Positively Splendid {Crafts, Sewing, Recipes and Home Decor}

Handcrafted. Splendidly.

Lighted Flower Garland Tutorial

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July is the advent of the birthday season in our family, starting with my birthday yesterday (a truly fabulous day – stay tuned for more on that later this week!) and continuing on from there with at least one birthday during each of the months through the end of the year. In honor of these special days, I thought it would be fun to put together a garland to adorn our mantel. Constructed with a strand of twinkle lights, I love the festive feel it gives to our home!

Lifestyle Crafts is unveiling a new line of dies for their Epic Cutting Tool this week that I was fortunate enough to get to try, and the moment I received them, I knew they would be perfect for this project. The Possibilities line is a super fun, highly versatile line of nesting dies ranging in size from .25 to 5.75.” Whether your interest is card making or home decor or anything in between, these dies will be a great addition to your crafting arsenal.

Let’s talk about how to put these dies to use to make a festive lighted flower garland, shall we?

For this project, you will need…

Lifestyle Crafts Epic Die Cutting Tool
Nesting Lace Circles and Nesting Spray Dies
Assorted Coordinating Patterned Papers and Cardstock
Craft Knife
10-Light Battery-Powered Strand of Twinkle Lights (I purchased mine in the wedding section at Hobby Lobby)
Adhesive Runner
Letter Stickers
Ribbon
step 1 / Cut out flower shapes in three descending sizes from your cardstock and patterned papers. You will need 10 flowers of each size. To do this, lay your dies, cutting side up, on your cutting platform, and place your paper on top. Cover with your self-healing cutting mat, and run everything through your machine. (For more details on this process, head here for a full lineup of video tutorials using the Epic machine.)

step 2 / Using your craft knife, carefully cut a small “x” directly at the center of each flower shape. Make sure your cuts aren’t too long – about 3/8″ long for each cut is probably about right – to ensure the flowers will fit properly onto your string of lights later on. Take each flower shape and carefully make a fold where each of the petals meet, as shown, to give everything added dimension.
step 3/ Stack your prepared flowers in groups of three – one large, one medium, and one small. Starting with the largest piece and ending with the smallest, slide your stacked flower groupings onto the lights on your strand. Repeat this step until each light on your strand is adorned with a stacked flower.
step 4 / Cut out scalloped circles in two descending sizes, one circle in each size for each letter of the sentiment you want your garland to display. Layer your smaller circles on top of your larger circles. Adhere each set together using your adhesive runner, and then place your letter stickers spelling out your desired message on each set, as shown. Cut 4-5″ lengths of ribbon, and thread a length through the top scallop of each circle. Use the ribbon to tie your circles to the wire of your strand of lights to spell out your sentiment or message. Tie other various pieces of ribbon to your garland to conceal any sections of visible wire from your light strand.
You are finished!

For some of the flower layers in my garland, I used silver metallic cardstock. I love the way those pieces reflect the light of the garland!

I am so excited to announce that all Positively Splendid readers are eligible for a 20% discount on Lifestyle Crafts products when you shop on their site, simply by entering the code
SPLENDID
at checkout! The products I used today are just some of the many marvelous goodies they have available, and at 20% off, they are a terrific value!

I hope everyone’s week is off to a marvelous start!

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Linking this to…
Skip to My Lou
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Today’s Creative Blog
Tip Junkie
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Somewhat Simple
Tatertots and Jello

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Comments

  1. Amanda says

    This is one of the best things I have seen in ages, love it! Thinking this would look great as a Christmas decoration, thanks for sharing!

  2. Leasa says

    So very cute. I love this idea and for those people that don’t have the Epic die cutter they could use their Cricut or Silhouette. Again so cute!

  5. June Scott says

    Happy Birthday! love the garland, great idea to use the lights… I like that this could be done by hand for those of us who don’t have the fancy “epic”! Thanks for the inspiration, Amy!

  8. Kara says

    This is such an awesome idea Amy! I’m thinking it would also be fun with poinsettias for Christmas. You are amazing!

  17. Leslie says

    Love this…it’s so pretty and fun! I bet I could do that with my Silhouette! Thanks for the great inspiration!

  24. Crystal says

    Oooooooooooooooooooooooh my gosh this is GORGEOUS!! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! Saw it at the end of your post today and just had to go hunting the tutorial! Thanks for sharing!!