Christmas Craftiness – Homemade Garland

As I’ve mentioned before, I LOVE holidays. Enough to sit down and write a whole blog about christmas music.

enough to sit down for hours and make homemade decorations for the big family gathering christmas tree.

including:

Cinnamon Dough ornaments

Snowflakes

Paper Chain Garland

and this monstorsity

Yup. Mr Gillis and I spent two night stringing popcorn and cranberries to create this wonderful vintage look for the tree.

So I am here to share our tips for making Popcorn and Cranberry Garland.

Make your popcorn DAYS ahead of time. The staler, the better it seems. Open the bag right up and spread it out in a cardboard box, or big tupperware container or whatever you have, because it needs to be stale and stiff.
Use only HARD cranberries. If there is any give, you end up with icky stained popcorn and a garland that wont last as long – which from my understanding, popcorn garland will last up to a month. Also, stab them in the blossom end.
Get yourself some good fishing line – I got 700 yards for under 2 bucks and I’ve been steadily using it for lots of crafty things and I’ve barely made a dent.
Use a good needle. I used an embroidery needle because it made everything easier for me. Use what works for you.
Come up with a plan for your popcorn/cranberry order. We did 1 cranberry, 3 popcorn and repeated for 6 – 8 foot stands.
Speaking of strands, I really recommend only doing 4-8 foot strands as they get tangled up on each other very easily.
Have somewhere to hang your finished product if you aren’t immediately putting it up. We had like 40 feet to make for the big tree so we hung it on the back of our door to keep it safe.

Lastly, this is a messy project, so do it somewhere you wont regret later. We worked right at our kitchen table, but we live in a single wide, so we could watch tv while working. The second night we listened to christmas music. Both evenings were a nice way to spend working together.

Until next time, have a wicked good day!

Published by gillisgardensllc

This is the official website for Gillis Gardens, LLC. Gillis Gardens is a farm, run by myself and my wonderful husband. We believe in biodiversity, organic growing methods and doing things ourselves. I knit, crochet, make jewelry and sew. MrGillis builds, doing everything from our plumbing to our mechanical to our renovations. We are both active members of our little community. We both take care of the plants and animals. He weeds, I harvest. He spreads manure, I plant. We raise multiple breeds of chickens for eggs and meat. We have a herd of Alpacas that we shear every year for their beautiful fiber, which we then have milled into ultra luxurious yarn. We make our own maple syrup, preserves and pickles. We raise bees for honey and herbs for medicine. We also raise pigs for meat and fun. We are the parents of two young children, and consider that our most important job. Follow our adventures here and also on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter. View more posts

2 thoughts on “Christmas Craftiness – Homemade Garland”

Always loved the popcorn garlands every year. Unfortunately I never got around to making one for our tiny tree this year. I even went out and bought bags of cranberries. Guess I will have to figure out some other yummy way to use those cranberries, I’m thinking a wreath would look pretty for Valentines day.

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gillisgardens says:

December 22, 2017 at 6:32 pm

It was a bit time consuming- but fun in its own way. That sounds like a lovely way to use up your cranberries!

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Published by gillisgardensllc

2 thoughts on “Christmas Craftiness – Homemade Garland”

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