Great ‘Decorate your house for under £20’ Hunt

hollydays

Bastins?Who are they?

wotnext

Buy a selection pack of cheap baubles (preferably 2 or 3 different colours). Buy a cheap reel of ribbon to match. Tie small, but differing lengths of ribbon to each bauble and - connecting 2 or 3 together - tie together at the top with a bow. Then hang the bunches from the top of pictures, mirrors etc, around the home. Very understated, but effective.

salli_minx

Its not really a decoration, but every year i keep all the Christmas cards that we are sent and then cut out the pictures from them and use them as gift tags on all the presents.

If you use pinking shears (the zigzaggy scissors) then you can make really jazzy tags.

sheenaf

We have loads of holly and Ivy in the garden. Unfortunatly the holly never has berries but I mix in some sprigs of red berried cotoneaster and that does the trick. As for Ivy - wow. Paint round the edges of leaves with white paint, shoe white or snopake and sprinkle with glitter. You don't have to paint every leaf and if you do it over newspaper you can keep scooping up the glitter and sprinkle again. I have really long lengths of Ivy which can go right across fire place and dangle down both sides, same with big bookcase, but you can tie short lengths together. Final touch - home made red velvet stockings ( made from an old dress) and decorated with old glass beads and gold or pearl buttons from the button box. I hang two on each side of fireplace.

Psykicpup

If you can find a cheap pack of curtain/shower rings you can decorate them with various bits of ribbon/crepe paper, little bits of mini bauble chain (often from haberdashery type stores really cheap for a foot or 2) & glitter etc. I did this for my first 'colour themed' tree as I couldnt afford the coloured bits I wanted - trust me to chose the fashionable colour that yr lol

StudentLife

Whilst i think that branches, pine cones etc sprayed silver/gold look fab, an awful lot of you are suggesting taking them from local woods. I'm not 100% certain but i think that may actually be illegal! So try and use stuff from your own back garden if you can!

I have visions of hundreds of MSEers invading woods and stripping them bare to get the perfect Christmassy look to their homes :rotfl:

chinagirl

I got my children and some of their friends making a paste mixture with washing powder and water, splodged it along some small branches found in the park, and before it dryed, stuck a candle on it and some small shiny tinsel decorations and holly leaves. It made a really effective table decoration, and the kids were really proud to have done it themselves.

Miss_Moody_Pants

I make scented pomanders, they're great Christmas decorations, either hang them or put them in a fruit bowl as a table decoration. Cheap and easy to make.

All you need are oranges, red ribbon (about a metre per orange, costs about 15p per metre), pins and cloves.

Take the orange and put the end of the ribbon at the top of the orange and secure with a pin.
Wrap the ribbon around the orange until it meets with the start, secure with a pin and cut.
Then start the ribbon again at the top and go the opposite way around the orange so that it crosses over the other bit of ribbon. Secure at both ends of the orange with a pin.
Fill the segments with cloves, if you find it difficult to push the cloves in, you can make a hole with the pin first then push the cloves in.
Put in as many cloves as you like. Once completed cut a bit of ribbon and place it at the top of the orange, secure with a pin, loop the ribbon and secure the other end with a pin.
Make sure you put the pins diagonally into the orange otherwise they won't hold. You then should have a loop to hang you pomander.

If the orange dries out and does not go mouldy it should keep up to a year, you can hang it in your wardrobe to keep it smelling nice.:T

mademoiselle_2

StudentLife wrote:

Whilst i think that branches, pine cones etc sprayed silver/gold look fab, an awful lot of you are suggesting taking them from local woods. I'm not 100% certain but i think that may actually be illegal! So try and use stuff from your own back garden if you can!

I have visions of hundreds of MSEers invading woods and stripping them bare to get the perfect Christmassy look to their homes :rotfl:

Depends where you are walking...but if you are in a country park or public access forest, I don't see that there could be any problem in picking up pine cones, decorative twigs and branches, or even cutting a few pieces of holly or ivy. After all, pruning plants makes them grow back stronger!

My tips for decorations: as the tins of sweets get passed round, keep the coloured silver foil wrappings. Smooth them out, concertina-pleat them; pinch in the middle and you have a decorative 'bow' to hang on the tree.

If you can't be assed making a wreath, a simple bunch of holly tied with ribbon and hung on the door looks just as seasonal. And if you love a christmas wreath - try ordering a gift from Thompson & Morgan - they are giving away 500 decorative wreaths, worth £14.99, free with orders over £10.99. http://xmas.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/index
As they already offer a free decorated bunch of carnations (worth £13) with every order, AND will post 'surprise gifts' worth at least £9.99 for only £5.00, to either you or a nominated person, that could add up to quite a good deal!

Pricefamily4

Sorry if someone has posted it already but I'm at work and busy but Aldi have loads of really good and cheap stuff in next week, They even have 10m of led light rope for 9.99 which is a lot cheaper than I can find on the net it's normally that for 5m lengths!