By far, the biggest challenge I had in decorating Monica’s family room was filling it! It is one big space, and trying to get that cozy, holiday feel was very difficult. Part of my dilemma was the huge bay window that pretty much covers one whole wall. So I decided to create a modern take on a snowflake garland to fill in that blank space!

Here’s the window before I attacked it with a wreath and scrapbook paper. {Gasp} That thing is GINORMOUS!

Although, once this started happening…

…and the power went out, I was super grateful for the light it gave me to finish working on projects! (By the way, we filmed this in October! I have lived here my entire life and do not remember it snowing in October EVER! Wierd things happen in TVland, I tell you!)

I tried to use as much stuff from the crate as possible, which included loads of scrapbook paper in various holiday colors, and although I would have preferred whites and silvers, I only had red, green and dark gray to work with. Of course, I have no photos of this project in process because during these 48 hour challenges I completely lose my head and only focus on one thing: gettin ‘er done. (Blogger foul!)

Basically, all I did was search for 3 different size circle templates. I found plates that worked perfectly and traced about 50 circles (it felt like a million!), making sure I had an equal number of circles in each color and patterned paper. Then, believe it or not, I actually spray painted the backs of some of the paper in silver so they coordinated better. I would not recommend this because once they dried, they began to curl a bit, but desperate times call for desperate measures!  I then laid them out on the floor to figure out the arrangement I liked best. I ended up with 3 strands on the two outside windows (I hung the grapevine wreath that I spraypainted silver and wrapped in plaid ribbon in the middle window). I alternated the number of circles on each strand, so that it looked random (5 circles on two of the strands, and four on the middle strand). Once I figured out how they were going to go, I cut an “x” at the top and bottom of each circle with an X-acto knife, so that I could run the twine through. Why did I cut an “x” and not punch a hole, you ask? I really didn’t want the circles to slide down the twine at all, so the “x” allowed the twine to go through, but still held the circle in place. Finally, I simply hung them from the ceiling in varying lengths.

I really like how the garland added a pop of Christmas to an otherwise expansive, empty space. Plus, for the price of a few sheets of scrapbook paper and twine, you have an easy, big-impact project!