DIY Winter Mantel Décor Tutorials: Golden Magnolia Wreath and Cinnamon Stick Votive Holder

In our most recent post, we showed you how to easily transform your mantel décor from Fall to Winter.

Today, we're going to show you exactly how to make two items on our Christmas mantel: a Golden Magnolia Wreath and a Cinnamon Stick Votive Holder.

Plug in your hot glue gun and let's get going!

Golden Magnolia Wreath

Our golden magnolia wreath is a great twist on a traditional Christmas wreath—more modern and minimalist than an evergreen and super-simple to achieve.

Materials you will need:

1. magnolia leaves
2. grapevine wreath from any craft store
3. gold spray paint
4. hot glue gun

Spread your leaves out on an open space and spray a very light, even coat of gold spray paint over all of them.

We stopped there. The green showing through gave the leaves a shimmery quality and we wanted to bring in that natural element throughout our mantel design. If you’d like your leaves to be more metallic, keep going until they are well-covered.

Next, lay out all your leaves BEFORE you start gluing to make sure you’ve got the right fit.

Start hot gluing. Keep the leaves pointing in the same direction and overlap them slightly. We fit in two rows by keeping the first circle toward the inside of the form.

Voilà!

As a finishing touch before we hung our wreath, we tied wire on the back and hot glued a piece of burlap ribbon over it to hide the wire. Then it’s easy to loop it over a door or mirror and hook it on with sturdy wire.

Cinnamon Stick Votive Holder

This is a great way to repurpose an old candle holder that you’re tired of or want to dress up for the holidays. And the cinnamon smell is certainly an added benefit.

Materials you will need:

1. cinnamon sticks
2. any glass votive holder shorter than your cinnamon sticks.
3. burlap ribbon
4. decorative string/ribbon

Step one: a small dot or line of hot glue will hold your cinnamon sticks together easily.

We recommend gluing your cinnamon sticks on two at a time. Don’t try too hard to keep things neat and even—you get a more natural look when you let some gaps and height variety through.

Once the glue dries, dress up your cinnamon stick votive holder for Fall, Winter, or Christmas. We went with a neutral burlap and gold for a seamless transition between seasons/holidays. A festive plaid or bright ribbon could make it a match for your existing winter décor theme.

There’s no need to hot glue your bigger ribbon on if you tie the smaller string around it tightly.

Here's our completed holiday mantel: