This DIY Garland Is So Wintery and Cute—And Uses Things You Were Probably About to Throw Away

Wait! Before you toss that cardboard gift wrap/toilet paper/paper towel tube, you’re going to want to see this DIY garland project. TikTok user @sarahliw posted a video on how to make your very own snow hat garland using old gift wrap tubes, a cotton ball, and some scrap yarn. And the finished product is something you’d see at a fancy home decor store.

To get started, you’ll first want to save that old cardboard tube from the recycling bin and cut it into about a half-inch wide sections. These cardboard links will be the base of your snow hat.

Then, as @sarahliw shows, grab some scrap yarn in a color of your choosing, and cut even strands—she shows that wrapping the yarn around a notebook first helps speed this step up.

Tie the yarn strands around the cardboard section using a simple cow hitch knot until the cardboard is completely covered. Move the strands inside the tube section, stuff with a cotton ball, tie them together, and snip into a pom-pom.

To string your hats together on a garland, @sarahliw says you must first remove the cotton ball in order to separate the yarn that makes up the hats to make room for the needle. She links the hats together using a new piece of yarn (making sure to replace the cotton ball after linking the hats), and spaces them out on the yarn with wooden ball-shaped beads.

Depending on the size of tube you’re using, you can make a variety of different sized hats that can either be strung onto the garland or made into ornaments for the Christmas tree (you can tie a loop onto the top of the hat before snipping away the excess to make the pom-pom on top). This may be the best use of old cardboard tubes and scrap yarn to exist, ever.