If you know us, you know we have a small obsession with glitter and color. That’s why when we found a set of multi color ornaments at Target, we knew we had to buy them. Instead of just using them for the tree, we figured out how to string them together in a long bundle so that they can be used as a garland as well. It’s a great way to tie your tree and mantle together into one cohesive theme, and the same tactic works for decorating both — no ornament hooks needed!
All you really need is one long embroidery needle and some tulle or ribbon. You want to be sure that you have ribbon that’s sturdy enough to handle the weight of your ornaments. Luckily, our ornaments weren’t so heavy so the tulle proved to work great. In fact, we didn’t even need to secure the metal caps on the ornaments — they held perfectly. If yours don’t do the same, we recommend hot gluing or super gluing the metal cap to the ornament before you start threading.
Once you have your materials, just start adding ornaments! Make sure to continuously bundle them tightly together to give the garland some volume as you go. We found that a set of 50 ornaments gave us about 3-feet of garland. These images show two sets (or 100 ornaments) being used for the full mantle.
And yes, I use my fireplace as dog toy storage. We had nowhere else for it.
Bonus! These garlands also work great for decorating your tree in a non-traditional way. Here’s a snap of the tree we started decorating using the two garland strands. So pretty.
You can lay these directly on the mantle, or tie them up at the beginning and end so that they swoop down a bit. Totally up to you. I went the lazier route and it still turned out well :)
What other crafty things have you done with ornaments before? We’d love to hear them! Drop us a line in the comments below or find us on Twitter.
This post has been updated.
