Christmas at my house this year is Scandinavian-inspired with red, white, and gray taking color palette center stage. I adore decorating the tree but I also love doing up the mantel. We’ll be decorating the tree in a few days but the mantel is all set. Last year was woodland themed (click here for the how-to) and the year before was all about the snow (click here for that one). A quick peek at the previous two years’ mantel designs:

I haven’t been able to say goodbye to the branch hanging above- it’s been up all year! I thought I’d be taking it down at Christmastime but I just couldn’t. Instead, I spent several hours making paper stars in red and white to hang from the branches.

Next up, trying to figure out how to incorporate deer/reindeer decor that I could make. So, I made a template in Photoshop, cut out the deer head shape from foamcore, painted it red, and then wrapped it in red yarn. I love using yarn to wrap shapes, it seems so cozy.

I needed a couple garlands next. I created a himmeli bunting from wire and thin plastic straws and then painted it red. It still looked a little bare so I found some gray yarn-wrapped beads that I had made earlier and alternated them with classic himmeli-shaped ornaments to create the second garland.

And there we have it. All finished and ready for Santa!