On the 3rd Day of Christmas

Welcome to Day Three of the 12 days of Christmas with the Divas!

Well I could stay with the traditional ...'On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me 3 french hens...', but as I am not sure a french hen would make for good 'tucker'...
I am thinking I like the Aussie version of the 12 days of Christmas....

• On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me ..... A kookaburra in a gum tree
• On the second day of Christmas, my true love sent to me ....Two cockatoos, and a kookaburra in a gum tree
• On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me....Three parakeets
• Four great galahs.......
• Five opals black......
• Six 'roos a-jumping........
• Seven emus running.......
• Eight koalas clinging.........
• Nine wombats waddling........
• Ten dingoes dashing.......
• Eleven snakes a-sliding.......
• Twelve goannas going.......

but for now ... on the third day this Diva gives to you... Gorgeous Garlands!!

I am definitely not the owner of all ideas 'Garland' and, there are some great ideas out there in 'Blog Land' on making these very popular items.

I know these are a 'bit done to death' at the moment, but I have to say they appeal to me as they have all the elements I love about a craft project.

• Quick
• Not too many destructions...ooopps I mean instructions
• Using up your stash - BIG plus is when it uses up lots of different stash
• Shouts out 'handmade' to anyone and everyone
• Multiple uses
• Functional and pretty at the same time
• The 'kidlets' can help
• Get to use lots of different tools in my arsenal.. there I go again, I mean toolbox

Step 1

Raid your stash!!! Garlands can be made of just about anything you have on hand. 

For the gorgeous fabric and felt garlands pictured here, I loved the idea of using some of my very 'extensive' fabric stash. 

Handy Hint: When buying fabric look for ones that have elements you can cut out to applique on projects. 

Now cut out your fabric elements using scissors or your Cuttlebug/BigShot (I used my Spellbinder Nestabilities Circles for a nice clean edge on some of my elements).   Another good idea is to leave a border around the element (the white rim effect I call it) it gives that outline/border effect that looks so good.

Step 2 

As my fabric choice here was quite a 'fine' weave and fabric images are not double sided the next step was to cut out some felt circles to 'frame' the elements.  Again, I used my Cuttlebug/Bigshot and my trusty Spellbinder Nestabilities Circles (plain and scallop edges).

Step 3

Next you need to decide on the layering of your elements and the 'path' your garland will take.

I am a creature of habit and like sequence, so 2 x large, 1 x small, 2 x large, 1 x small. 

Step 4

Take you pile of elements to the sewing machine and using a medium straight stitch, lay down your first element and stitch down the centre.  Run your machine stitching off the edge to form a tail of thread (remembering to finish with your needle in the up position).  Move your element towards the back and then add the next one and keep stitching and adding your elements.

You now have a lovely inter-twined length of

all your lovelies ready to hang.

Handy Hint:  You can add a loop of ribbon at either/both ends depending on where you are going to string your garland.


But wait there is more ....

In this picture I have used the same technique only I punched out my circles with one of my trusty old punches - using up scraps of paper and then stitching them the same way.  I then used these to wrap around my parcel to finish it off with a festive feel ... this is like two pressies in one - the recipient gets to 'repurpose' the garland!

In this picture I used different shapes with my Cuttebug/BigShot - as birds are all the rage at the moment I couldn't resist an all bird garland.  Note the snowflake punch I have used on the larger birds to break up the image.

Last, but not least. I wanted to play with different texture and a very 'vintage' feel - so again back to the popular book pages and doillies (can you believe these cost me $1 at Vinnies and I got 60 flowers out of them - bargain)!

Note:  These garlands are strung togther with cotton twine.  I just cut one length and then using a 'zig zag' stitch on my machine just anchored each element to the string at different intervals.  The cotton string added to the vintage feel and gave another texture.

Hope you have enjoyed the 3rd day of the Diva's Christmas!

Cheers from Lizzie @ Embellees