitely needs some help.

So,  to the rescue, I went to Hobby Lobby and bought about 6 of these greenery picks that were on sale already for 1/2 price.  Spent about $13 for all of these.  Notice they already have pinecones and different greenery textures.  I love all that texture added in.

See, like this!  Check out the lacy greens and the wispy pine pieces in here, as well as the different shades of green. This makes it look much more realistic and they sure have improved on these things over the last few years.

Here’s my garland with some of the picks woven in.  You don’t even have to put them all close together, just space them apart and start fluffing to get some additional bulk on the garland.   A good way to attach these is with zip ties.  Get yourself a bag of them and they are great for Christmas decorating.

Then, I added some pretty beads, ribbon and a few hanging ornaments and that’s all that is needed to make it all pretty-like.

You can see all the different greenery textures and how they stand out from the plain ole’ garland that I started with.  That’s all you have to do to make your garland something special.  Just add a few of those greens and you’ll have a beautiful garland for your mantel.

Trying out some different camera settings, it’s hard getting good pics of this mantel, with all the natural light flooding in. I’ll also be adding some fresh magnolia branches soon too.  Those are a great texture to add to the mantel with the browns and greens.

But these give you a good idea of how it looks with all the additions of greenery and sparkle.  I incorporated those big honkin’ yardsale sconces with the garland this year and used them for draping.

I’m adding in a few more pics since it’s cloudy today  and these actually look better than a sunny day.

I’ll be hiding the light cord with some fresh magnolia branches soon.

That’s my $5 stocking from Ballards Outlet that I found about 5 years ago.  They had some that were rejects from the monograms and I found one with not much thread on it and had it monogrammed for me. 

I’ll show you the rest of mine soon!  What do you do on your mantel?  Do you like a beefy garland or do you go for plain and simple?

I like a little bling myself!

My friend, Sandy, at Reluctant Entertainer, is having an apron giveaway today, so go on over and check it out!