If you’ve been following along, you know that I made a visit to our local Dollar Tree with the idea of creating fall home decor items on the cheap. Today, I am sharing the second in the series as I show you how I made a simple fall garland. This project turned out so cute that I smile every time I look at our living room mantel.

For this project, I started with the clip-on fabric pumpkins that came three to a package, using one package each of the gold, orange and green pumpkins. I also used one sprig of the orange and gold berries, one sprig of leaves, and one package of wired twine. Each of these items was $1.25 from the Dollar Tree, making the cost $7.50 plus tax.

Next, I used some fall inspired scrap book paper pages that I had from making place cards for Thanksgiving a few years ago. I measured the back side across the bottom to find center, then drew a line from each corner to make my banner shape. These pages came in a book with a piece at the top with a hole in the middle and a perforated edge that they used for display. I kind of liked the color variation, so I didn’t cut this portion off. Cost for the paper…$0, since I already had it. You could also use plain cardstock or construction paper with equally good results.

Next, I used some gold stick-on letters I had from a holiday swag I made in the past. You can see that post here: Back to Kindergarten… Luckily, there were still enough letters left to spell out F-A-L-L. I placed the letters on each of the banner pieces, trying to vary the colors. The letters are in lower case because I was missing an upper-case L. Sometimes you just have to work with what you have! Cost for letters…$0, since I already owned them. If you don’t have self-sticking letters, you could just draw out the letters using a gold pen or sharpie for a similar look.

Time to start clipping everything to the twine. This wired twine is really great because you can keep it coiled or straighten it out. Because it has a strong wire inside, it is very sturdy which makes it perfect for banners. One I had uncoiled the twine, I started clipping on the pumpkins, leaves and berries in between the four triangle pieces that spelled out fall.

For the items that didn’t have clips, I used some gold clips that come on my husband’s bags of Lion Hawaii coffee. Over the years, we have saved hundreds of these, and they come in so handy for chip clips, as well as craft projects such as this. If you don’t have small clips, all of these items could be directly glued to the twine using a hot glue gun or E6000 adhesive. I liked the ability to remove all of the clips after this season and perhaps try a different look for the Christmas holidays.

The last step was to attach the swag to our living room mantel. Instead of permanently installing the banner with a nail, I just put the ends under the stack of books that were already at each end of the mantel. The weight of the books worked great in holding the twine swag in place and will make for an easy removal when the season is over. Then it was just about centering the swag and moving the pieces around until they were spaced just right. This is where using the clips really helped because they just slid along the twine, making repositioning easier.

So, there you have it. A simple and adorable fall swag that adds a pop of autumnal colors to our living room, made almost entirely of Dollar Tree purchases. It isn’t always necessary to spend tons of money or time to add a seasonal touch to your home. By simply adding this swag and a pumpkin pillow to the couch, the room has an understated feeling of fall that we will enjoy throughout the season. Stay tuned over the next couple of weeks as I share two more Dollar Tree fall decorating projects, all made from my original $34 purchases. I have been amazed at what you can create with so little.

Good tidings,

Diane