Fireplace Garland

Christmas Fireplace Garland - Materials Required

• 12" length of wired pine foliage
• Lycepodium
• Gold glitter glue
• Cold 1/8" Lurex ribbon
• 5mm + 1mm gold bad string
• Scissors
• Tweezers
• Wire Cutters
• White Glue, Hot glue gun, UHU, clear PVA glue
• Cocktail sticks
• Paint brush
• 2 x 1/2" card circles

Step 1

Cut 2 x 6" lenths of wired pine foliage. With a 3/4" overlap and keeping the greenery pointing in opposite directions (outwards), twist the ends together tightly.

Step 2

Find the centre of the strip, and form the wire to make the middle swag. Then form a swag on either side to fit your fireplace, leaving the tails to hang down. Cut the tails to the length you want. Please see the 4 photos below showing this process in stages.

Step 3

Cut two 1/2" card circles from green card. Glue to the back of the corners of the grenery with UHU or hot glue gun. These will help you to attach the garland to the fireplace.

Step 4

• Trim the Lycopodium into approx 3/8" long pieces.
• Use tweezers and white glue.
• Start at the bottom of the swag tail and insert the pieces into the greenery base ramdomly.
• Continue overlapping the pieces working upwards to the top.
• Change direction and continue to the middle of the garland.
• Repeat with the other side.
• Leave to dry completely.

Select your decor and make the glitter baubles and ribbon bows you will need.

Baubles

• Put a bead onto a cocktail stick making sure the tip doesn't protrude through.
• Paint with white glue.
• Dip into the glitter.
• Gently tap off the excess.
• Stick into a piece of Blue Tack or Oasis and leave to dry.
• When completely dry, apply a coat of clear nail varnish to seal.
• When dry remove from the stick.
• The hole will not show if you apply carefully to your project.

Bows

• Cut 4" lengths of Lurex wired ribbon.
• Make a loop taking the ribbon round and keeping the same side to the front.
• With tweezers, bring the top of the loop forward to the cross of the ribbon.
• Add a dot of UHO to keep in place.
• Fix a tiny bead to hide the centre - flat backed beads work best.
• Trim the ends of the tails and paint with PVA to prevent fraying.
• Leave to dry.

Step 7

• Cut the gold bead strings into individual beads.
• Do a trial run of your design first.
• Start at the middle and glue the decorations into place.

Step 8

Carefully add the bows using UHU. Place them evenly across the garland. Attach to the fireplace and admire.

This DIY feature suitable for beginners and experienced miniaturists alike was originally published in Dolls House and Miniature Scene magazine. If you enjoy making things for your dolls house, why not buy yourself a copy of the magazine. Better still, take out a subscription so you never miss an issue. For fans of Facebook or Twitter, please use the buttons at the top of the page to share with your miniature loving friends.