MAKE NATURAL DECORATIONS... FOR LESS

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Instructions:

Makes one 6-foot garland

1. Cut three 7-foot pieces of baling twine. (Your garland will end up being 6 feet in length—the 7-foot twine allows for knots in the ends and for your twine shrinking a bit during braiding.) Knot all three pieces together at one end.

2. Find a hook or a nail in your wall to hang the twine knot from. Then braid the three pieces of twine until you get to the end. Tie a knot in the end. Trim excess twine off both knots and remove from the nail.

3. Take the Spanish moss and stretch the mass evenly the entire length of your braided twine. Place the braid in the middle, on top of the moss. A foot at a time, take your glue gun and apply glue to the front and back of the twine and hold the moss on for a minute. (Careful, watch that you don't get a bum from the glue while doing this—you may want to use gloves.) Continue gluing until the whole length of twine is covered. Now you have a firm base on which to attach your greens. (If you used one piece of twine and no moss, your garland will twirl in a circle when you go to hang it.)

4. Gather your artemisia, white cedar, and white pine. (Just bring the buckets of greens to the table where you're working and pull out as needed, patting dry to keep water off other materials.) Starting with the artemisia, cut three 4-inch pieces off the ends of the bunch and wrap once around tightly with a 7-inch piece of wreath wire. You should have two long ends sticking out of either side.

You will need 35 each of these bunches of artemisia, white cedar, and white pine to cover your garland base. You may either wrap all bunches in the beginning or wrap each one as you go along—it's your choice.

5. With some or all bunches wired, place a white cedar bunch over one end of the moss braid and wrap two wire ends tightly around the braid until all the wire is wound. Make sure you wrap as tightly as possible or your bunches will swing loose: You're working toward a firm, neat garland. Then take a wired artemisia bunch, place it one-quarter inch past the first wired cedar bunch, fan slightly to the right and attach. Take a white pine bunch, fan it slightly to the left, and attach the wire a little past the artemisia. (You'll soon get a good gauge of how much space to leave between bunches; too much distance between bunches and you'll notice gaps.) All bunches should be facing the same direction.

6. Continue wiring bunches, alternating the artemisia, white cedar, and white pine until you reach the end of the garland. (You may feel as if you'll never finish but I usually end up being pleasantly surprised by how quickly the winding goes).

7. At the end, wire one bunch over the knot, working in the opposite direction you've been going in up till now—this should make both ends of your garland look the same.

8. Find that nail you used for braiding and hang your garland from one end. Stand back and check for any holes or places you might want to trim back a little. Holes are easily filled by taking a piece of green, gluing the end, sticking it into the hole, and making sure it's secure to the braid.

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