Snowflake window display
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4 Weekends till Xmas: DIY Christmas Decor

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Four weekends left and it being the last week of November, Christmas decorations should probably go up soon. Does time ever travel quickly these days! So what to do, what to do, what to do!?

What better time it is to get together with a group of friends, accompanied with tasty but non-messy snacks and drinks, to get crafty! And if you have young children, let this be an supervised opportunity for them to get their hands sticky and completely covered in glitter.

Here are some DIY Christmas decor inspirations to bring a little shimmer, a little cheer for your festive holiday home.

Frosted Branches

Frost branches, bobedre.dk
Display found at bobedre.dk

What you need:
Branches & Pinecones
Rag
Glass jars/vases
Paintbrush
Non-toxic liquid glue
Dish
Glitter (colour(s) of your choice) 

Gather friends and or your children and set out on a treasure hunt. The treasure? Nice long slender tree branches and pinecones found on the ground. Make sure your branches have splits, buds, sprigs and other branchlets growing off it-but not too long! You still have to carry lots back! Next, give them a good clean. Wipe any dirt or mud off with a rag. Trim the branches so there are no extremely long and odd poking out side-branches. Splits are good too. Keep it nice and even, but leave buds, sprigs, branchlets and other growth for shape. Set to dry.

While you’re waiting, find or go out and purchase glass jars tall enough to support your branches. They can be canning jars, or tall skinny vases. If your branches are still waiting to dry, settle down with some Christmas music and snacks!

When your branches and pinecones are nice and dry to touch, take your paint brush and get a good amount of glue onto the bristles. Brush glue onto the buds, sprigs etc but not on the main branch “trunk” itself.  Put a little on the top. (It is to look as if it has caught a fresh snowfall so the bottom of the branch wouldn’t have as much snow as the top and other outreaching branchlets.)

Next, before the glue dries, dust your glitter or shimmer powder (colour of your choice! White shimmer is nice though, to make look like it is iced and frosty) over all the areas you applied the glue. Whatever misses the branches you can scoop up and dust again. Use as much as you need, you’re trying to create the ‘frosted tips.’ Set aside to dry. Reapply glue and glitter if desired.

For the pinecones, fill your dish with the glitter. Brush the glue all over the pinecone and carefully roll the pinecone through the glitter in the dish. Repeat if necessary. Set aside to dry.

Once dry, place your branches into the jars you have, either single branch per jar or a bouquet of branches per jar. Arrange the jars/branches and pine cones on your mantle, window sill or dresser tops to give your home a sparkly, frosty touch.

Paper Snowflake Window Display

 

Snowflake window display
bugsandfishes.blogspot.com

What you need:
Lots of paper (recycled please!)
Scissors
Thread
Needle 

Super easy and a perfect excuse to throw confetti around afterwards are these paper snowflake curtains. Cut the sheets of paper to squares of various sizes, no bigger than 8″x8″ and no smaller than 3″x3″. You can leave them as squares or you can cut them into circles for more snowflake variety.
Take a sheet and fold it in half a few times and start snipping away! Unfold and see what you’ve got. Every time will be different and you can play around to see what you can create with an extra snip here, or an extra snip there.
Once you’re done making the snowflakes, it’s time to thread your needle to stitch some together. Depending on how tall your windows are, the length of your snowflake strand will vary. To finish, tack them up above your window and voila! A wintery wonderland window display.
Silhouette Candle Holders
DIY Christmas Decor
Inspired by/modified from a DIY post on How About Orange who was inspired by Cathrineholm cooking wear, these candle holders will bring a warm Christmas cheer wherever you put them. The Christmas modification to this is to cut out Christmas shapes instead!
What you need:
Coloured paper
Scissors
Pencil
X-acto knife
Clear tape
Smooth surface candle holders
 
Measure out how tall your candle holders are. Mark the height onto your paper and cut the paper to match the height. Once you have the strips, take one and wrap it around your candle holder to see how much you need to cover the entire candle. Cut the paper accordingly. Now you have a template and cut all the other strips to that size.
When  you have your strips ready, pick a few Christmas shapes that you can easily cut with an X-acto knife. Bells, holly, trees, circles, stars etc. Once you have them, draw them out onto the paper and cut them out. You can mix and match or just have one shape per strip.
Finally, wrap your paper around your candle holder and hold it in place with your tape. Put a candle in it, light it and see how the light plays through the paper!
Kona