5 Steps To Create A Beautiful Faux Cranberry Garland This Christmas

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There is something so “Christmasy” about a cranberry garland. Adding a touch of vintage appeal to any holiday decor, cranberry garlands have been a classic decoration for centuries. Over the past few years I too have loved using them and have faithfully bought bags of fresh cranberries to thread together with a needle and clear fishing line before draping the fresh garland over the tree (like THIS on our Alpine Christmas year last year!). While I love this process, sometimes finding the time to make a garland each year has become challenging to do, so I thought, why not find a great faux option? To my surprise, I could not quite find an option I liked quite as much, so I set out to make my own! While this DIY may not save any time the first year you make it, you can be sure that for years to come your faux cranberry garland will be ready to go! So, if you also are interested in adding a touch of vintage to your Christmas decor, here are 5 easy steps to create a faux cranberry garland this Christmas!

Cranberry Garland History

Since the early 1800’s in New England and Colonial Williamsburg, cranberry garlands have become a staple for many homes around the holidays. Their inexpensive nature, easy dryability and bright red color brought festive cheer while also being an economical way to decorate for the holidays. Often paired with popcorn, these garlands became easy to create and fun to design with on a Christmas tree, mantel swag or staircase garland.

How To Make A Faux Cranberry Garland

Materials

While a fresh cranberry garland can come together with a bag of fresh cranberries, clear fishing line and a needle, this faux option requires a few more materials. Still less expensive than many store bought garlands however, this faux cranberry garland does come together fairly economically and can last for years to come!

3-6 Packs – reddish air dry clay
Toothpicks
Red acrylic paints (of varied palette of red, browns and oranges) or reddish spray paint
Paint brushes
Modge Podge or other clear sealer
Clear fishing line / craft line
Needle
Cardboard box

Steps

With only 5 steps, making a faux cranberry garland is actually quite an easy process! While it can be a tad tedious at times, the steps are quite simple and easy to follow.

1 – The first step to create your faux cranberry garland is to make the cranberries. To do so, pinch off a small amount of red air dry clay and roll into an oval shaped ball. Stick the toothpick through the center of the oval lengthwise to create a hole before removing the toothpick. Set the “cranberry” aside on a piece of paper, parchment, aluminum foil or other surface to dry and repeat with the next cranberry. Once all cranberries are created, let them completely dry for at least 24 hours.

Note: feel free to make each cranberry a slightly different size and shape! This helps to make your final product feel more authentic and realistic.

Similarly, you can calculate how many packs of clay, feet of garland and cranberries you will need with some simple math much like you would for a traditional cranberry garland.

I used about 4 packs of clay for my garlands which totaled just over 21 feet. To calculate how many cranberries / packs of clay you need, you can typically estimate to have about 15 to 20 cranberries per linear foot of garland, depending on how large you make each cranberry. To calculate how many cranberries you will need, simply multiply how many feet of garland you want by an average of 18 (cranberries per foot) and this will give you an estimated number of cranberries needed.

EX: 12 feet of garland X 18 cranberries per foot = about 216 cranberries needed. For reference, each pack of clay made approximately 100 cranberries, so you would need 2 or 3 packs of clay.

2 – Once all of your cranberries are dry, the next step is to paint them! Feel free to paint them all one shade of red or a variety of shades for a more realistic look. To do this without creating dry marks as they lay on the table, place each dried cranberry clay ball on a toothpick to paint before sticking the toothpick in a spare cardboard box to dry. Just work in batches to paint as many as your box can reasonably hold.

With red / terracotta colored air dry clay, you should need just one coat of paint to paint them red since the base color is already in the red family. You could use white air dry clay, however this will require 2 or 3 coats of paint per cranberry to prevent the white from peaking through.

3 – After all the cranberries are painted, it is time to seal them! Using a paint brush and the same toothpick / cardboard method, seal each cranberry in Modge Podge or other craft sealer. I found that mixing a touch of red, orange, maroon or brown paint into a small bowl of sealer helped provide an even more vibrant color for the cranberry, so feel free to try this out as well. Work and dry in batches until all the cranberries have been sealed.

Note On Timing: If the painting / sealing process seems too tedious, you could always string together all the cranberries, hang them up and then spray paint them with a red paint and then later a clear sealer. This would speed up the process dramatically, but as I wanted color variation and I did not have the space to string them out / spray paint, I opted for the slower method above. Certainly though, do whichever method best suits your schedule and interest!

4 – When all the cranberries have been sealed and have dried for at least 24 hours, it is time to string them together (unless you already have with the note above)! Using a needle and clear fishing line, simply thread the line through the center hole of each cranberry. I made a loop at each end of the garland to make for easy hanging as well as occasionally looping my needle twice back through a cranberry every now and then to ensure that the garland was secure.

5 – Once all of the cranberries have been strung, tie a final loop at the end of the garland to finish it off. String the garland around your Christmas tree, along a mantle or down a staircase to enhance your decor this year and for years to come!

5 Steps To Create A Faux Cranberry Garland This Christmas

Final Thoughts

With a variety of ways to accomplish this project, this faux cranberry garland really can come together very easily! I have loved the final look of my garland and am so excited to know that since it is air dry clay, these “cranberries” can last for years to come. Certainly, this DIY project takes a bit more time up front, but in the future can just be pulled out of a box and is ready to use! But what do you think? Would you attempt a faux cranberry garland?! Let me know in the comment section below!

Happy making!