Glitter Pom-Pom Garland

Recently I've read (and noticed) that mainstream retailers seem to be catching on to the "homemade" bug that's bitten so many people across the country recently, which I think is in no small part due to the huge followings of craft, design, and decor blogs which produce so many amazing ideas. Open up the pages of your favorite catalog and you'll see Christmas 2010 decor includes a sizeable amount of paper garlands, felt wreaths and knit ornaments.

I admit, I loooove a good homemade holiday decoration. It feels so cozy and vintage.

A couple years ago, we spent Christmas with one of my sisters and we decorated our joint Christmas tree with a homemade paper garland. It gave me a serious case of the warm fuzzies, and I was hooked.

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That crazy tree is a Douglas Fir, by the way. A most fabulously shaped sort of tree if you ask me!

Anyhoosies. I was hooked on the homemade stuff, so this year my sister and I stumbled across glitter pom-poms in a craft store and it was love at first sight.

To make my pom-pom garland, I started with all the necessary tools:  a giant bowl of pom-poms and thread to string them on.

I was going to use upholstery thread but my sister revealed that she had used a strand of embroidery floss (all 6 threads) and I was sold! (Remember how I said fabulous ideas -- and good looks, of course -- ran in my family?)

I cut a piece of embroidery floss that was roughly 9 feet (108 inches) long, made a loop at the end then tied a knot.

I started my garlands this way so that I could string them together on the tree by threading a pom-pom from the next garland through the end of a loop. I'd rather make several shorter garlands than one giant to-the-moon-and-back garland that would inevitably get tangled beyond repair.

Next, I threaded the other end of my string through a needle and stabbed my first pom-pom. It was oddly relaxing, stabbing pom-poms.

I tied a little knot in the floss to keep the pom-pom in place, and then tied another knot a little bit down the string to hold the next pom-pom in place. See my helpful diagram with invisible knots below:

Then the fun began. After ever pom-pom was strung, I would just tie another knot an inch or two down the string and stab another pom-pom.

As an aside, one little knot won't really hold the pom-pom in place if you grabbed it and pulled hard. I considered tying two knots, but realized quickly that it would be too much work... I'm all about cute results quickly, as in yesterday. The thickness of the embroidery floss does help to hold the pom-poms in place, so they're not sliding around or anything... and that's good enough for me!

Umm, cutest thing ever? I think it just might be. My 9 feet of string resulted in a roughly 8-foot finished garland. Can't wait to make a bajillion more of these cuties. I'm putting them on my Christmas tree this year, but they'd be cute anywhere!

Since my tree isn't up yet, take a look at what my sister did with some of her pom-poms:

She made felt mittens for the garland ends, and strung it around her bathroom mirror.

Glitter Pom-poms! The possibilities are endless. Go make a garland.

PS. Squee! So excited to be so *superduper* close to 100 followers... celebratory giveaway coming soon!

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