Tuesday on the blog, I shared instructions on making a wreath using vintage book pages, and today, I’m going to walk you through the steps to make a festive garland and decoupaged holiday message. Both of these projects are very easy, and could be changed to suit your personal decor style.

Vintage Paper Garland

• Supplies:
• Vintage book pages
• Hole Punch
• Twisted Jute Garden Twine
• Cardboard and pencil for making your pattern

While I contemplated cutting snowflakes or ornament shapes for this garland, ultimately I wanted this to be not only quick and easy, but to have a simple aesthetic. The 2″ circle design that I decided on was all of those things. I made three 5′ garlands in about 15 minutes.

Design and cut your pattern out of cardboard.

Trace your pattern onto the book pages. Fit as many on one page as possible to make less work of it. I traced the circle onto the bottom of one page, then stacked four pages on top of eachother, because my pages were a very thin paper. Then I folded the pages into thirds and cut out my circle. I was able to get twelve circles out of one cut.

Fold your circles in half, three or four at at time. Punch a hole so that when you are done, the circle looks like a button with two holes.

String them onto the jute twine. I found that about eighteen circles fit onto a five foot length of twine, which was a manageable length for dressing my little potted tree.

Decoupage Letters

• Supplies:
• Paper Mache letters
• Vintage book pages (or use holiday themed book pages or even holiday sheet music)
• Mod Podge craft glue (mine had a gloss finish)
• Foam brush

This project couldn’t be any easier, and if you have never worked with decoupage medium, don’t worry. The technique is extremely flexible and forgiving. Choose any holiday message, and spell it out with any manner of these letters. You could go all capitals or stick with lower case letters. JoAnn Fabrics and Crafts has a great selection, and they are frequently on sale. The process took me around 30 – 45 minutes per letter.

Rip up your vintage book pages into random sized pieces.

Brush glue on the letter, and on the back of a book page piece. Then place the piece on the letter.

Brush more Mod Podge over the top of the piece. Now just repeat that process, overlapping and layering pieces for a textured effect.

There are countless ways to display your holiday message, on a mantle, hanging on the wall, or resting on top of a bookcase or buffet. For the photos I styled for the Sunday feature in the Kitsap Sun, I nestled them among some cedar branches, on top of an old white dresser in our living room.