OS christmas decorations :)

Rummer

I have just finished making a variety of decorations out of salt dough with my DD and it was great fun, going to leave them to air dry and then paint them next week. Just going to put on a huge vat of popcorn and to cut some strips of paper for making paper chains!

Callie22

I've found the best paints for salt dough are acrylics. A few years ago I made lots of salt dough decorations - I cut various shapes using biscuit cutters (trees, hearts, stars) and then when I'd baked them I marked the surfaces into rough squares using a ruler and pencil. I used two colours of acrylic paint (red/white and green/white), and then painted the decorations in a gingham pattern - mixing the two paints together to get the paler shade. They looked really lovely hanging on the tree and they lasted a couple of years before they softened and started to crumble. I painted the backs too, just in a plain colour, as it seemed to make them last longer if all of the surfaces were sealed.

ginnyknit

I have just finished some fleece hearts and tree's from leftover blanket and blanket stitched round the edge with red thread, pushing in a little stuffing just before I got to the end, then I sewed on some buttons and a ribbon loop to hang them. Am very pleased with the results and will pop a piccy on tomorrow. Best of all they cost nothing!:T

shandyclover

We moved countries this year so left all our decorations behind. On top of that we've lost part of our income unexpectedly, so I was dreading wasting it on tacky decos.

Last week we went for a long forest walk and brought back holly and ivy. A friend gave us some oddments of baubles and german style straw snowflakes. My teens were grumbling about not having proper decos, determined to do something I made a garland out of the greenery before I had to go out and run some errands. When I got home the entire living room had been transformed. The girls got inspired and using what we already had in the house (candles, greenery, odd baubles, an angel statue one of the girls had in their room, ribbon etc). I can honestly say it looks miles better and much more tasteful than when we used to spend lots of money on decos.

elf06

I have had a quick read through and I have to say I LOVE the gingerbread men/ladies AND the rustic star!!

Last year DS and I made decorations out of bread. Everyone thought we were mad but they make great decs and will be getting used again this year Just remember to use a glue/paint mix or else you'll end up with mouldy decs :rotfl:

This year we used some cardboard cut out shapes (nothing fancy just diamond, squares etc) and DS used his 3d glitter pens to decorate them. I did one and wrote his name and xmas 2010 across the front which he loved.

Other ideas that I can think of - orange pomander (I know this has already been mentioned but they really are very effective), cinnamon sticks tied together with festive ribbon............

midnightraven3

been making some more inbetween my hamper content makings
these are easy to do when you sit for a wee 5 minutes:D

some mittens



some socks



son & daughter wanted to make some as well
i dont think we are going for a particular theme this year:rotfl:

EC12345

I bought cheap small christmas cross stitch designs and am going to stick them onto red card to make my own christmas cards - was going to do the sticking bit yesterday but my glue had dried out

seasalt_2

Paper snowflakes look lovely stuck on the windows - use a dab of pr1tst1ck - it washes off easily afterwards. We used to make them at primary school. Fold a circle of paper in half then again into thirds - and in half again if you want - then use sharp scissors to cut bits out - like a lacy doily. Open it out and you've got a snowflake. Also make great Christmas cards stuck to a darker background. Glitter optional.

More tree decoration ideas - as well as salt dough, felt and fabric scraps, sprayed/painted cardboard shapes etc we have some walnuts sprayed gold and silver and tied with ribbon (same way as orange pomanders) -dab of glue helps keep the ribbon in place - or spray/paint some string gold or silver as well.

Sea shells also look nice - can usually find plenty with holes already in them - again threaded on a bit of festive string/ribbon - sprayed if you want but I also like them as is.

I also made some little paper heart baskets that you can pop a sweetie or two in. The ones I make are "woven" (I can't do pics so not sure how to describe them) but they wouldn't need to be.

We also have one or two handmade (by someone else and sent to us) christmas cards that have been turned into tree decorations just by cutting out/round with pinking shears - mounted on stiffer card first if need be - hole punched and threaded with ribbon.

As you can tell, we don't really go in for the beautifully colour co-ordinated - our tree is a hotch potch of home made decs going back to my childhood. Although one year pre-children I did bowls of pebbles with candles, a tree decorated with shells, sea glass and interesting bits of bleached driftwood! (White lights only!) And paper snowflakes on the windows.

zarazara

Seasalt that sounds just lovely.

Nenen

I'm a primary school teacher and I like to make our classroom look magical with decorations made by the children (7-8 year olds). I use the decorations to teach 'line and rotational symmetry' as well as considering recycling and we have made the following:

1) cut out snowflakes from scrap white paper (as above) to make 6 sided snowflakes

2) used this website ( http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/index.html ) to 'cut' virtual snowflakes. These are shown in white but when you download them to view as jpegs they are blue. The children then trace over some of the blue parts with silver pens (great for fine motor control) and/or sprinkle with glitter. We then cut these out and interspersed them on the window with the white paper ones. I was very pleased with the results. Here is one of the blue snowflakes a child (who had been frustrated when cutting white paper) made on the website.
http://snowflakes.barkleyus.com/viewflake.php?id=23631590


3) Made baubles by cutting 6 identical strips of card, (each between 2-4 cms wide by 12-25 cms long). Use a hole punch to punch a hole each end of every strip. Put one split pin through the holes at the top and another split pin through the holes at the bottom to fasten the six strips strips together . Fan the strips out into a bauble.

You can use Christmas cards saved from last year to make these for the price of the split pins!

4) Similar to above: Make five pointed stars from five strips of card with a hole punched each end then folded over with one split pin holding them all together.

5) Use old packing materials (bubble wrap, white foam etc) to make snow and ice along the window sills.

6) Make paper chains using strips of paper cut from coloured pages of old magazines - they look much prettier than they sound!