Handmade Christmas–Part 1: Decorations

You know those cinnamon scented pine cones that are always in grocery and craft stores around Thanksgiving and Christmas? I’ve never bought them before. I have no idea why. They smell WONDERFUL.

So the first decoration I made involved those, some ribbons in my “theme colors” for this year (and probably several years after this) — orange and turquoise, and some hot glue.

I just hot-glued ribbon to the center of each pine cone “butt” and tied them up on the curtain rod in my living room. Festive, not overkill though, and yummy smelling. I would’ve done more in other windows but I ran out of turquoise ribbon, and needed the rest of the orange for another project (below).

The second hand-made decoration I made this year is crocheted tree garland. I didn’t want to decorate with glass balls and such, for more than one reason.

1) Obviously I have a curious toddler. She is great about leaving things alone if I tell her to FOR THE MOST PART, but I wouldn’t want her to get hurt if she got a bit adventurous when I wasn’t looking.

2) All of our Christmas decorations are in a box on the very highest shelf in the garage. I don’t feel like standing on a step stool and trying to get down the very heavy box, especially pregnant. I could ask someone to help me, but then I’d have to ask them to put it back when the holidays were over too.

So anyway, I bought some delicious yarn in my colors, and crocheted tons of circles in each color. Then I “dressed up” each circle with a border and some embellishments in the other color. Finally, I crocheted them all together into a garland using silver eyelash yarn, which turned out to be pretty cool because it’s like tinsel and ornaments all in one!

Love how the silver garland catches the light from the tree.

Anneliese loves going over to the tree and touching the circles, looking at them carefully.

The third decoration I made is a couple of bell wreaths. I found the basic wreaths in the Target dollar section (for $2.50 each) but you could easily make your own with wire and bells from the craft store. Though I don’t know if it would save you any money.

Then, I took orange ribbon and wove it around the bells, then tied it into a bow at the bottom. The turquoise glitter snowflakes are also from Target. A pack of 4 was $1 I think. I used thin white (very strong) thread to attach them to the wreath too. It’s hanging on the back of my front door (on the inside) framing the peep hole a la Friends.

I haven’t actually found a good place to hang the other one, but I’ll have it for next year!

Have you made any decorations this year? What did you create for your home? I’d love to hear about it, or if you’ve blogged it, feel free to comment with the link!