Dress up Your Mantel with a Pine Needle Garland

While this string of pine needle clusters looks time-consuming, it's much quicker to make than a traditional garland, is more unique, and uses very little fresh material. And if you already have pine trees in your yard, it's mostly free!

What you'll need:

• Pine needles
• Copper wire (26-gauge is best)
• Length of leather, ribbon, or twine

How to make it:

1. Strip the pine needles from their branches, adjusting the amount for how long you would like your garland to be. For a garland like this one, you'll need about 5 to 10 pine needles per cluster, but larger clusters or altering big and small clusters could be fun, too; don't feel limited to make the design uniform!

2. String together small clusters of pine needles using wire (26-gauge works well, as it is easy to twist tightly and is not easily seen). Wrap the wire twice around the tops of the needles where the sappy stem part is, and then twist the whole cluster once to secure tightly.

Leaving about a 1/2-inch of wire between each group of needles, continue this process until you reach your desired garland length.

3. To attach your wired needles to leather cord or ribbon, simply weave the cord in and out of the garland between clusters—then flip each cluster over the leather once to lock it into place.

Hang by the chimney (or anywhere) with care!

What else do you do with an excess of pine needles this time of year? Let us know your craft ideas in the comments.