Give Thanks: DIY Fall Garland

Now that we are in November I've been thinking of ways to decorate our apartment for Thanksgiving -- our first Thanksgiving in our new apartment! There's not much space to work with and we don't have a mantle to decorate but we do have a cute little spot to hang a garland. I had went to Michaels to purchase items for a fall centerpiece I am making (post to come) and walked out with some twine, fake eucalyptus, hydrangea and leaves. I had extra twine and leaves from that project so I cut the leaves off the stem. All the items I ended up needing were:

>> twine

>> hot glue gun and glue sticks

>> fake leaves 

>> scissors

>> white craft paint

>> paint brush

>> palette or a paper plate

>> letter stencils (optional)

Lucky for me I already had the rest of the materials I needed which if you're a painter and DIYer like me than you most likely have them, too. Let's get started.

1. Cut out 10 leaves that would end up spelling "Give Thanks" -- you can spell out whatever phrase you like -- "Happy Thanksgiving", "Be Thankful", "Family", the list goes on. 

2. You can unwind the garland to however long you need, you will know how long after the leaves are layed out -- add at least 5 extra inches for each side of the garland which will be helpful when attaching this wherever you plan to put it.

3. Add the paint to your paper plate and you can use stencils to paint each letter on each leaf or you can hand paint them like I did. 

4. After all the leaves are painted and dry lay them out to spell your phrase and start hotgluing the leaves to the twine. I used two pieces of the same length twine so the little tip of the stem gets hotglued between them. You may have to hold it in place until it is completely dry from one leaf to the next. I had an extra set of hands help me do this step. We then hung it under a shelf by taping it to the bottom with clear package tape we had.

DONE. Here's the finish product -- we placed our garland under our display shelf right in our living room. I'm planning on making a Christmas garland when December comes along. This is super easy to make and not to mention inexpensive. The total for this project cost me less than $5! 

Happy garland making! 

Xo,