6 DIY Christmas Decorations to Spread the Holiday Cheer - Guide to Christmas Decorations 2011, Part 3

While some of us haven’t set foot behind a sewing machine since home economics class in junior high (by some of us, I mean me), there are many people here on iCraft who create fabulous hand-knitted and hand-sewn work.

Put those skills to work for you and whip up some practical and personalized DIY Christmas decorations!

Home-Ec. for the Holidays

1. A tree skirt is one of the more underrated but important Christmas decorations in the home.

Often, presents don’t go out until close to Christmas, so the tree skirt is front and center under the most festive centerpiece of your home.

Instead of buying a tree skirt, create one with felt. Personalize your felt tree skirt with your favorite colors and patterns, and use a hot glue gun to bedazzle it with rhinestones or other holiday themed "bling."

Alternatively, repurpose an old holiday blanket, sheet, or sweater and create a new pattern for your completely unique tree skirt. Sew in bells, ribbon, or fabric bows with shimmer. The DIY tree skirt is one of the simplest yet most essential Christmas decorations.

2. Stockings hang across countless mantelpieces around the world- Santa needs somewhere to stash candy and bath oils for us, right?

This year, turn your Christmas stockings into Christmas decorations that stand out to Santa by creating some out in the holiday colors of your choice.

Use rope as trim, sew on buttons, bells or baubles, and sew the family names into the fold. For extra sparkle, use paint and top with glitter. You can even sew a picture onto the front if you happen to have kept that shirt from the family reunion a few years back.

DIY Deck the Walls

3. Every year, I receive beautiful holiday greeting cards, some delicately painted or hand drawn, others painstakingly posed for by a family I know and love. The expense plus the time and effort put into sending out snail mail these days leaves me feeling bad discarding the cards, so I hang on to them.

For some fun and personal eco-friendly DIY Christmas decorations, select a few of the best holiday greeting cards you’ve received over the years. Use colored paper of your choice as a mat and hang the cards in existing frames around your home.

The Angel card to the right is the perfect card to showcase in a frame during the holiday season.

4. DIY Christmas decorations can often be created from materials already around the house for the holiday season. A spin on DIY Christmas decorations for the walls can be to wrap a few of the larger frames around your home in festive holiday wrapping paper as giant gifts.

Choose a few favorite rolls and then top with all the trimmings - ribbon, bows, and perhaps even a gift tag from Santa Claus, or a humorous tag from one member of the family to another. This is the décor that would segue beautifully into office Christmas decorations as well.

After the holidays, fold up wrapping paper and store the items to be reused or used as wrap next year.

5. Use easy-to-apply wall decals to bring some festive cheer to your home. Not only are wall decals affordable wall art, but they can be changed out with the season. Check out some wall decals available on iCraft here: Design with Vinyl.

Bring a Train Village to Life with DIY Christmas decorations

6. Most years growing up, my grandmother created Christmas decorations that made me feel like our house was the best decorated in the neighborhood. The particular point of pride was the Christmas train village. We had little houses, ice skater figurines, mini trees to create a forest outside of town, and, of course, plenty of railroad tracks and trains that had been collected over the years.

If you share the love of creating a classic Christmas village, with or without trains, here are a few tips for bringing DIY Christmas decorations into the mix:

• Use white felt as a snowy base for your village, cutting out holes for electric cords to run to the houses. Use cotton balls to create snow banks or buildup along the houses.
• Cut out a hole in the felt and lay a hand mirror flat as a frozen pond for ice skaters.
• Create tiny, personalized signs for the houses, station, or a rustic tree farm using cardboard and markers.
• Use Styrofoam or an old box to shape into a tunnel to place over the train tracks. Cover in tinfoil to create texture, and then cover in the felt and spray paint shadows or highlights.
• Use a long piece of cardboard to create a backdrop for your Christmas village. Cover in aluminum foil to create texture, and then spray paint a combination of brown and white to look like a snow-capped mountain.
• Gather rocks and pebbles from your yard to create miniature walkways and little 'boulders' near the pond.

Most of all, have fun with your DIY Christmas decorations. They are a chance to show your creativity and bring your personality to life during the "most wonderful time of the year!"

Have you decorated for the holidays yet? Do you put gifts out early, or wait until the last minute? Share your stories in the comments sections below!

Happy Holidays!

Justine

Photo Credits:
Christmas stocking, felt Christmas tree skirt by Justine Benstead
Whimsical Dog Christmas Stocking by PillowThrowDecor
Wall Decal by Design With Vinyl
Angel Christmas Card by Fairy Cardmaker