I wanted to do a fresh cedar garland on a mantle I was decorating for a client. Luckily, my sweet little neighbor had some and it really needed pruning! She just got out of the hospital, so I traded her dinner for the cedar!!

Incidentally, Home Depot and Lowes sell a clump for about $15.99. But I wanted to save my client a little cash.

Using gloves to protect from the thorns, I cut the limbs off at nice angles.

Next I let them all soak in the tub so they would stay fresh longer. The tub was a really messy way to soak them, and I had to be careful not to let anything go down the drain! (Should’ve thought that through better!)

For the garland:

I wrapped an old artificial garland with lights and laid that on the mantle first, to add some height. I didn’t want to wind the lights through the cedar, so using the artificial garland was perfect!

Next I added the cedar boughs and covered the garland. The next layer was a glittery, snowy spray that my client found at Hobby Lobby, she also had some German stars that o intertwined on the front.

Then I added a final layer of garland to cover all of the wires and stems.

Lastly, I stuck glitter stems among the boughs to add a little more texture!

The white trees and snowy spray were found at Paul Michaels Co in Canton. The “peace” letters are actually stocking holders that we propped up on blocks. The jug and wire tree were flea market finds.

I did another cedar garland on her dining table, and created a table runner using sheet music. 

I did a similar cedar garland on my own mantle, but didn’t add the lights.

On my mantle I used some mossy stems under the cedar and tossed some white Pompoms on top.