DIY Personalized Tree Garland

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So four years ago I had seen the cutest garland in the Pottery Barn catalog. I knew I couldn’t afford it nor did I want to pay what they were asking. I’m a cheapo! I knew I could totally knock it off. I used items I had at home so it cost me nothing. Instead of “Happy Holidays” I decided to use “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. I have used that garland ever since but I decided I wanted one that had a little more meaning and had more to do with the true meaning of Christmas.

Here is Pottery Barn’s version:

Here is the one I made:

This is a DIY to help you make your own personalized tree garland. And I promise it will cost you next to nothing!

I googled the exact lyrics of Silent Night and copied and pasted it into a word document. I picked the font I wanted and enlarged it so that there were only two lines on the page. The font I used was French Script at 150.

Next, you want to cut it into strips.

I cut them in half and then lined them up to see where I needed to trim to make them all the same size. It will all depend on your font, so just play with it. I’m sure you could figure it out with good ole’ math but ain’t nobody got time for that.

I tea dyed mine to give it a more rustic look. I just went into my cupboard pulled out what I had. I tested it out and decided to go with the Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Herb Tea.

You might be thinking why I didn’t just print it on aged paper; which you totally can! This is an option. I like tea dying because it gives it that wrinkled, aged look rather than being stiff paper. It’s also free! I didn’t have to pay a dime to make this.

I let the tea bag sit in water for a bit to get the color out. You will probably go through 3 or 4 tea bags. I put them on cookie sheets so that I could stack them while they were drying and move them out of the way.