Tutorial: Hand-made Christmas tree decorations

Now that we’re in December it’s considered acceptable to put up the tree and get into the Christmas spirit – hooray! I decided to make some of my own decorations for our tree this year and spent last Sunday setting up my little craft station and singing along merrily to Slade and Mariah, whilst Mr M sank a bottle of red wine (how selfish of him).

I consider myself a bit of a novice when it comes to arts and crafts, with very limited materials, and get frustrated if things start to take too long. So I decided on two fool proof designs…

Hanging heart tree decorations:

You will need:

• Sturdy cardboard/ mount board
• PVA glue
• Cord/ twine in various colours of your choice
• Wrapping paper in the colours of your choice
• Glue dots

How to:

• Cut out one large and one small heart shape from the mount board
• rip up the wrapping paper in strips and dip into a bowl of the PVA glue
• Cover the hearts with the paper and glue (think paper mache technique)
• leave the hearts to dry (this took a couple of hours)
• stick the smaller heart onto the larger heart using a glue dot
• Tie a ribbon out of cord/twine and stick onto the small heart using another glue dot
• punch a hole in the top and attach twine for hanging on the tree!
  

  

  

  

Pine cone tree decorations:

You will need:

• Pine cones
• Glitter spray (if required)
• Ribbon
• glue dots
• Twine/cord (for hanging)

How to:

• Spray the pine cones with glitter spray if required (I used Plastikote Project Enamel in silver glitter which is subtle)
• Make a bow out of the ribbon and stick it to the bottom of the pine cone with a glue dot
• Use the twine to make a hanging loop. I used glue dots in the first instance to stick it to the cone, which did seem to work initially, but after a week they seem to be dropping! I’ve taken the lazy way out, turned the pine cones the right way up (narrower section at the top) and simply wrapped the twine within the cone – they look equally as lovely (see pic). I’m sure you could attach using a glue gun or similar if you’re a more prepared crafty than I am…

Would love to read about any other ideas you have – please feel free to share them with me.

Happy crafting! x