When my hamper of festive craft goodies from Country Baskets arrived last week for the Festive Face-Off craft challenge, I was completely stumped as to what I should make to decorate my home for Christmas. I had all kinds of ideas in my head for festive decorations but I had no clue what my mystery parcel would contain so when I unpacked the ‘ingredients’ I needed a little bit of head scratching time before I launched into my seasonal craft project.
The hamper contained a pom-pom snowball spray, a sprig of mistletoe, a set of blue wire balls, silver poinsettia floral pins, white and silver heart baubles, a reel of mint green wire and a chain of silver bells. After considering a few ideas for a door hanging or a wreath, I decided that a mantelpiece garland would be the best plan of action.
The fireplace in my bedroom was looking decidedly un-festive, so I measured up and cut a piece of wire a little longer than the width of the mantelpiece so that I could bend over the ends to create ‘hooks’, which would help me attach the garland to the fireplace without needing to add any screws or fixings.
I looped the hanging end of the spray onto one hooked end of the wire and wound the pom-pom spray around the wire, tying the loose end on with a small piece of white wool. This formed the basis of the garland and I was ready to decorate with a few festive adornments.
I wanted to use the blue wire balls but decided that they looked a little ‘too blue’ against the snowy white pom-poms, so I wrapped some white wool around the balls and secured with a knot. I left the loose ends of the wool hanging so that I could used them to tie the balls onto the garland.
I added one large ball at each end with a small ball either side and in the center I added a large ball and two balls either side to create a centrepiece to the display. I read that floral displays always look better with flowers in groups of odd numbers, 3/5/7 and so on so I made sure that there were 5 balls in the center and three at either side before adding the flowers.
I finished off the garland with three silver poinsettias in the centres and one at either end, which balanced out the garland and finished off my mantelpiece display perfectly. I hooked the garland over the top of the mantelpiece and stepped back to admire my new snowy festive fireplace.
Let me know what you think of my new Christmas decoration in the comments below and let me know if you have a go at making something like this for yourself. I’d love to see photos of your creations so please tweet me too
@Cassiefairy. And in the meantime, make sure that you check out the Country Baskets
website for craft supplies, floral goodies and festive decorations for your own home. I recently ordered a few sets of baubles from this company and I’ll be sure to share my new decorations on the blog next week – so watch this space”
