happy little garland

hi guys!  i'm popping in quickly tonight to share a quick and easy home decor project with you.  i made this a couple weeks ago for the Crate blog.  it was my first post for them using the new collections--have you gotten any of them yet?  they're full of beautiful things--pretty bows, colorful chipboard, gorgeous patterned papers, fun layered embellishments...i could go on and on.

while i can't wait to dive in head first to Flea Market, i just couldn't stop myself from using the wood shapes from Close Knit  first.  i am completely smitten with them, especially for fall!  the dark wood is rich and warm, and reminds me of toasty fires on chilly autumn days.  lo and behold, we actually had one of those yesterday.  it rained!  it was so nice to hear it coming down and to look out the window and see dark, gray skies instead of super-bright sunshine!

to make the garland, i picked out the shapes i wanted to use first.  i chose the boy and girl cameos to represent my 2 little sweethearts, Mr. Bagubian and Nemy-Lemons.  and since the two of them are so close to my heart, i also used hearts and the L-O-V-E cutouts.

next, i chose my papers.  i think the dark wood pairs beautifully with yellow so i stuck to mostly papers with that color in them.  i find the “Memories” chevron to be somewhat of a masculine pattern so i matted the boy cameo on top of it.  the feminine floral of “Seamstress” is oh so pretty for the little girl.  actually, picturing those flowers peeking out from underneath her is what kick-started this whole endeavor!  "Fabric" is one of my most favorite papers from Close Knit, given its allover delightfulness!  can i just tell you that i’m a hoarder sucker for every single yellow patterned paper Crate has ever released?!  it’s true.  last but not least, i went with "Needle & Thread" for the woven wheat-colored hearts.  it’s a wonderful light neutral to contrast with the dark wood.

i dug through my paper punches to find the best fit for each of the wood shapes, keeping in mind that i wanted a symmetrical line when the garland was all said and done.  medallions, hearts, scalloped ovals, and pointed labels worked beautifully here.  this is not a very big nor heavy piece and i wanted to keep it dainty so i used a long piece of gold thread, simply stitched through each paper shape.  {tip:  i doubled the stitch so the individual shapes would stay put and not slide up and down the thread.}

with that, my garland was complete.  in a short amount of time, and using just a handful of items, i have a sweetly simple piece that celebrates our family.   now all i have to do is pick a spot to hang it in my house...

and because i'm still feeling a little festive from my last post, here's a sneak peek at what's coming soon to the Etsy shop...

have a great weekend!