Mantel garland – Festive Face Off

I love Christmas.

I love crafting.

I LOVE Christmas crafting!

You will not believe how excited I got when I received this in the post the other day!

Isn’t the basket just gorgeous?

Look what was inside….

My first stop, after swooning over all the gorgeous craft items, was my Christmas board on Pinterest. I was finally going to able to make one of the hundreds of things I’d pinned over the year!

It didn’t take me long to decide that I wanted to create a mantel garland using greenery from the garden so I went out with my trusty secateurs and cut large ivy, small ivy and branches from the evergreen trees.

Here’s how I made my mantel garland:

You will need:

A piece of hessian long enough to drape either side of your mantel
String lights
Evergreen branches
Ivy
Florists wire
Ribbon
Assortment of decorations

Step one:
Lay your hessian cloth on the mantel and adjust it until you have an even drop each side….make sure to do better than I seem to have done!! I’m sure it looked even when I was taking the photo!
When I’d got it right, I used 2 pieces of ribbon and tied each one at the place where I wanted the drop to be.

Step two:
Get all your supplies ready so you have everything to hand

Step three:
Lay out your hessian and unravel your string lights…

Step four:
Using florists wire, attach the lights all along the hessian, making sure to go right to each end.

Step five:
I started off by marking the middle of the hessian which split my cloth into four sections, two end drops and two top sections which I’ll now refer to as top left section and top right section.
I used florists wire to attach some trailing ivy to each side drop.
I then used one of the evergreen branches on the top left section to cover the string lights. I threaded the florists wire through the hessian then around the branch to hold it firmly in place.
Repeat on the top right section, making sure as much of the string light wire is covered but also that the bulbs of the lights are sticking up through the branches.

Step six:
I added more trailing ivy to each top section then used the piece of green hessian that had tied the lid on the basket of craft items, around the end of the branches in the middle of the hessian.
I used florists wire again to attach the silver garland and string of gold balls.
I also added some of the smaller ivy to each side drop to cover the hessian a little more.

Step seven:
When I was sure everything was securely attached, I moved it onto the mantel and added the final touches.
I used a couple of flower sprays on the top sections as well a candle (which won’t be lit because it would be a fire hazard!) and some silver apple picks. I also attached a wooden star at each end of the mantel, where the ribbon was tied to mark the drop sections.
In the basket of craft items, there was a lovely leaf decoration that was the perfect finishing touch. I tied it to the green hessian in the middle of the middle of the display and let the leaves hang down.
I used an artificial spray of ivy behind the candle to hide the wires from the tv, which is usually covered by our wedding photo.

I love it with the lights switched on 🙂