Homemade Easter Garland

After Christmas the kitchen cabinets looked so bare! So I added a little garland from the craft store for Valentines. Then I was fortunate to win some homemade Valentine Garland from Liz at Hoosier Homemade. It was such a cute prize that it inspired me to make my own garland for Easter. I don't sew or anything. In fact, I'm not very crafty at all. (Although I am getting better!) So I took Liz's design and did my own variation on it. (Sorry the pics aren't any better. Our house doesn't have the best light. Plus, I've decided that I'm in need of a new camera. I always thought I had a pretty good one until my niece got one for Christmas, and the megapixels were about 2x better than mine. I had no idea how much cameras had impoved....then again, I should have known, since I've had the camera now for 3 yrs...but I digress! Sorry!) Let's just get to the tutorial...

Here's What You'll Need:
Scrapbook paper. (I used 4 different colors, but I only used half the sheet of paper on each.)
Ribbon
Stencils or cookie cutters
scissors
glue or tape
pen or pencil

Garland Tutorial:

-Use cookie cutters or stencils to trace shapes onto the back of scrapbook paper. You can use a single shape or multiple shapes. (I used an egg shape and two different flower shapes. And again, I used 4 different color patterns and about a half a sheet of paper of each pattern.)

-Next take your scissors and cut out the shapes. (I made 24 cut outs for a seven and a half foot string of garland)

-Cut off a line of ribbon. Make the ribbon as long as you like. I suggest cutting off at least a foot more than the intended length. (I made a 7 1/2 foot garland, but I actually cut about 8 1/2 foot of ribbon off. I used the extra length on each end to wrap it around the "edging" on the top of the cabinets.)

-Now attach the shapes to the ribbon. (I placed them about an inch apart from each other.)

-There are a few different methods you can use for this. Liz actually sewed the cutouts to the ribbon. I, however, am not a seamstress and decided to use a short cut method. I used tape to attach the shapes. I used two small pieces of tape on each shape (making a t or x with the tape on the back of each shape.) I used two pieces to make sure it was secured, and put them on there cross-ways so that the garland would be more flexible/movable. For this step you could also mod podge or a glue gun if you prefer. (I just used tape because it's quicker, there's no mess, and it would allow me to make adjustments if I needed to.)

-Then hang your garland and enjoy!

-Jerri

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