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DIY Merry Christmas Garland with Craft Foam placed on the christmas tree

DIY Merry Christmas Garland with Craft Foam

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Making your own holiday decorations is easy, inexpensive, and so fun! This easy DIY Merry Christmas Garland craft project decorates walls, Christmas trees, and wreaths. Best of all, the kids can help you make it.  Learn how to make one of your own with this step-by-step tutorial.
Category Christmas, DIY & Craft
Topic Christmas craft, Christmas decor
Keyword diy merry christmas banner, diy merry christmas garland, merry christmas banner, merry christmas garland
Prep Time 15 minutes
Crafting Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Pieces 2 pieces
Author Camila Rojas
Cost 5

Equipment

  • Glue gun
  • scissors
  • Pencil
  • Ruller {if needed}
  • A cutting machine –Silhouette Cameo or Cricut.
  • X-acto knife *optional

Ingredients

  • Glitter craft foam {large sheet}
  • Plain paper
  • Cord ribbon, or twine {I used baker’s twine}

Instructions

STEP 1: DESIGN THE GARLAND

  • The first thing we need to do here is choose the font you want your garland to be made with. I chose IFC Insane Rodeo for this project.
  • If you don’t have a cutting machine, you can work this step on your Word, PowerPoint, Canva, or whatever app you know how to use and work the letters there in the size you need them for your garland. Then Print them.
  • Then using my Silhouette Studio I set it up so it would fit in a letter sheet.
  • You can avoid cutting twice the repeated letters since you can just repeat them on the craft foam. I missed that on the Merry word but fixed it on the Christmas word.

STEP 2: CUT THE DESIGN

  • Sent to cut using the plain paper setting and adjusted the blade to recommended number.
  • If you printed your design then cut your letters with scissors and/or craft knife.

STEP 3: TRACE THE LETTERS ON THE CRAFT FOAM

  • Once all the letters are cut, use the letters as stencils and start tracing them on the back of the glitter craft foam.
  • Make sure you mirror your letters as you are working on the back of the foam.
  • Count how many of the same letters you need so you trace them on the foam.
  • Like I had to make 3 “R”, 2 “M” and 2 ”S”. Depending on your chosen words you might have to adjust accordingly.

STEP 4: CUT YOUR CRAFT FOAM LETTERS

  • Then with a sharp pair of scissors start cutting your letters.
  • Well, what I did was use a craft cutter (or x-acto knife) for the longest straight part of each letter like in this “T” and then used the scissors I cut the round parts.
  • Cut all your letters.

STEP 5: ASSEMBLE YOUR MERRY CHRISTMAS GARLAND

  • Get your cord and organize your letters so you won’t misplace any letters.
  • On the back of your letters right a few millimeters from the top put a few dabs of hot glue.
  • Be careful here if your glue gun gets really hot it might damage your foam so make some tests on a small piece first. I recommend low-heat hot glue for this project.
  • In my case, my gun doesn’t get that hot. Hot enough to melt the glue but not to damage my foam. If yours is too hot then I suggest using another kind of glue like UHU for instance.
  • Leave about 8 inches of the cord before starting to glue it to your letter.
  • Leave about 1 inch and then glue the next letter.
  • Remember you are working on the backs so you need to be careful not to place letters wrong.
  • I made each word on a separate thread just to have some freedom when placing it on the tree. But if you will put it on your mantel or a wall, for example, you can make both words on one single thread.
  • the Merry Christmas Garland finished and ready to be placed
  • There you go! Ready to be hung!