Merry Mantel

So this year I needed to go more modern Christmas and tone down the country Christmas that I've done for years. While I love the sentimental ornaments I pull out each year, I remembered how clausterphobic I felt with all the decorations. I need to de-clutter my Christmas and it's made me feel a little less stressful with having less around the home and taking up every inch of wall and table space. Less is more they say and I'm embracing it! I keep seeing all white & silver Christmas decorations and they just ooze glam. Throw in a touch of blue/turquoise and I feel like I'm finally an adult and less college-dorm. After putting up some fun items from Hobby Lobby on my mantel, it needed one more thing. That's when I decided to make a garland with fun papers.







I bought a 2" circle punch at Joann's, and found paper in silver, white and turquoise. 5 different papers in all. I wanted to make sure the back of the garland was just as pretty as the front incase it turned. Which it does. I carefully put two circles together, held on tight, and prayed I didn't sew a finger! After each circle was sewn, I continued on to the next circle. Carefully holding them so the front and back wouldn't slip. You really only get one shot at this if you're sewing to make it continuous. I thought about having a ribbon glued in between the papers if you were hesitant to sew. Same idea. It really wasn't hard to sew though. I took a piece of string and draped it on my mantel to see how long I would want it. Mine ended up being 90" long. And 5 pieces of 12x12" paper is more than enough. Some were only 8.5x11". The whole project took about 40 minutes from start to finish. Quick and easy and I'm ready to make more for birthday parties!





While my street art above the mantel isn't very Christmassy, it is the right color! And it does say, industrial glam doesn't it? Either way- I'm liking that the whole mantel only cost $65.