Fabulous!

WOW - absolutely stunning!!!

I wish I had a staircase to decorate. I'm going to do something inside on my FP and I'll use the fake garland I have in the attic. Did you use any kind of ties or wire to secure your greenery?

the lime green berry picks are quite real looking. Very pretty, nice job family!

zipdee do you and your helper travel?? My house is in need of Christmas decorating. Will you work for cookies and cocoa?

B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!! Bravo (clapping wildly!). It looks absolutely stunning.

Impressive.....just beautiful.

Haley

Really creative and lovely too ! You sure do have a knack for decorating all year long. Great job . c

If you don't mind - I'm soooo gonna borrow this! :-D

WOW! Beautiful, creative, what talent you have.

So beautiful!! Thanks for sharing your techniques. Love the birds : )

Your girls must have so much fun with you!

Well done! That is beautiful. I was thinking the same as squirrelheaven, your kids must think you are a pretty cool Mom.

I wouldn't even consider borrowing it...I'm stealing it outright!! My god woman you're amazing...and how did you know I was sitting in front of five huge trash bags of cheap garland? And that I have a yard full of evergreens!!! You rock my dear!!!!

Amazing! Love the cardinal.

Out of my way, igloochicken. I am going to get there first!

Brillant!!!

Simply wonderful ideas -- another one to steal these ideas here too!

Jan at Rosemary Cottage

Looks great! Enjoy the holidays!
Bonnie

Too many words to describe....fantastic, fabulous, stunning, ingenious, warm, homey, magazine cover worthy and on and on......

*Squeals with delight!!!*

I'm totally ripping this off too! The birds are just the BEST!!!

zipdee, that is absolutely beautiful!

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing with us exactly how you did it. :) There's no stopping me now - now that I know the secret!!!

Problem for me is I'd have to add on the expense to purchase a two-story home! But, it's very temping. It looks fabulous and I love that you and your DD did it together for just pennies. Just stunning!

I absolutely love it! Thank you so much for sharing. It's beautiful and frugal-- my favorite combo :)

Your garland is so pretty! I'm really glad you posted this; now I know how to "fix" my skimpy, cheapy garland :-)

Could you stop here too and do mine?!?
How fun!!!

Wow! Thanks for the pictures of inspiration! I'm not a fan of green on walls, but I really like your's. What color is it?

It's perfect, you have nice greens to pick from , great job !!!

WOW !!!!! How beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

I'm so happy you all liked this idea and a lot of you could use it! :) Please, I'd love to see pics of the garlands you all put together. The combos are endless depending on the greens you have access to and your decor. I think it's not only a fun, inexpensive, easy .. but also satisfying project. It's really neat to stand back and look at your progress as the garland plumps up! It it also works as well on mantles, flat surfaces and in wreaths. If the wreath is going to be in a windy area, then attaching the greens from the back with floral wire may be needed. I had wreaths sitting in sheltered areas, like the porch with the greens just poked in and works fine.

The cardinals are from the Dollar Tree also. I always shop there, especially for seasonal decorating. I spend time going through and thinking how things could be reworked to give more of a designer look to them. About 80% of my large tree ( in the red room ) ornaments come from there. I reworked some, left some as is, then added pretty glass ornaments for the rest .. it gave a nice look on a lower budget.

My DD's are a huge help to me decorating, they really enjoy it and it's a nice way to spend time together. :) They are all artistically inclined and are involved in the arts at school and in the community. This I think gives them great eyes for combining and decorating. Yesterday my youngest DD helped me cut the greens and then ditched me for a nice windy day and flying kites with friends. ;) My middle DD is the one on the stairs playing Santa's helper. My oldest DD sat in one of the living room chairs and hung out with us as she was doing homework. She was quality control, being my person that stands back and tells me if things need a fluff, tuck or readjustment.

Rjinga .. I don't wire anything in, unless it's going to be outside in a windy area. What I do with the garland is take the two different types, lay them out together, stand on one end and twine them together. The next step is to hang them on the spindles. I use zip ties, pull them super tight, then clip off the ends. Then I just poke and weave the greens in through the twined base, making sure to cover my zip ties with greens too. To take down, I clip my zip ties, grab the whole thing, bring it outside and shake the greens off the base garland into a large garbage bag. :)

CB & Loribee .. I've seen both of your absolutely beautifully decorated homes, you all don't need help from me.

Oakleyoak .. That green color started off as a Valspar Color made up in Sherwin Williams paint. The first go around the name was Hubbell House Tamarisk .. I put it up on the walls and it was a lot darker than I bargained for. So I brought it back down to Sherwin Williams and had them lighten and fiddle with the color until I was happy with it. I have a can around here some place with the code on it though, let me know if you'd like the code and I'll look for it for you. :)

How in the heck do you keep fresh cut greenery from dieing, shedding, and just plain falling off the branches?

I made the prettiest center piece last year, using some artificial berries, small poinsettias, and some other "stuff" I already had. Mixed in some real spruce and white pine, along with some long skinny cones from the spruce tree in my yard. Talk about a mess on the table - the skinny cones even dropped off these ugly little scaly droppings!

Tuesday

WOW! Guess what I'm doing with the fake garland above the cabinets? :)

It looks very, very elegant! I'm saving your photos. Didn't you have any issues with bugs/spiders? I brought a bunch of clippings in for the buffet and killed at least 10 spiders. Ick. I even shook them off before I brought them in! I swore never again. I need to get some trees planted in my yard!

Great idea and a beautiful outcome!
Diane

Beautiful! I am so jealous!

I did not know this trick until our wedding florist told me about it. We had seen a photo of a magnolia garland and wanted to copy it for our daughters wedding reception. I thought it would be very costly, but went ahead and asked the florist about it anyway. He said "simple...it won't cost you a thing!" The reception building owner already had the artificial garland (we just used one strand of garland - didn't need two) and I took cuttings from a friends ginormous magnolia tree. We wanted something simple, yet elegant. This is what the garland looked like.

A professional photographer took this photo.
{{!gwi}}

Unfortunately, I don't have enough evergreen to use from my new yard to decorate my home.

OMG! ...running to get my clippers! I discovered using zipties to hang my garland last year...another genius idea!So much easier.

Fabulous! And inspirational --

After seeing your wonderful results yesterday, I cut up all of my leftover Christmas tree trimmings and juiced up my tired-looking stair garlands. (I may also raid the yard for some berries and leaves today.) They can't compare to yours, but are SO much better than they used to be!

You are AMAZING, Zipdee!! I've been using the same idea for a few years now with the garland on my living room mantel, but it has never looked as wonderful as your stair's garland! The lime berries really do add a lot to it's realism. I love your use of the cardinals, too! Thanks to one of my pals over on another forum, I picked up 3 ceramic cardinals at one of the dollar stores in late October. I had no idea what I'd do with them . . . but now I do! I'm going to use them on my mantel. Thank you for the great idea!
Lynn

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drop this post. My youngest DD's birthday is today, so this past weekend it turned into party central around here. :) A big fun sleepover with all her friends, then family time while Daddy was home.

NHB .. That garland was gorgeous, the florist did an amazing job! How wonderful you all had access to a big ole magnolia tree. We have lots in our neighborhood, but none in our yard.

Lynn .. I'd love to see pics of your mantle with the cardinals! Since we live in NC, I've become very, very fond of them. We have three mating pairs that I feed and nest in our yards. I love when spring comes, we get to watch them raise their young.

Just Gorgeous. Nice tutorial too.

Chris