Creating your very own Christmas garland

Creating one’s own creative Christmas garland for the festive season will definitely spruce up the atmosphere to your house decoration. No matter what type of theme you choose for your holiday decorating, the most important thing is to incorporate color in some way to brighten up your home. The following crafts will help you accomplish a simple decoration for Grizzly Bear theme Christmas garland.

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Creating a Grizzly Bear Christmas Garland:
What you need:

1. 9 wood bear cutouts
2. 9 wood bear cutouts
3. Black acrylic paint
4. 1/2-inch flat paintbrush
5. Crimson raffia
6. Tape measure
7. Clear tape
8. Scissors
9. 32 dark red wood beads
10. 16 small pinecones
11. Hot glue gun, glue sticks
12. 2 yards burgundy gingham wire-edge ribbon, 1/2 inch wide
13. Craft glue
14. Crystal glitter

Method:

1. First of all you need to paint the wood bears with black acrylic paint (or the what ever colour that you preferred), but leave snout unpainted. Paint tip of nose black, then let dry. Turn them over, and continue with the same routine for this side.
2. You will have to make half of the garland at a time. Take around 5 to 6 long strands of raffia, each of maybe 5 feet long, and tape ends together tightly. Then, snip the end of taped raffia to create a point. At other end of the raffia, tie a loose overhand knot. String the 16 beads on the raffia.
3. Lay the raffia down along a flat surface. Place the beads along length in 4 groups of 4 beads. Starting at taped end of raffia, evenly space 4 bears, beads, and 8 pinecones along the raffia; also do not forget to make some room for ribbons to be placed later. Put the hot glue bears and the pinecones in place on the raffia.
4. After that, you need to cut the ribbon into 8-inch to 9-inch pieces. Tie the ribbons in place accordingly on the raffia.
5. Repeat steps 1-4 as per mentioned above for other half of garland. Bring an end from each of the garland halfway together, and tie them. Glue the remaining bear over the knot.
6. Spread the craft glue over pinecone tops with your finger, and then sprinkle the cones with the glitter. Let it dry for approximately 8 hours.
7. Tie the extra raffia to the ends of garland to create bows for hanging garland.

With just a few imaginative ideas, you have already made a simple and cute look self made Christmas garland of your own without the need to purchase a new one. It will certainly look good when display on the mantel in the living room or hang it on railings of the stairs or even on the wall of your children’s bedroom. This self made garland can also be a gift to your family members who are not staying with you or for your friends.

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Additional Reading:
http://christmas.howstuffworks.com/decorations/how-to-make-christmas-garlands-and-swags.htm

Image Credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goodygoodygumdrops/3969332767/