Christmas is just around and it is time to gear up and get our houses in order. Especially because we will all have relatives and guests coming over, because it is the time to meet family and friends after all. Also there is just something about setting up and decorating your house that just instantly puts you in a good mood. So, how about we look at some off beat decorations that you can do yourself instead of relying on store bought decorations this year. It will be unique and you can also get your family in on it and make it a wonderful way to spend time with each other.
Easy Christmas Craft Ideas for Family
1. Peppermint Candy Tree Ornaments
Ingredients: Peppermint Candies, Metal Cookie Cutters, Parchment Paper, Wooden Skewer, Ribbon
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Lightly spray the inside of all of the cookie cutters with cooking spray to ensure easy removal when you are done.
Place the cookie cutters on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or you could use a silicone baking mat.
Place the peppermint candies in one layer inside each of the cookie cutter. If there are empty gaps, cut smaller candy pieces from the bigger one to to fill them in. However, make sure you do not layer the peppermint candies.
Place the baking tray in the oven for about 6 to 9 minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on it when the time is almost up. Remove it as soon as the candy melts and all the gaps have been filled. Don’t let it bubble as this will ruin the texture.
Remove the baking tray from the oven and let it rest for 2 minutes or so. Next dip a wooden skewer in cooking oil or melted butter and push it into the candy to make an appropriate sized hole through which you can put the ribbon.
Let them rest for about 15 minutes, gently loosen the cookie cutters away from the edge and push the candy piece out. Don’t wait until they have cooled completely as they might crack when you remove them from the cookie cutter.
Put through a long piece of ribbon of your choice through the hole, tie it and hang it on the tree!
What you should not do:
Don’t use different kinds of peppermint candies for the same batch. They might look the same but say, but they have different melting points. So test it first, but it is better to just do separate batches.
Don’t leave them in the oven for a long period of time. You should take them out as soon as the gaps have been filled. If you keep them longer, you run the risk of burning them. So remember to not let them bubble.
Don’t put the peppermint candies on top of each other. If some are in single layer and the others are double layer, they will again have different melting points and you wont be able to get them even and might end up ruining them in process.
Don’t wait until the candies are completely cold to remove them from the molds as they may crack.
Don’t put them in the fridge to cool as it could make them crack when you remove them from the mold. Instead leave them at room temperature.
Don’t touch them too much, its candy, its bound to be sticky.
Make sure to eat them that year itself. They don’t have a lot shelf life.
2. Christmas Star DIY
Materials Required: cardboard, tape, yarn or string (in the colors of your choice), pins, scraps of patterned paper or card stock of your choice
Instructions:
1. Cut two squares of the cardboard. you can make them whatever size you want
2.Using tape, stick one square on to the other to form a diamond shape. You could also use glue for this process.
3. Cut out a smaller squares from your scrap paper and glue or tape it on to the cardboard
4.Take 8 pins and push one gently into each corner. They should be sticking out slightly because they’re going to hold the yarn as you weave. this is also why you need to use strong cardboard instead of the thin ones
5. Now we will start with the yarn. Flip the cardboard shape, tape nicely the end of your yarn on the back of the diamond shape.
If you’re okay with your star having a plain cardboard back, you can move on to the next step. But if you want the back of the star to be fancier, take a second scrap paper square and tape or glue it over top from where you glued the yarn from
6. Now for the fun part! The pattern is basically twice down, once up in reference to the pins. Using this pattern do all the sides of the diamond, then in circles keep moving inwards. Your goal is that with each round you should be closer to the center or middle. Just keep going round and round with this pattern till you do so. This is also a very relaxing activity to do as it is repetitive and does not require much though.
7. It is done when there are no more space in between the points of the star to move toward the center of the star. Make sure you fill in all the gaps otherwise it will not look as good, and you do not want all that effort to go to waste. Once you are done, you can hang it on the tree or over the fireplace or anywhere really. It will definitely add a very nice Christmas feel to your house. This is also a great gifting idea. It is unique and hand made things are always better than store bought
3. Wreath
Wreaths are a big part of Christmas decoration. So this would not be a Christmas crafts list without the wreath featuring in it. Welcome your guests with this pretty and amazing piece of decor! Put a 14″ embroidery hoop on the inside of an 18″ embroidery hoop and attach the two with very strong tape at the clasps end. Taking a white ribbon, cover the tape. Attach faux greenery, red and white plastic berries and gold and silver glittery ornaments on the bottom of the hoops using the help of a thin green wire used for floral decorations. Using a piece of balsa wood, create the fairy door. Trace a cereal bowl upside-down to enable you to make a rounded top, cut it out using scissors, and with a brown pen and a ruler, draw vertical lines to resemble wood slats. Your wreath is complete now. Hang it on your door so your guests are welcomed by it.
