• 100 Days til Santa
  • Christmas Craft

    • Make and Create: Pretty Little Christmas Lantern Swag

    Oct 7, 2020
    Floral swags are a beautiful way to add decorative accents and festive cheer to many parts of your home. These simple floral arrangements can be draped from décor items such as lanterns, candlesticks and birdcages to take them from ordinary to extraordinary in a few easy steps. No matter your Christmas décor style - from feminine and elegant, to rustic or bright and fun, read on to find out how you can create, and use, a variety of lantern swags to seamlessly co-ordinate a staple white lantern with a range of Christmas décor styles. [gallery link="none" size="medium" ids="https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Rustic-Lantern-Swag-edited.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Snowy-Lantern-Swag-edited.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Fun-Lantern-Swag-edited-1.jpg|"]  

    Your Supplies List for Lantern Swag

    As there is not just 1 hard and fast way to create a floral swag, this is not a prescriptive list, but rather an indicative/suggestive list of things you could/might like to use.
    • A selection of sprays and/or picks in varying lengths, textures and finishes to suit your decorating theme
    • A selection of co-ordinating ribbons and bows
    • You might also choose to include an ornament or tree decoration piece for extra detail
    • Something to secure everything and hold your lovely creation all in place – cable ties, pipe cleaners, florist wire, hot glue gun
    • An lantern, or your choice of décor piece that you are going to dress to impress
    [gallery link="none" columns="4" size="medium" ids="https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/PR7FDC1-1.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/8552.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/8521.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/8.jpg|"]   For the Pretty Little Christmas Snowy Lantern Swag we used a Mixed Pine and Cone Snowy Christmas Spray, White Lantern with Flameless LED Candle and Large White Glitter and Feather Bird Clip Ornament with a selection of blue and silver ribbons. Depending on the style of swag you are creating, you could add other embellishments such as butterflies, bells or tree decorations. Picks are perfect for this type of craft project as you can deconstruct them, use the pieces that you want/need for your swag and then make use of the other pieces as part of other décor around your home. [gallery link="none" columns="4" size="medium" ids="https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/2PC-White-Butterflies-lifestyle2-P.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Bush-Christmas-Antique-Red-Bell-Square.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Christmas-Joy-Brass-Bell-Wreath-Decoration-Square.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Candy-Cane-Christmas-Burgundy-Glitter-Bead-Christmas-Spray-Square.jpg|"]

    Here’s How to Do It

    Step 1 If you are using more than one floral spray, like we have in the Rustic and Fun lantern swags, you need to gather your selected sprays and arrange them so that you have the longest spray at the back and the shorter ones at the front. Adjust them to look like they are one spray by separating some stems from the spray at the back, bringing them forward, and entwinning them between the foliage and decorations of the front picks and sprays. Particularly for a lantern swag, it’s a good idea to have longer pieces of the sprays at the bottom and shorter ones at the top. This gives it a cascading look. [gallery link="none" size="medium" ids="https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_2058.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_2059.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_2053.jpg|"] Conveniently, the Pretty Little Christmas Snowy Lantern Swag has been created using just one floral spray so you’ll only need to do some minor adjusting to the pieces to have it looking how you’d like. Step 2 Once you’ve got everything in place, using either a cable tie or pipe cleaner, secure the pieces together. You might need to do some extra adjusting to get things sitting just right once everything is secured in place. [gallery link="none" columns="2" size="medium" ids="https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_2125-e1602034822942.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_8911-e1602035085771.jpg|"] For an extra professional finish, you might like to use floral tape to cover the join. Step 3 Next, create a gorgeous bow using your selection of complimenting wired ribbons and secure it to the swag (either with wire, pipe cleaners or hot glue) at the same point where you have joined your sprays. [gallery size="medium" ids="https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_2055.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_2047-e1602035496702.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_2057-e1602035507424.jpg|"] Securing your pieces with wire gives you the option to dismantle and re-use, refresh or reconstruct your swag in various combinations at another time. Hot glue is, of course, a more permanent solution if you don’t intend to separate the pieces later on. Step 4 Now it’s time to attach your swag to the lantern. The Snowy Lantern Swag, using the Mixed Pine and Cone Snowy Christmas Spray, has a very convenient loop on the end that slips neatly over the handle of the lantern. [gallery size="medium" ids="https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_1312-e1602035668255.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_2041.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_5407-e1602035695718.jpg|"] If you have combined multiple floral sprays and picks to create your swag, secure the arrangement to the top of the lantern with a pipe cleaner. Depending on the structure of your arrangement, you might choose to attach the bow to the florals before you secure it all to the lantern. Or it might work best to attach the florals first, and then add the bow afterwards. [gallery link="none" size="medium" ids="https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_2048-e1602035780854.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_2049-e1602035767188.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/IMG_2009.jpg|"] Once the florals and bow are in place, attach any other embellishments if you are going to add them. The Large White Glitter and Feather Bird Clip Ornament has a clip affixed to the bottom that makes it super easy to attach to the rest of your swag, or directly to the lantern. Finally, adjust and arrange each of the pieces and foliage so that they all sit just as you want them to on your lantern. As a safety precaution, we recommend you use LED candles as opposed to naked flames with your lantern and swag. [gallery link="none" size="medium" ids="https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Rustic-Lantern-Swag-1.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Snowy-Lantern-Swag-1.jpg|,https://www.thechristmascart.com.au/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Fun-Lantern-Swag-1.jpg|"]   You’ve now got yourself a gorgeous feature décor piece to be proud of. Depending the theme and pieces that you’ve chosen, you might even be able to enjoy it for even longer and use it to decorate your home all year long. Or now that you know how to do it, get busy creating various combinations to change out and give your lantern a refreshed look whenever you like. Remember too, that swags are not just limited to lanterns. Why not experiment with gorgeous floral swags throughout your home? You could add them to lamps (be careful not to place them too close to the bulbs so they don’t overheat of course), over and around door entrances, in the kitchen on the rangehood, or at the table on chair backs or with other décor pieces to create a gorgeous table centrepiece. We hope that you feel inspired to get a little creative and brighten your Christmas décor with some festive floral lantern swags. Get everything you need for Christmas craft and decorating in our online store. Check out the Inspiration Gallery for plenty of design ideas and themes to stir your inner Christmas decorator.
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