DIY Christmas Decorations

Earlier in the month I saw on Pinterest a link party that was held by Kate from Centsational Girl last Christmas. There were so many awesome projects submitted and I took so much inspiration from them. When I saw that Kate was holding another link party this year I knew I definitely wanted to get involved.

So I put on my craft hat and made myself some sweet little diy Christmas decorations.

I took lots of photos when I was making them and planned on making each into a little tutorial. But (there's always a but), my CF card died and took all my photos with it. So all I am left with is the end results.

I'm still going to post about them, but there's less photos and more words...

(If you want to see all the photos of my Christmas decorating check out yesterdays post.)

String Ornaments

The original image I pinned for these took me to Martha Stewart's website. After reading the instructions and then the comments I decided to do things slightly differently.

• First up I mixed equal parts of water and pva glue in a small bowl. Then I blew up 12 water balloons (I liked these better than regular balloons because I was able to get a better round shape from them), and I gathered up the rest of my supplies. Scissors, string (I used thick embroidery string), spray on cooking oil, paper towel, spray glue, glitter, clothes pegs and a needle.

• To start off with I sprayed cooking oil on a paper towel and then rubbed it over each of my twelve balloons - this eliminates the chance of the string sticking to the balloon when it comes time to pop them.

• Next up I poured some glue onto a flat plate. I would run the string through the glue as I wrapped it around and around the balloon. This bit was really messy, I had to fight the ocd in me really hard not to wash my hands every two minutes.

• Once I was happy with how the balloons were wrapped I would peg them onto a clothes horse by the tail of the balloon (the bit you tie off when you blow the balloon up).

• Once all twelve were finished I left them to dry overnight. Then the popping began! I popped each one and was super relieved when the strings kept their shape.

•  I added an extra little piece of string to each ornament so that they could be hung on the tree.

• I then held each ornament up by the hanging string and spayed them lightly with more glue and then added heaps and heaps of glitter.

•  I pegged them back on the clothes horse to dry for another 24 hours and then hung them on the tree.

• Super easy, and they look great!

Twine Wrapped Trees

 

No tutorial for these... I wrapped styrofoam trees with twine. I used hot glue to keep the twine in place.

Clay Stars and a Mini Christmas Village.

For the stars I used this recipe, I followed it exactly and it worked out really well. I used cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. For the village I used air-dry clay that I picked up at spotlight. You can't really tell from the photo, but the village is tiny, the top of the cross stands 2 inches high. It looks really sweet on my window sill :).

No Sew Tree Skirt

Calling this 'no-sew' makes it sound simple. I guess it was... But it did take a long time and a lot of fabric to make it (8 metres total!). Definitely worth it though, it totally changed the look of the tree. I got the idea and instructions for it from here.

Rustic and Natural Wreath

Like I said in yesterdays post, this wreath was really simple to make. I collected the sticks from a local nature reserve and hot glued them to a paper mache circle. Very Aussie bush Christmas!


DIY Branch Chandy

 Last but not least I have my favourite Christmas doecoration for this year. Whilst I was out collecting sticks I found this branch and sawed it off a tree (using the mini hack saw I just happened to have in the car). I hung it from the ceiling using removable hooks and fishing line. It really adds an extra dimension to the Christmasy feel of the dining room.

So there you have it, my DIY efforts for Christmas 2011!!