4. Christmas Calendar
Christmas is not just a day, it is practically a whole month long celebration. So why not make the countdown to Christmas more fun by making your own calendar? And you can set your imagination absolutely free with the DIY, make each a day different color and place them on a colorful board. Or use something as simple as a chalkboard and colorful chalk. Or you could use different colored sticky notes and place them somewhere visible, and every day you can remove one to indicate how much closer you are to the big day.
5.Letter Garland
Instructions:
1. Use a pair of pliers to bend armature wire into the letters that spell out your word or phrase of choice. Cover the letters with green floral tape to make it look more festive.
2. For each individual letter, cut a wire and wrap it with floral tape. Bend the wire in each shape of the letter you need, and re do the same thing as in wrapping with floral tape.
3. Then wrap the letters with artificial Juniper Pine Garland. Start from the bottom and work your way up to the top, wrap each letter. Use the floral tape to secure at the base of the stem to so that a base is created. Stick in more greenery with a hot glue gun where you think necessary. It should overlap a little bit so that no gaps are visible.
4.Hot-glue dried berries or faux ones, available in stores. Once they are dry completely, decorate in other ways that you want and you are good to go. Hang them over the fireplace or the front door or even on the walls, and you have a beautiful Do it yourself decoration.
6. Do it yourself Pillows
Materials:
Burlap:
Matching thread
Wooden letters spelling the words you wish to put on the pillow, like happiness or joy (cut your material according to the length of the word)
Cardboard
Red acrylic craft paint
Paint roller
Red yarn and yarn needle
Pillow inserts:
Directions
1. Lay the burlap right side up on your work surface and fold both ends towards the center, overlapping one end by close to 1 inch each.
2.Stitch the seams starting from1″ from edge on both the sides. Turn it so that the right side is out. The side that has the unfinished and not sewn ends will be on the back of the pillow.
3.Place the cloth over a piece of cardboard, so as to avoid staining anything else, and stamp or paint our the letters of the word you have chosen carefully and nicely. Let it air dry completely before handling it as otherwise you could mess it up.
4.Use the red yarn, to stitch decorations around the word
5.Pull the seam that has not been sewn apart and carefully put the pillow inside cover.
7. Felt Stockings
Materials:
Tracing paper; pencil; scissors; ruler; felt: red, white; matching threads; stencils or cookie cutters in flower, tree and floral patterns; pins; sewing machine; fabric glue.
Directions:
1. Use a stocking template of your choice from the internet, or you could also free hand it
2. Trace template onto a sheet tracing paper to make the pattern. Using this pattern, cut 2 pieces of felt, red or white, for the back and front of the stocking
3. Trace stencils of various designs and motifs on tracing paper to make more patterns. Now using these patterns, cut desired shapes from contrasting pieces of felt
4. Put the stocking front and back together, and stitch the sides, stop two inches from the top. Make sure you are stitching the stocking inside out as you want the seams to be on the inside.
5. Now turn the stocking right side out and fold the cuff down. Glue on the contrasting felt pieces that you cut out on front of stocking to make the patterns
6. Glue some cotton on the cuffs to make it look nice, cozy, and fluffy
8. Holly Garland
Materials: Tracing paper, pencil, pins, Magic Cabin felt in 3 shades of green, scissors, brown chenille stems, 1/2-inch red beads, craft glue
Directions:
1.Print an enlarged version of Holly leaf pattern from the internet
2.Cut as many number of leaves as you want, with the length of the garland in mind. Use a mixture all colors of felt.
3.To make berry clusters, you can use small red beads or even faux berries or dried one. Using hot-glue, glue them on
4.To make leaf clusters, glue leaf shaped green colored felts
5.Assemble holly sprigs
6.To assemble garland, keep twisting all the sprigs together till you have the desired length that you want. You can make it a full circle as this will look prettier. There you have it you do it yourself holly garland is now ready to be put proudly on display anywhere in the house.
So these were a few fun craft ideas you could try out for yourself this Christmas to decorate the house and make it more festive. Hope this list inspired you a little, and to be honest, just have fun with it! Happy Holidays!
