Christmas Decor: Tree Garland + Tutorial

As you know, I've been trying to do some cheap holiday decorating. My latest endeavour was a cute tree garland. I even drew up a little template so you can make one too.

Just click here and save this template, print it off and cut it out of the paper of your choice! I chose red and green because it's what I had already, but I think it would be really cute to use glitter card stock. This would be a fun activity to do with any little helpers you have around your house. I did everything by hand, but if you have a silhouette, you could definitely use it to cut out your trees. You could also print the template onto your paper and just cut that. I used 12 inch card stock though, which doesn't fit in my printer or my silhouette.

What you need:

tree template
card stock
a pencil
scissors
small hole punch or X-acto knife
thin ribbon, twine, or anything else you want to string them on

How to make it:

Cut out the template.

Trace it onto the back side of your paper.

[I used 2 sheets of 12x12 and got 12 trees out of it... but I only used 9]

Cut out all those trees!

Use a small hole punch or x-acto knife to cut a little hole near the top, centre of the star.

String your trees! I wanted a pretty way to do this and have them hang straight, so here's what I did...

A few inches into your ribbon, fold it in half.

Thread this fold through the tree from the back to the front, opening the fold so you have a loop.

Put the loop behind the point of the star. You will have to twist the ribbon for it to lay flat.

(you'll understand what I mean once you get to this stage)

Gently pull the ends of the ribbon tight. If the ribbon you use is stiff, like mine was, it will help to press it down on a hard surface with your fingernail to crease the ribbon and prevent it from coming loose.

Repeat the last 4 steps for all of the trees. You might need to tweak the length between them all so they are evenly spaced, but it's easy to do. You just have to gently loosen the loop from one side (the side you want to be shorter) and pull the excess to the other side (that you want to be longer).

Finally, use a little tape to hang it up. This one went in Gavin's room.

And guess what? I had all supplies on hand, so this decoration was free!