Acorn Holiday Garland

The changing of the seasons and upcoming holidays inspire me to make seasonal crafts, an oh the ideas I have! I was inspired by this to make my own acorn garland with a different twist. The need for acorn caps gave me and my husband a good excuse to take our dog for a walk to a park surrounded by oak trees and littered with acorns. We filled a bag full of acorn caps in assorted sizes and ages and I was inspired to make several projects using my oak findings. This acorn holiday garland works well for fall decorating and will look great on a Christmas tree.

Here’s how I made this Acorn Holiday Garland:

You’re probably wondering how many, how long, how much? When I started this project I didn’t know this either so I just started gathering supplies. I ended up with a six yard garland with 75 ornaments (ornaments = single acorns or pairs). Lengths of thread pieces and floral tape are explained in more details in the directions below.

Directions

1. Gather acorns caps

Grab a bag and go find some oak trees. The best time to find fallen acorns is in the fall (late September through November, the exact time will depend location and oak species). There will be thousands of acorn caps spread on the ground underneath the tress. Gather more acorns than you think you’ll need because size, strength, and age will vary. Plus you’ll have extras to use for other projects. :)

2. Determine what type of bead you will use as the acorn nut

I went through several ideas to use as the acorn nut from beads to fake grapes to pom-pom balls. Since the size of the acorn caps vary, I wanted to have something that would work well no matter what shape the cap is. I landed on these wooden beads because of the variation of color that closely imitates the look of real acorn nuts.

3. Tie thread onto the acorn cap stem

I used some thick, brown thread I had laying around which ended up working really well because of the stiffness. You’ll want to cut enough thread to be able to work with it easily (about 4″ pieces). There will be waste but you’ll be glad to have enough thread to easily tie knots around both the stem and later-on the cord.
Start by making a knot loop in the middle of the piece of thread. Pull it tight around the stem and finish off the knot.

4. Cover the stem and thread knot with floral tape

Adding this helps keep the thread in place as well as giving each cap a nice finished look. I used approximately 3″ pieces and stretched and wrapped it around the stem with the thread sticking straight up.

5. Glue the beads to the acorn caps

Working with one cap at a time, fill the inside with hot glue and push the bead into the cap. Hold it for a few seconds to let the hot glue set. If glue comes out the sides of the cap you can easily scrape it off while it’s still hot. This is the same if glue comes out the bead hole. I found that if some glue seeped into the bead hole it gave the bead a better hold.

6. Make a loop on one end of the hemp cord

This is what will get used to hang the garland on a nail or tree branch.

7. Tie the new acorns to the cord

I wasn’t sure of the final length so I worked directly off the roll of hemp cord and wanted to use all of the acorns made. I spaced each ornament about 4″ apart.

Here it is! A beautiful acorn holiday garland.

I can’t wait to see this on the Christmas tree.

Were you inspired to make a garland using acorns? I want to see it! Share your link in the comments below.