Most of you know that Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday and that I get really into decorating for it (sometimes in the middle of November...). Last year, I got really crafty and made a couple fun decorations for my house and this year, I continued the streak. I love crafting and it's so nice to save a few bucks by making something yourself instead of buying it in a store. Plus, you get to brag that you made it when people ask you about it! ;) Today I'm going to give you a quick little tour of my Christmas decorations and give a couple short little tutorials about a few of my favorite crafts.
Nail Polish Ornaments
Of course you've already seen the nail polish ornaments that I made last year! The tutorial on that is here if you missed it. These are so simple and inexpensive but turn out stunning. I've been putting polishes aside throughout the year that I think will look great as ornaments and I can't wait to start making some again now that I've dug my leftover clear ornaments out of storage!
Mason Jar Snow Globes
I also made a whole bunch of these adorable mason jar snow globes last year. I have three or four of them in my house, plus I made a bunch for gifts too and they were a hit! You need spray paint, candlesticks, mason jars with lids, snow-like glitter, E-6000 craft glue, and little trees. I bought a package of the trees from Amazon for a pretty good price. To get started, glue the lid of the jar to the candlestick using the E-6000 glue (if you use hot glue on glass candlesticks, it'll just peel off). Let it dry for a few minutes and then take it outside and spray paint the whole thing white (or any other color you want). Once the spray paint is completely dry, you can bring the bases in and glue the trees to the inside of the lid. To finish it up, fill the mason jar with glitter (I went about 1/4 full for mine), screw the lid on to the jar, and then flip it over to see the finished product!
Ornament Wreath
This ornament wreath is a new addition to our house for this Christmas season. I've seen these in stores but they are always so expensive, so I've been hunting in thrift stores and dollar stores for cheap ornaments to make my own. You need a ton of ornaments and a wreath base to make this, plus hot glue to hold it together obviously. Take all the tops off of the ornaments and glue them around the inside and outside of the wreath base with the open top all facing up. Then, flip the base around and start filling in the spaces! This works best if you have a bunch of different sized ornaments to fill in all the little holes and leave as little of the base showing as possible.
Salt Dough Ornaments
I also attempted to make salt dough because I wanted to make dog paw ornaments for my pups and I wound up having a lot of fun experimenting with different things to make the ornaments. I made the paw print ones and one with the print of the key from our house, but my favorites were like the one pictured below. To make them, I rolled the dough out, pressed a piece of a pine branch into it and then used the cookie cutter to cut out the tree shape. I also tried some with rubber stamps that turned out really great! The salt dough is super to easy to make too; all you need is one cup of salt, one cup of water, and two cups of flour. The recipe makes a lot of dough, so I ended up using the ornaments as gift tags for all my gifts too!
Did you DIY anything fun for the holidays this year?