The Christmas season is here! My husband and I started the tradition last year of making all of the decorations for our tree. This year, we decided to make a new garland. I love this garland. It's rustic and quaint and it is pretty inexpensive to make. You can purchase the birch online or do what we did and put on a pair of boots and forage for it. Birch wood is easy to find. Just scan your eyes across a tree line, and it will stick out like a sore thumb.
What You'll Need:
6' long Birch branch, about 2" - 3" in diameter
A saw of some sort (we used skill saw, but you could do it by hand)
Drill
Clear finish (The finish is up to you, we like the satin finish)
2 spools of ribbon, ¼" wide
Needle and thread
- Using the skill saw, cut your birch branch into disks, about 1" wide. You can mark these if you like, but we just eye-balled it. Besides, the inconsistent widths will add to the overall rustic look.
- Using the drill, drill two holes all the way through each disk. Again, you can mark these if you like, but it is not necessary.
- Clean each disk of any residual sawdust.
- If you cut your birch from a live tree, you will need to let the disks dry out for a day or too. If not, then go on right ahead to the next step.
- Finish each side of the disks. This may seem unnecessary, but birch wood eventually turns black when it is exposed to oxygen for long amounts of time. The finish will prevent this from happening so you can reuse your garlands next year.
- Once your disks have dried, it is time to start stringing them. Cut a piece of thread about 4" long. Thread the needle. Poke the needle through the top ¼" of one of the ends of the ribbon. Pull the needle through so that the thread is strung through the ribbon. Tie the thread in a knot around the ribbon to secure the ribbon to the needle. This will make it easier for you to string your disks.
- One by one, string your disks, just like buttons - go up through one hole and down through the other. Space the disks about 2" apart from each other.
And there you have it! A beautiful garland that was easy to make and under $10.
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