Great ‘Decorate your house for under £20’ Hunt

joeyb_3

I've just got back from Tesco and bought a Christmas Tree for £2.49! It's only small (3ft) but we have two young children and I just know one of them will be desperate to climb up the tree, so we are putting it on our windowledge in the lounge. Just wanted to pass this on!

We had plans to get a big 6/7ft tree this year but it just goes to show that sometimes the cheaper ideas are more practical!

karren

I bought those trees in the sale last year for £1 they are brilliant, os I let the children use them in thier bedrooms and they make the decoarations etc, so they are amused for ages and sooooo proud.

natlie

Solar fairy lights
obviously they cost the first year you buy them but every year they save you loads on your electricity bill they cost £12.95 and can be indoor or outdoor use

hey for that price you could use them for everything birthdays, christmas, parties, the list goes on

Nat
xxx

MrsNurseyC

Where can u buy solar fairy lights from nat? I haven't seen them...
Do they stay bright and sparkly all night long if hung up indoors/on the tree?

StudentLife

mademoiselle wrote:

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!

I agree that huge woods/forests are hardly going to be destroyed by cutting off a few branches. However, i just wanted to highlight that it may be illegal (someone may know for sure). I live by the sea and we can get fined for taking pebbles from the beach. I'm not being a killjoy here, i just don't want people to get fined for their 'free' xmas decorations, when they take branches from woods.

vicstick_2

If you have Children a cheap and simple decoration is to take a loaf of cheap white bread and some cookie cutters - Star and Christmas tree shapes for example. Cut the shapes out of the bread and make a hole in the top with a straw (to be used for hanging the decoration later).

Leave the bread shapes out for a couple of days to dry out and go hard. Next dip in PVA glue and cover with glitter OR paint and add sequins and once dried coat in PVA to make it shiny.

Once dry thread some cord or ribbon through the hole you made with the straw and they are ready for the tree.

I work in a nursery school and have done this a few times. The children love to do it and the parents are always pleased to take them home!!! And best of all you can make loads for a couple of quid, just get the cheapest bread in the shop and a tub of PVA from a DIY section (instead of the craft section) of the store (i.e. Wilkinsons) and a tub or two of glitter. Bargin!

gartcott

Have just finished making LOADS of shiny stars from old unwanted computer CD's.

First I made a five - point star template on the computer that would fit the CD and marked the points with a permanent marker on the printed side. After several attempts I discovered that heating the plastic either in boiling water or on a radiator made cutting out the shape quite easy with a pair of scissors. After spraying very inexpensive silver paint and shaking some silver glitter on the printed side, some cotton or thin silver tie through the centre hole - Hey Presto! - durable reusable decorations for indoors or out.

karren

gartcott&#64 wrote: »

Have just finished making LOADS of shiny stars from old unwanted computer CD's.

First I made a five - point star template on the computer that would fit the CD and marked the points with a permanent marker on the printed side. After several attempts I discovered that heating the plastic either in boiling water or on a radiator made cutting out the shape quite easy with a pair of scissors. After spraying very inexpensive silver paint and shaking some silver glitter on the printed side, some cotton or thin silver tie through the centre hole - Hey Presto! - durable reusable decorations for indoors or out.

do you have a picture, as my theme for the dining room is silver and white, I made the white paper chains today with my 3.5yrs girl so next project will be the stars!

cheapskate101

There is another question, somewhere in Martin's Money Tips, on what to do with the one sock, mysteriously parted from its partner in the wash.

Christmas is the only time to hang these lone socks (choose the brightly coloured ones - not the grey ones with holes in) up on a price of coloured string, with those tiny pegs that you get from Woolies. Obviously if no tiny pegs, real ones will do. Arrange round fireplace, window or anywhere dull, not forgetting to adhere to wall with stout pins for safety reasons.

If you want to be really fancy, stuff the socks with paper, then put satsumas, baubles, the occasional robin etc on the top of each sock.

Children: Failing a lone sock collection - raid your father's drawer and hope he doesn't notice.

Jenny6_2

Each January I buy the cheapest crackers I can find (Last Jan, ASDA's Smartprice ones were knocked down to 40p for 10) I take out hats, snaps and mottos and use them to make much better crackers - toilet roll tube and pretty paper, glitter glue and spray paint etc. My daughter tells me she grew up thinking ALL crackers contained naughty knickers, funny socks, 'Lush' soaps or Body shop bath fizzers etc. Tons nicer than the plastic tat in most bought crackers!!!