How to Make Christmas Decorations

One of the best parts of Christmas is decorating. You can never have too many Christmas decorations around your house, but all that decorating can get expensive. Using your imagination to do your own creating of decor gives your home a much more personal touch. You can make family memories and create an heirloom to be passed down to future generations.The list of ideas is endless. That makes it easy to create new decorations every year.

Things You'll Need

• Pine Cones
• Glitter Glue
• Small Pompoms
• Acrylic Paint
• Spray Paint
• Hot Glue
• Hot Glue Gun
• Ribbon
• Old Light Bulbs
• Pipe Cleaners
• Wiggly Eyes
• 3 Inch Pillar Candle
• Gold Fish Bowl
• Christmas Candle Ring
• Spray Glaze or Smoke for Glass

Instructions

Decorate With Pine Cones

1. Get some nice wide and open pine cones. You can buy them in a craft store or ask someone who has a lot of pine cones untouched in a yard. If you take them from the ground, they will need to be cleaned. Use a small paint brush and warm water to clean as best you can. Let them dry for a couple of days in the sun or by a heater vent.

2. Take a pine green spray paint and paint the pine cones completely. Use a brush to get inside where the spray can't reach. Let them dry for about a half hour. If you want to get a little fancy, paint the tips of the pine cone white to look like snow.

3. Get some small red, green and gold pompoms or beads. Dab the beads with hot glue and stick them into the openings of the pine cone to look like balls. You can use craft glue if you prefer, but it takes longer to set .

4. Use a metal bottle cap and glue this to the bottom of the pine cone. Put one bead on the top, and you have a little Christmas tree. You can make it as fancy as you like by adding glitter just to jazz it up. You can even drop in a few drops of pine oil to give it a realistic smell.

5. Sit them out around the house. You have a very festive addition to your decor. A few can even serve as centerpieces for Christmas dinner.

Make a Beautiful Candle Centerpiece

1. Put a glass fishbowl on the counter. Hold some stencils of a Christmas scene against the outside of the glass. Spray on glaze or smoke. Make sure you cover the rest of the bowl. You can buy spray smoke or glaze at your local craft store. You can make a garland pattern all the way around.

2. Hold the stencils steady as you spray the smoke all around it. When you remove the stencils, you should have your Christmas scene amidst the smoke.

3. Let it dry for about an hour.

4. Place a Christmas flower candle ring inside. You can also use pine needles and small pine cones instead of the ring.

5. Throw in some dried fruit and dried flower tops. That creates an instant potpourri that you made yourself.

6. Put your pillar candle in the center of the ring or the potpourri. If you make the potpourri, make sure your candle scent matches it or complements it.

Use Light Bulbs to Make Your Own Christmas Tree Balls

1. Buy a brown crafts spray paint that works well on glass at your local craft store. Take a burned out bulb and spray it with the brown paint.

2. Glue two brown pipe cleaners to the side of the screw area of the light bulb. Now wrap the screw part with brown pipe cleaners, gluing them in the back and covering the ends of the two that stick out. Take some smaller pieces of pipe cleaner and add to the ones sticking out to make it look like antlers.

3. Glue on the wiggly eyes and a red pompom for the nose.

4. Make a big smile with the brown pipe cleaner or a piece of brown yarn.

5. Glue a 5 inch loop of thin gold string on top of his head and hang on the tree.

Tips & Warnings

• When you are ready to throw away a paper towel roller or an old jar, think about what you could make with it. You can make all kinds of decorations with what you would throw away.

• Don't let children handle scissors or other items with sharp edges in order to make decorations. Let them stay with the simple stuff.