I love to spend the holiday season at home with my family, baking and making cute things! Now with online shopping, there is no reason to leave the house! Can you tell I am a homebody?? Furthermore, I love to grab some hot coffee, turn on the Christmas tunes, and get crafty. For instance, this week, I made a felt mistletoe DIY swag to hang in my home.Then, at night, watch all the Christmas movies, eat all the holiday goodies and play games with my family.
I remembered the green felt fabric that I bought from Joann’s craft store last month. My plan was to make a six foot felt leaf garland to drape over the fireplace mantle or door frame. I had seen one in a catalog, and immediately thought I can make that. Being creative can be a curse when you think you can make everything you see. Why buy it for $9.99, when you can make it for $38.23?! That’s me!
However, after an hour or so of cutting felt, my hands gave out! So, I quickly decided that I wasn’t going to cut out hundreds of leaves to make a garland. Therefore, I decided to make a DIY swag to hang instead. I think I love it even more than my original plan, because it is different than other garlands that I have seen. I wish I could say this is a quick DIY, but it does take a while to cut out felt leaves, so maybe combine crafting and Hallmark movies for this DIY project. Here’s how I made it!
First, cut your felt fabric into about 4 inch wide strips to make the felt easier to handle. Second, cut the shape of about a 3 inch mistletoe leaf into your fabric. Do this 25 times or more if you want your swag longer. Mistletoe leaves tend to be long, narrow with rounded ends. I just freehand cut each leaf, often using the one before as a template for the next. The second color of felt leaves should be cut slightly larger than the first set of colors.
You will need to cut a lot of leaves, probably 20-25 for this 18″ long swag. I cut about 10 extra of the lighter shade. Using a template for each one is too time consuming, unless you are a perfectionist. For example, in nature, no two leaves are exactly alike; so I let that mantra lead me. By the way, stiffer felt tends to cut easier.
Next, layer the two felt mistletoe leaves together. You can see that my leaves are not the exact same. When they are layered all together, you will not notice this. However, you want them to overlap and yet spread apart when they are glued together on the DIY swag. Add a dot of hot glue to the tops of both leaves on the stem ends. Squeeze the ends together so that the leaves attach and create a nice crease like the pic below. Make about 20-25 of these.
You can use any kind of ribbon as the base and hanger. I chose this leafy green ribbon from Joann’s Fabric. First, cut about 2.5 feet of ribbon. Second, make a3-4 inch loop at one end by folding the top of the ribbon over, gluing it to the back to adhere. Then, flip the ribbon over with the print side up to begin gluing the leaves. I used a hot glue gun and just a dot of glue to adhere the felt leaves. With individual light green leaves, I glued them down the ribbon in a staggered pattern.
After that, I took the bunches of mistletoe felt leaves previously glued together and added them to the swag. Just add a dab of hot glue to the back of leaves and start layering. I alternated the direction that the leaves went on the ribbon. Then, I filled in the empty spaces. Lastly, I took the white felt balls and glued them to the DIY swag in bunches of three and then individually.
Use the loop to hang. I chose to hang felt mistletoe DIY swag on my vintage sled to give it a more festive look. Consequently, the mistletoe swag looks cute next to the little artwork that I recently found! If you are feeling extra crafty, you can keep cutting, and gluing to make your swag into a long garland for the mantle. For me, I love how this felt mistletoe DIY swag turned out.
Thank you for stopping by the Cuter Tudor! I hope you pin this felt mistletoe DIY swag to your Holiday DIY board and come find me pinning away on Pinterest! Similarly, I have many cute Christmas inspiration boards from farmhouse decor to desserts and DIYs that we can make this holiday season. Most importantly, have a wonderful holiday season!
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