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Christmas Garland With Vintage Sheet Music

By Rachel

published 11/22/2023

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Deck your halls using this easy Christmas garland with vintage sheet music DIY!

As the holiday season approaches, it’s a great time to start creating DIY decor to make your home feel festive. For me personally, vintage Christmas decor is what I absolutely adore. So, to go along with that theme, I decided to make a Christmas garland with vintage sheet music to adorn a small Christmas tree. Let’s get in the Christmas spirit with this easy craft project!

Materials Needed

Christmas Garland with Vintage Sheet Music DIY

You guys. I’m SO EXCITED for Christmas. Like…this is the most excited I’ve been in years! As I was brainstorming content for this season, the idea of creating something with vintage-looking Christmas music kept coming up so I went with it. I am so happy with how this Christmas garland turned out. It’s the epitome of vintage Christmas, so let’s get into it!

Table of Contents

Find Vintage Christmas Music

The first step in the process is to find a whole bunch of Christmas sheet music if you don’t have any already. There are a few ways to go about this. You can check your local thrift store for old hymnals or piano books or go to a used book store.

If neither of those options work for you, you can do what I did and purchase a bundle of vintage-looking music off of Etsy that came in digital download form. It only cost me $2.00 to have access to about twenty different varieties of Christmas sheet music. So cool!

Print Music

After the download was complete, I simply printed off how many of each music page I wanted. This is the easiest way to get the look for less and without the hassle!

Choose Christmas Shapes

Next, I needed shapes. So, I went to the kitchen and pulled out my bag of Christmas cookie cutters. These little pieces of metal come in handy for more than just cookies!

I went through the shapes and chose a handful that thought would look pretty on a garland.

Trace Shapes

Then, using a pencil, I started tracing shapes onto the music. I traced along the inside of each shape but you could trace around the outside and achieve the same results.

There is not really a specific way to do this but I tried to fit as many shapes onto one piece of music as possible to cut down on paper waste.

I chose one shape at a time, traced that one for awhile, then switched to a different shape. This rotation through the shapes made sure I would have enough variety of them on my garland.

Tip: When tracing the shapes, I made sure to trace some of the song titles on a handful of them.

Also, a cute idea I had when doing this was to use a cookie cutter that was themed to the song itself. So, for Jingle Bells, I used the bell cookie cutter!

Cut Out Shapes

After I had all of the shapes traced, I cut them out.

Since there are so many shapes, I cut two or three paper sheets at a time. This method did make my fingers sore but it significantly cut down on the amount of time it took!

You will have a big pile of paper shapes when all is said and done.

Paint Shapes

Once the shapes are all cut out, it’s time to paint them!

I did not have this step in mind when I started this project. However, once I had all the of the shapes cut out, many of them were still too light in color for the look I was going for.

So, keep in mind that this step is not necessary if you don’t want to do it but it really does add depth and contrast to the garland when it’s finished.

To start, I put a small dab of metallic paint on a paper plate.

Now, I didn’t want to completely cover and coat each shape with paint, rather just give a little ‘zhuzh’ to them.

To achieve this, I used the dry brush technique. Basically all you do is get a very small amount of paint on your paintbrush and then wipe off as much excess as possible onto the plate.

Then, as Bob Ross says, “just a hair and some air” to each shape. Simply brush the tips and sides with the metallic paint and then dust a few small areas in the center.

This technique took a little practice but it became easier as I went along.

Just put on some Christmas music and paint away until you have all the shapes done!

Let Dry

Leave the shapes for about 20 minutes to ensure each one is all the way dry. While you wait, this is a good time to plug in the hot glue gun and let it heat up.

Hot Glue Shapes on Ribbon

The last step is to glue your shapes to the velvet ribbon to create the garland itself!

You will first want to figure out how long you want your Christmas garland with vintage sheet music to be. I unrolled the red velvet ribbon until it looked long enough. My garland is roughly 5 feet.

Then, I stacked the shapes accordingly, putting all of the bells in a pile, stars in a pile, etc…This way it’s easy to just grab and glue.

Now, think about how you want the garland to look. Do you want to do a random order of shapes? A pattern of two shapes? A pattern of three shapes?

Even though I cut out five different shapes, I ended up using just three of them.

I started with the bell by placing a small dab of hot glue on the ribbon and pressing down firmly.

I repeated this process with the star, which is my second shape in the pattern, spacing them about an inch apart.

And then with the ornament, as well.

Repeat this same process for each shape.

If you are happy with the length when you reach the end of the ribbon, simply cut the tag end with a scissors.

If you want your garland to be a bit longer, just keep gluing shapes until it’s long enough.

Finished Christmas Garland

With that, the garland is complete!

I did take a minute to go through and pull off any hot glue strings to make sure the garland looked all nice and neat.

Where to Display the Christmas Garland with Vintage Christmas Music

There are many options when it comes to displaying your homemade garland.

When I think of garlands such as this one, my mind naturally goes to wrapping it around a tree. I made mine specifically to fit on a small Christmas tree that will be decorated in my entryway.

Other places you could display a paper garland include:

draped across a doorway
over a mirror
wrapped around a pole or post
hang over the top of a hutch
wrap it around a wreath

As with most of the DIY projects that I tackle, they take on a mind of their own. The project evolves and grows as I go along but that’s the creative process!

So, when you think your project is going awry, it’s most likely not but is doing something better than expected. Just go with it!

I’m truly so happy with how this Christmas garland turned out.

It’s exactly what I had envisioned in my head. When placed on a Christmas tree, the garland looks so much prettier than I had dreamed it would, especially with a string of fairy lights.

Bonus Project

If you are like me, you will most likely have leftover paper shapes.

An easy way of using them up is to glue a twine loop to the back of them to create either ornaments, gift toppers or gift tags!

It’s like two projects in one 🙂

Closing Tidbits

May this DIY Christmas garland with vintage sheet music inspire you to create beautiful, handmade decor for your home this holiday season. With all of the hustle and bustle, it’s important to remember to slow down for a minute and give yourself room to breathe. Sitting down and creating a piece of decor for your Christmas celebrations is the perfect way to do that.

Making decor that can be used year after year is not only eco-friendly but it also gives you a sense of accomplishment. Understanding that you can fabricate a beautiful home, with your own two hands, for less money, is amazingly rewarding. Be encouraged to create this season, finding a sense of peace along the way.

Leave me a comment! Do you like making DIY holiday decorations? I love hearing from you!

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If you are new here, I’m Rachel, the writer and content creator here at The Antiqued Journey. I’m so happy to have you! I encourage you to stop by the ‘about me’ page to get to know me a little more.

Here on the blog, you will find loads of inspiration for decorating with vintage and antique decor, simple DIY crafts and many thrifting adventures. If that interests you, I invite you to sign up for my e-mail. You will receive a free digital download as a thank you!

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The Christmas Candle Collection

I want to remind you that The Antiqued Journey Christmas Candle collection is live in the shop! I only have six candles remaining and three scents left. The candles are made with organic soy wax and hand poured, by me, out of my kitchen.

These make amazing gifts for those on your list that have everything 🙂 Thanks so much for your support!