HOW TO STYLE A HOLIDAY MANTLE GARLAND LIKE A DESIGNER

hello everyone my name is Jennifer Davenport I'm an interior designer educator and store owner and in today's video I'm going to share with you how to decorate a mantle for the holidays before we get started make sure you subscribe to this Channel and hit that Bell it'll tell you when I have a new video out and also go follow me on Instagram at Jennifer decorates before we get started if you're somebody who loves Christmas I have a Christmas course in this Christmas course I'm going to teach you everything about Christmas design even the business side of it so if you love Christmas and you would love to do Christmas designing for others and make money doing it then this course is for you so how does it work well typically your very first Christmas job will run about $500 and your business will snow ball from that point on people will see the designs you did when they have their Christmas party or maybe you did a mailbox swag and everybody in the neighborhood is like H who did that every year your business will grow and grow we did a Christmas job this year that was $10,000 so the course is pre-recorded and once you purchase it it's yours so maybe next year you're like o what did Jennifer say about that you just go back and watch it and another thing you can make payments on this course it is $200 you you will get that money back with your first Christmas design so where do you find my course you can go to Jennifer Davenport courses or I'll leave a link in the description of this video I am in my store and I am going to create a Christmas mantle piece I'm actually going to sell it but I want to show you how do I do that how do I put it together step by step let me give you a few tips before we get started into the design cuz that'll make things a lot easier number one when you are wanting to put put your Garland on the mantle especially if you're swagging it like I'm going to do in this design you need to make sure that that Garland is secure on the mantle if you have a wood mantle I have one at home that's really old so Scott doesn't mind if I put a little nail in it but another thing you can do is a very large command hook going backwards so that when you put that Garland in it hooks into that command hook very easy another tip is this I don't know if you know this or not but garlands are on the end typically we'll have see this little hook right here and that's how you can hook each Garland in whether you're doing a mantle or if you're doing a staircase it makes it a lot easier now when you're getting ready to put your lights in you need to really take the time it is not fun in fact I hate doing it but you really need to take the time to tuck in the lights so that you don't see some of the connectors and so much of the wire one last tip if you're building a house have your Builder put an outlet on your mantle or on the side whether your fireplace is inside or outside so that you have a place to plug in your Christmas [Music] lights another thing too is while you're tuing these lights in take a step back back and make sure you can see all of the little bulbs evenly throughout the Garland also when you're going through your Garland fluff it out as big as possible I'm going to be adding a lot to this Garland but maybe you're keeping your Garland more minimal so get it fluffed out it'll look much better for this mantle designed I'm going to create a large bow right here and a large bow on the other side and I'm going to put other fillers in here I'm also going to hang some wicker Bells so I'm going to start with that first I have these three adorable wicker Bells all different sizes and I'm going to just wire them together and then attach them to my Garland now by the way all of the items I'm using today are things you can find in my store so if you're in Tennessee and near Nashville come see me [Music] so to attach these bells I used floral wire 18 gauge best gauge to use and I wanted the littlest one to sit kind of on top but when I wired it to the Garland I did not just wire it to a loose Branch I don't want it to fall I actually wired it to that Center thicker wire of the Garland and I'm ready to do the other side here are the two ribbons that I'm going to use in its design beautiful gold and a mocha brown and then a little bit smaller of a ribbon in this beautiful Dusty blue you may have seen this in my last video I added this to a tree I love it I'm going to start by making four loops and I'm going to make pretty big Loops pinch in the Middle with your fingers I know my hands look like I got in a cat fight um but keep your Loops the same size that's key to a beautiful bow and there's the fourth Loop I'm going to take that plural wire and wire it together and attach it to my Garland and then I'll trim the tails got to bring it in here and actually I'm going to attach it to the bells cuz I've got them securely hooked to the [Music] Garland going to trim the Tails I call it kite tail but one of my subscribers said they're also called fishtail so whatever you want to call it follow fold it in half and you're going to cut from the fold down or in this case I'm going to hold my scissors and cut up beautiful good pair of scissors cuts your Ribbon straight for the next tail I'm not going to do it even I'm going to make it just a little bit longer folding in half and cutting towards the fold beautiful now to do the blue I'm going to do smaller Loops because I really want that big ribbon the larger ribbon to show and so my Loops will be a little smaller kind of take a look make sure you're even and then keep going and one more now for this one I'm going to take the ribbon and I'm going to create a little teeny Loop in in the middle pulling it a little tighter that way when I use the wire to secure it you're not going to see it so bring your floral wire in apron is so handy when you're doing Christmas apron with pockets and bring that wire and again twist it you really really want to get this as tight as possible and then I'm going to attach this to the Garland [Music] all right fluff your bow get that centered right beautiful thing about working with wired ribbon you can just shape it and it stays in place all right I am going to trim the Tails pull that tail under there and for this one I'm going to do it different I'm just going to do it at an angle a little bit shorter and same thing with this one at an angle okay now I'm going to do the same thing on the other side [Music] you could leave it just as it is it's beautiful but I love to add a lot of picss and I'm going to give a little bit of a snow look to this by adding some pics that have snow on them so I'm going to secure the little branches that I do put in here with a little bit of floral wire both because I'm selling it and I want people to be able to store it easy and it won't fall apart but you could do that as well if you're worried about it coming [Music] part when you're adding your stems to your Garland don't just stick it in and kind of leave it there take your Garland and pull some of the stems through it this is what gives a more natural and realistic look wo it's kind of woven into your Garland now once you've hit that center point of your Garland it's time to switch directions with your stems all of my stems are going this way once I get to the middle they now all need to go that way next I'm going to add these gold snowy pine cones now even though I have a whole stem what I'm going to do is I'm going to clip off little branches and this is one of the things like if you're out shopping um at a craft store they'll have the aisle in the floral aisle they're long stems then there's pics so you could do either one but sometimes you get more bang for your buck when you purchase a long stem so I'm just going to clip a few of these pieces and I'm just going to start tucking it in all throughout the Garland one of the things that will make your bow and whether you're using Bells whatever you're using but look a lot better is see we have a little bit of a gap in there when you find a small stem and you tuck that into that Gap what it does it not only hides the hole but it also marries the bow more into the bell and it just looks so much more [Music] beautiful so just like with the snowy stem once you've reached that half point on your Garland it's time to flip the direction to go the other way the last stem I'm going to add is the leaf stem it has a little bit of glitter on it and I'm just going to again just kind of put it through the Garland if your Garland has pine cones attached to it they have attached those pine cones with wire utilize that so I've just stuck the stem in here and see this pine cone is wired so I'm going to take that pine cone and go around that stem and that will keep that stem in place now don't be afraid to pull and tug on your stems gently but they're wired too and that way when you're putting them in that Garland pull on them let them spread out again pull that Garland back through so that it all looks like it's mingled together [Music] naturally so the last thing I'm going to add are beautiful glass [Music] icicles and don't forget when you're putting your icicles on don't hook them to your stems they might fall off make sure you hook them to the actual branches of your Garland [Music] n [Music] all right I've got more Christmas videos headed your way and I hope you have a wonderful day [Music]