Homemade Christmas Decor

Create a set of festive candles using metallic glitter.

The Christmas season marks an opportunity to demonstrate your style in a meaningful way. Handmade crafts add a personal touch to Christmas decor. From the time spent choosing each detail, to the arrangement of the items for family and friends to enjoy, your crafts create lasting memories for the season. Invite your children to participate in the creation of imaginative ornament designs including a classic snow dome of Santa's Workshop. Create a simple, but attractive candle arrangement for a common area to generate holiday excitement as guests relax in your home.

Things You'll Need

• Craft beads
• Hot glue gun
• White glitter
• Metallic glitter
• Pillar candles
• White fishing line or twine
• Spray adhesive
• Flower pans
• Cotton balls
• Newspaper
• Masking tape
• 9 oz. clear plastic cup
• White polyester batting
• Miniature trees
• Miniature candy canes
• Jewelry clamp
• Pliers
• Toothpick
• White cardstock
• Clear tape

Instructions

Shimmering Candle Set

1. Select a well ventilated area in your home to create a glitter candle set for your fireplace mantle. Gather large and small light-colored pillar candles you want to use as your craft display. These can be new or used candles. Cover the top of the candle with masking tape.

2. Spray each candle around the sides and base with a spray adhesive. You can purchase spray adhesive in a craft shop.

3. Sprinkle metallic colored glitter in flat flower pans. Add gold to one pan, silver to another and iridescent white to a third pan. Roll your candles in the glitter until the sides are coated in thick glitter.

4. Set each candle aside on newspaper in a garage or on an outdoor patio allowing twelve hours to dry. When complete, add tiny balls of "snow" to the base of your candles using cotton balls and a hot glue gun.

Snow Dome

1. Trace the rim of a clear plastic cup onto a sheet of white poster board. Cut out the circle leaving 1/4" of room outside the shape. The base should be slightly larger than the rim of the cup.

2. Cut a cluster of snow batting into a circular shape just smaller than the rim of your cup. This batting will be used to create snow in your snow dome. Poke tiny holes in the batting to make room for tiny tree figurines and candy canes.

3. Use a hot glue gun to attach the base of the trees, candy canes and the batting to the poster board. The candy canes should be in an upright position. Use a toothpick and tiny piece of cardstock to add a directional sign complete with an arrow to "Santa's Workshop." Tape the toothpick to the back of the tiny sign and insert it into batting.

4. Sprinkle the tiny North Pole scene with fine white glitter. Poke a hole in the bottom of the center of the poster board circle. Insert a 12" white fishing line or clear twine through the base of the poster board. Add a metal jewelry clamp to the underneath the base using pliers to close the clamp tightly over the string.

5. Use a thumb tack to create a hole in the center of your cup. With the rim facing downward, pull the twine through the hole in the cup. Use hot glue to attach the rim to the poster board base. String a series of festive beads on the outside of a cup. Tie your string onto a metal keychain so that your snowdome can be hung from a ceiling hook or Christmas three branch.

References

• Disney Family Fun: Winter Wonderland