Alright, this is about the cheapest, quickest, most easily customizable holiday mantle decoration ever!

Items Needed: Old Frame, Ribbon (about 4 yds), Items to hang, hot glue gun, plastic clamps (optional)

Start by heading to your local thrift store. Yes, I command you to go! You will need both hands so if you have to bring the kids get creative! I had my 7 year old stepson in tow and once he discovered the pink zingers in the vending machine it was game on! Head straight to the art section and while you sift through the framed artwork ignore the pictures of mauve flowers, kittens with baskets of yarn, and clowns giving unsettling smirks. Look at the frame that is surrounding these atrocities. This particular frame had a distressed look I loved but not with the boat poster inside. As your shopping keep an open mind, I expected to find one of those fancy gold numbers and was all ready with my white glossy paint before I found this rugged seven dollar bad boy.

If your like you me have yards of ribbon just waiting to be used but if not, you will need to make one more stop and pick some up. I love this part because buying ribbon is truly one of my greatest joys in life. I used almost 4 yards but how much you need will depend on your frame size.

Now you just need a few items to hang. I chose pinecones but you could also do ornaments, tiny espresso cups, candy canes…literally anything you have in the house or see while you are buying the pretty ribbon or the frame.

Last step, get your hot glue gun heated up and attach the ribbon to the items. Before I glue the top of the ribbon to the frame I used clamps to hold it in place and test it out on the mantle. This was helpful as I decided to go vertical rather than horizontal. Sometimes one way just looks a little better depending on the size of the frame, the mantle or the items. Who knows, but I think its worth spending the extra couple of minutes to make sure it looks perfect so when old Saint Nick squeezes his big butt through my fireplace he likes what he sees.