How To Easily DIY A Colorful Mardi Gras Garland On A Budget

With Mardi Gras coming just next month, you may be thinking of ways to decorate for a party or just for fun. With this DIY garland project, you'll be able to create a cute, festive piece of decor to hang over doorways, on your mantel or staircase, or even to use as a centerpiece on your dining room table. This craft is also rather budget-friendly, as you can reuse a faux pine garland from Christmas and enhance it with mesh ribbon in traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple, green, and gold.

To add more texture to your garland, you could also opt to include some Mardi Gras beads, leftover Christmas ornaments that match the color scheme, or gold tinsel garland. If you're looking for a much simpler option, a project that's more kid-friendly, or a DIY that costs even less to make, craft a Mardi Gras garland with just some paper and string or yarn.

If you have some faux pine garland leftover from the holiday season, this is a great base for your Mardi Gras decoration. For those who don't already have a garland from the holidays, Amazon has a 9-foot Christmas garland for $16. You might also consider making your budget DIY garland with a pool noodle as the base and hot gluing your ribbons and accessories onto it. For a basic garland, you'll need to cut all your mesh ribbons into curled pieces and tie them onto your greenery, letting the circular ends stick out to create a fluffy texture. The ribbon could also be kept in one piece and tied onto the garland in multiple places for a billowy appearance. Additionally, you can choose to make bows out of your ribbon for a different aesthetic.

At Michaels, you can find rolls of Celebrate It mesh that come in a variety of colors, including gold, purple, and green, for $10 each. This option would bring the cost of the project to about $30. Alternatively, Ellis Home & Garden has rolls of emerald green mesh ribbon and metallic gold mesh ribbon on sale for $5 each as well as a striped ribbon with Mardi Gras colors on sale for $10.

To add different textures to your garland, try wrapping a thin, gold tinsel garland around your base rather than gold ribbon. This is another great way to reuse decorations from Christmas or other holidays, but you can also find a 23-foot tinsel garland on Amazon currently for $6. If you're going for a more ornate look, use hot glue to attach strings of beads, decorative masks, or fake coins. Party City has packs of Mardi Gras beads and masks for $7.50 as well as 100 coins for $6. For a more budget-friendly option, look through your holiday ornaments and pick out colorful bulbs to glue to your garland.

While it may not look as intricate, a simple paper garland is a great way to decorate on a budget. Use sparkly construction paper or card stock to cut out circles or whatever shape you'd like in your chosen size. Your garlands could each be one of the Mardi Gras colors to resemble the classic bead necklaces, or you could make one garland with all three colors. If you have a sewing machine, try sewing them together through the middle of the shape, and use excess thread to hang your garland. Otherwise, try cutting two small slits into the center of each shape and run a long piece of yarn, twine, or whatever you have on hand through each piece of paper.