DIY Magnolia Leaf Garland
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How to make a beautiful DIY magnolia leaf garland with fresh magnolia leaves to hang in your home for the Christmas holiday.
Are you ready for Christmas yet?
I have to confess that all of my decor is up and my first handmade Christmas decor is complete.
I made a fresh magnolia leaf garland for our big kitchen window, to go with our DIY magnolia leaf wreath on the front door.
This old casement window is one of the reasons why I love our little cottage so much.
It lets in so much light and the view of the woods next to the house is beautiful. There’s nothing like it.
Anyway, last year I wanted to do something special to decorate our big kitchen window and bought a beautiful live garland.
I loved it but it was expensive and, of course, it didn’t last long. (you can check out last year’s holiday kitchen, here).
This year I wanted window garland again but I wanted to try using fresh magnolia leaves.
I’ve used them in my decor before and they always dry beautifully so you can keep them a bit longer.
I looked online and the prices for a magnolia garland were way more than I was willing to spend.
Our window is 8 foot long so we need something that’s about 13 feet in length.
Eeek…that equals a lot of money.
Not giving up on my plan, I started looking into making my own.
I don’t have a magnolia tree in my yard but I do have plenty of neighbors that have them and they were very generous.
Even if you don’t have a generous neighbor with a magnolia tree, you can find them online.
Yup, you can even buy a box of fresh magnolia leaves on the internet.
You can get a box of around 350 for right around $50 (I checked).
I’ve never done this kind of craft before but figured out a plan and, as soon as they were picked, Roger and I set to work wrapping the magnolia leaves.
Supplies to make a DIY Magnolia Leaf Garland
- fresh magnolia leaves (we used about 325 for a 13′ long garland)
- floral wire
- natural vine covered craft wire
- wire cutters
- work gloves
This was really easy to do but it did take some time (about 2 hours total with both of us wiring leaves together).
First I used the wire cutters to cut the craft wire to length, I needed 13′ for our big window.
Then I cut 3-4″ pieces of the floral wire to wrap the leaves. We needed a lot because our garland is so long.
After all the wire was cut we started wrapping 3 leaves together by the stem using floral wire. This trio, and all the others we wrapped, will be the main part of the garland.
We needed a lot of trios so we wrapped as much as we could before we started to string them.
How to string a magnolia leaf garland
Once we got a good pile going, Roger continued wrapping while I started attaching each trio to the covered craft wire.
There was no measuring involved. I just started attaching them so that the stems all faced one way, about 1 1/2″ apart.
The goal was to hide the stems and wire.
You’ll notice that this is a flat garland, meaning that there is only one pretty side.
I would have loved to do both sides but it would have been difficult to hang it in the window (and Roger would have killed me 😉 ).
I didn’t wear gloves to do this but I recommend them, if you can. The floral wire really did a number on my fingers.
A little tip about the natural covered craft wire I used.
Roger wanted me to use cotton string we already had but, with that big expanse and the weight of the leaves, it probably would have stretched and drooped.
I thought it would be wiser to use the covered wire and I was really glad that we did. It was really easy to use and there’s no worry about it drooping.
I would have liked it to be a bit fuller but I love how it turned out (and that it was free).
Maybe next time I’ll put my trios closer together and experiment with using the top and underside of the leaves.
They’ve already started to dry and turn color. That’s what I love most about magnolia leaves.
More magnolia leaf DIY projects
- DIY Magnolia Leaf Wreath (and there’s a video).
