Home made christmas decorations
When you hang a homemade ornament on your tree this Christmas, you can be assured you have a totally unique Christmas tree, unlike any other.
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What about making baubles like those below from thin card. One sheet of A4
card is enough for four.
homemade baubles.
Alternatively, you could hang giant paper stars like these. For these cool
decorations take a look at our step by step instructions
make paper decorations.
By
getting the whole family (and friends) involved in making decorations, you
will build a treasury of memories to display each year, bringing joy to all
who see them.
Of course, if the decorations look terrible, you might think this is a bad idea. Well, after 25 years of making decorations, the truth is that no handmade ornament ever looked worse than a plastic bauble. Trust me, that even a ham fisted toddler can create something you would be proud to hang on your tree.
The simplest decorations I have ever made were created by rolling a pennant shaped strip of red paper which had been decorated with a glitter stripe along the long edges. By rolling from the unglittered edge around a strip of wire (for the hanger) I made a beautiful hanging ornament for the christmas tree.
A particularly pretty decoration can be made by wrapping bendy wire around the outside of a christmas cookie cutter's edge (stars, trees, angels and bell shapes work well). Remove the cookie cutter leaving a chritmassy outline that can be wrapped with glittered string or thinner wire or even short tinsel to make very classy tree decorations.
Spraying pine cones with gold or silver paint is something my grandma used to do. We didn't worry too much about the environment back then, but today there are plenty of safe spray paints. If you sprinkle some tinsel onto the wet paint it looks even better. Attach a string or hanging wire with a small drop of strong glue.
Salt-dough decorations
Salt dough is just as good as modelling clay but costs pennies. Simply mix 500g of flour, 250g of salt and enough water to form a heavy dough. Knead for ten minutes and roll it flat and cut shapes using a cookie cutter.
Make a small hole at the top of each shape so you can thread a hanging ribbion through it later on. 2 minutes in the microwave should be enough to harden the salt dough. You now have (non-edible) decorations which you can decorate as you see fit. I particularly liked using very small cookie shapes. Look out for a mini gingerbread man.
Once you have decorated your salt dough shapes with poster paints, enamels, glitter or even icing sugar, you can varnish the decorations so they will last for a lifetime. Now threat a bright ribbon through the hole and hang from the Christmas tree.
