Pine garland, the “silk” or “permanent botanical” kind can be *yawn* very boring.  Sometimes when people use pine garland they make me crazy.  They either don’t fluff it at all or spread it out so that it’s all laying flat. Yuck!  But pine garland done the right way, even the least expensive stuff, can look pretty good.  I’ll show you how you can make your garland, even if it’s garland you all ready have, look nice.

The first thing you want to do is fluff the garland.  Take it out of the wrapper, stretch it out and by handling each and every branch pull it this way and that so that you have some depth and dimension.  If it will be against a wall, for example, there should be “branches” coming out of the main body in at least three different directions.  Some branches will go up and down while there will also be some that point straight out toward you. 

If you are using one of the less expensive garlands (I know that Pat Catan’s has some that is only around $3 for a six foot length, and is pretty thin on branches) you might want to double it.  Even if you double it you’ve still only spent $6 for six feet of garland.  To double the garland lay one on top of the other and intertwine the branches to make it look thick and like it’s all one piece.  Wrapping some of the branches from one garland around the branches of the second will hold it all together too.

Now, let’s dress it up a bit with large floral picks made from a couple of smaller floral picks and some ribbon.

I’m not a big ribbon and bows kind of gal except at Christmas and even then it has to be used in the right way. (I don’t like PERFECT bows or great big huge ones) Guess I’m a snob like that!  You’ll only need 1 10 yard bolt for a 6 foot garland to make what I call half bows.  (Ready for a lot of pictures?)  Here we go.

Make one loop out of the ribbon pinching the ribbon together (thumb and pointer finger) where it meets.  If there is a right side and wrong side to the ribbon make sure the right side is facing out.

Give the ribbon a tight twist between your thumb and finger so that you see the right side of the ribbon again.

Make a second loop just a bit larger than the first.

Between your thumb and finger you should have the first loop, a twist and second loop and a twist.  Leave a 6-8 inch tail and cut it off.  You can either cut it off at an angle, straight across or dove tailed. 

Now you have a half bow.

Take a tape covered piece of floral wire and fold it loosely in half  and slip it in where your thumb and finger are holding the bow together.

Give it a tight few twists.  It’ll hold your bow and you can let go now.

Straighten out the two ends of wire so they are side by side.  You will use this to tape the half bow to a couple of  floral picks.

Floral tape (also called floral stem wrap) is green and sticks to itself (like electrical tape).  You have to gently pull it as you wrap and slightly overlap it to make it stick. As your hands warm it up it works better.

Take the stems of your two floral picks and place them side by side.  Beginning at the top start winding the tape around the stems.  Over lap as you go down the length of  the stems. 

(above: finished wrapping two picks together)

Next add the bow to the picks.

Lay the stem of the picks side by side with the wires from the half bow.  Wrap the length of the stem and wire to hold all three pieces together.

If you want your garland to be permanent you can dip the stems into hot glue and place it into your garland but if you want to be able to use something different next year you’ll just want to wrap some of the garland branches around the pick you made to hold it in place.

Do this several times until you have the garland as full as you want with the floral picks you made.  If you are new to this kind of crafting you may want to just lay the picks in the garland until you see how full or how far apart you want to space the picks.

It can be tricky to learn how to make loops and bows when you first start.  It takes practice! Don’t give up.  If you have a hard time figuring it out find a friend who will teach you.  Maybe I’ll even make a video about it some time to make it easier to figure out.  If you’d like to see a video about making a bow let me know.  If enough people are interested I will do it.

Happy Crafting!