Saturday, October 16, 2010

Autumn garland with book leaves.

As I promised in my previous post, here is the how to for that gorgeous autumn leaves garland on my TV cabinet, using inexpensive Dollar Store garlands and leaves cut from book pages. This is just the latest and greatest of many book page projects I've blogged about. The Pottery Barn catalog shows leaves cut from book pages in some of their layouts and this is an adaptation of that clever idea.

ACTUALLY, my daughter, Christy, made this for me last week while visiting. She had some time on her hands and asked me if I had any neat ideas for her. I had already bought several 6 foot garlands at the Dollar Store and away she went with the whole process, LOL! She made some cardboard templates of oak and maple leaves and cut them out of an old paperback book. We found she could cut 8 leaves at a time with her little scissors, stacking up the pages before cutting. The scissors worked much better than an X acto knife.

She took 10" lengths of florist wire and made a loop at one end. She used a glue stick generously on one leaf cutout, laid the looped end of the wire in between then topped it with a matching leaf cutout. Smoothing the glued leaves with a blunt object seals the edges and gives you lots of sturdy leaves to add to your garland.


Here is the first garland, using TWO Dollar Store garlands wired together with the book page leaves between each set of silk leaves. The florist wire in the paper leaves lets you curl them a bit for a nice look and the stem wire is long enough to wrap several times. You can add more book page leaves or less based on your own style.

I've hung two sets of these over my dining room windows and one set on my TV cabinet. I'm loving the way this looks against the blue curtains, the colorful boxes and the autumn arrangement sitting on top. I was going to list these in my Etsy shop, but you know what? I love them too much to sell them! Perhaps if I get enough garlands to replace them I will change my mind but for now....


I love the way they look in my October house. They are perfect for the season and I will leave them until my Christmas decor goes up after Thanksgiving. The white and black book page paper is a wonderful contrast to the bright leaves of the very inexpensive garlands. So there you have it....simple, creative and CHEAP. Win, win and win! Thanks, Christy, what do you want to make next? I have a couple more book page ideas kicking around in my brain and I'm sure you do, too.

I'll be linking up to the parties in my sidebar. Come check them out, they are always alot of fun!

22 comments:

  1. Gorgeous!! What a beautiful idea and cost-effective idea.

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  2. Really beautiful - you have a great eye for dressing things up in just the right way.

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  3. These are really great! adds just the right touch! Lezlee

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  4. What a great idea!!

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  5. Oh that is a pretty cool idea!
    Thank you for visiting my blog and for your lovely comment!
    Lovely greetings...

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  6. Great idea. This looks lovely. I'll have to head back to the dollar store now. Thanks for sharing your tips with us too.

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  7. So creative Ann, one of my new loves is chopping up old book! LOL

    Thanks so much for the sweet comment about my ribbon pumpkins and my up and coming anniversary, please join my blog to follow.

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  8. Ann,
    That garland is too sweet. Love the leaves made from book pages!!

    Thanks for coming by my place. If you make any flower nests I would love to see them and show my friends.

    blessings

    barbara jean

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  9. Great Job! I host a linky party here:

    http://tinyurl.com/upcycled18

    and would be honored if you wild like this tutorial up! What a great use for scrabble tiles!

    The book paper garland is simply brilliant!

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  10. Did I happen to mention that I LOVE this, had it bookmarked to do (with a shout out, of course), and just never got to it? This is really cute.

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  11. This is great, in fact I think I'll use the die cut machine at the school. Great idea, I love it.

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  12. Super cute idea!! Love the tutorial on glue and crackling. I've been wanting to try It forever and actually forgot about it until I saw your blog... also, Thank you for the sweet comment on my blog and I look forward to reading yours.

    Jennifer

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  13. This looks great...I love this idea! I've never thought to do anything like that with book pages. You have inspired me tonight :)
    Thanks for sharing this idea and thanks for stopping by and commenting on my the floral arrangement my mom helped me with!
    Anxious to check out more of your blog.

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  14. I love it! The book pages are such a fun addition! Thanks for Linking up to Topsy Turvy Tuesday's!

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  15. THANK YOU for sharing this wonderful project at our DIY CRAFT TUTORIAL LINKY PARTY. It's great.


    Rose
    http://www.FineCraftGuild.com

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  16. Love Love Looooove the paper leaves! Awesome!

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I love your comments and read every one. They let me know if I'm on a good track with my blog. Thanks for stopping by!

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