Homemade christmas decorations...

[Ada Veen]

We are starting to get our house nice and christmassy, and I was wondering, does anyone have any ideas for nice, homemade christmas decorations?

 

[pretty faythe]

use a dough clay recipie and cookie cutters and make ginger bread men ornament

 

[sweetfrancaise]

I love to make popcorn and cranberry garlands for the tree--those are easy to do while snuggling down to watch a Christmas movie. This year me and my little brother are making dozens of paper snowflakes to hang from the ceiling.

 

[pretty faythe]

snowflakes...hmmm....somthing for the offspring to do...oye the mess

 

[Miss Retro]

How do you make a popcorn garland please, i'd love to make one of them.

 

[true vintage]

I love to make popcorn and cranberry garlands for the tree--those are easy to do while snuggling down to watch a Christmas movie. This year me and my little brother are making dozens of paper snowflakes to hang from the ceiling.

How do you make that? Curious[huh]

 

[sweetfrancaise]

It's really easy--thread a strong needle with white thread (don't make it too long, or you'll get tangled), knot the ends together, and push the needle through your cranberries and popcorn (with the 'corn, use unbuttered, and try going through the thicker, soft part of the kernel when you're threading), then tie your strings together once you're finished. I usually do a pattern of one cranberry and five pieces of popcorn. You should all post pictures of your trees once you're done!

 

[goldwyn girl]

I made popcorn garlands just one year, my dog loved them !!!! lol lol lol !!!

 

[Ada Veen]

I'm making popcorn garlands right now!

 

[Joie DeVive]

After Christmas you can hang those popcorn garlands outside for the birds to enjoy. They make great bird-feeders, just make sure you find a dry spot to hang them. Even the birds dislike soggy popcorn! lol

Paper chains are vintage, easy, and colorful!
Pomander oranges are also very vintage, but with the cost of cloves, may be a bit extravagant.

 

[Ada Veen]

Great ideas Joie! I'm going to make the dough ornaments that faythe suggested today.

 

[leaette]

make construction paper loop chains! i made those as a kid. they are fun.

 

[ssubialdea]

I made some ornaments last year with thick craft paper and wire in various abstract shapes. I really like the shapes,layers, and textures found on 50s fabric and recreated some of it with the paper and wire. I used a piece of atomic looking fabric as a tree skirt and a string of white lights. The ornaments are pretty fragile but came out really cool and could be customized to anything you like.

 

[Miss Brill]

If anyone has children, these are from a Christmas crafts book I've had since I was a little girl:

 

[Miss Brill]

 

[DavidVillaJr]

We made christmas ball ornaments ages ago.

Get a styrofoam ball from the craft store.

Get a whole mess of straight pins - flat head or fancy ball ends.

Use sequins and ribbon and beads.

Stick sequin or beads onto straight pins.

Jam pin/bead combination into styrofoam.

Repeat

Repeat

Repeat

Repeat

Repeat

Repeat - to create a pattern - or not

When you're done, you've got a nice ornament for the tree (weighs about as much as a Buick, but it's pretty).

dv

 

[Joie DeVive]

We made christmas ball ornaments ages ago.

Get a styrofoam ball from the craft store.

Get a whole mess of straight pins - flat head or fancy ball ends.

Use sequins and ribbon and beads.

Stick sequin or beads onto straight pins.

Jam pin/bead combination into styrofoam.

I've also done this using those thread covered balls. (I hope you know what I mean ) That way you don't have to cover the whole thing. When I was a kid we used ribbons and other trims with this project too.

 

[Miss Neecerie]

We always made these in our family...

Toothpicks, styrofoam balls...and snow spray....and a lot of patience..

 

[DavidVillaJr]

Another old timey decoration we used to make used a balloon and some thread coated with starch (I think).

Blow up the balloon.

Pull thread through starch solution (don't remember what sort of ratio of starch to water, or if straight starch) while wrapping around balloon.

When starch is dry, pop balloon and remove.

You now have a pretty, hollow, stringy decoration.

dv

 

[Ada Veen]

great ideas everyone! love the book miss brill!