Christmas Candle-
Materials:
Glass Cylindrical Holder
Cinnamon Sticks
Twine or Ribbon
Dried Cranberries
Tea Light Candle
Hot Glue Gun and Glue
1) Take the glass candle holder and cinnamon sticks and hot glue them around the holder. The cinnamon sticks should be going up and down. (Once Christmas is over, you can easily remove the cinnamon sticks and hot glue from the glass candle holder so you can reuse it throughout the year.)
2) Tie the twine or ribbon around the center of the glass with a cute little bow.
3) Fill the glass with cranberries (I switched to dried cranberries instead of normal ones so they would have a longer life. Plus it also helps when it comes to balancing the candle on the cranberries.).
4) Plop in the little tea light and light it to fill the room with the scent of Christmas!
*These also make great gifts!
Christmas Lantern-
Materials:
Straws
Gold or Silver Spray Paint
Wire
Whatever you want to hang or put in Lantern
1) Decide on the shape you want the base of your lantern to be (triangle, octagon, hexagon...). Once decided, cut the straws to the length you want the sides of the base to be. Make sure to cut before the stretchy part so that you get a clean line with the straw.
2) String the wire through the straws and create the shape you want. Twist it off when it comes back around and connects.
3) Create the top part of the lantern, having three or four pieces coming together. If the straws are not long enough, connect two straws by stuffing one in another. String wire through one of the straws. When it connects at the bottom, string it through the base side and then string it through the next upper straw, then down the other upper straw back to the base.
4) If you are only doing three upper straws, twist the wire at the corner base where it connects. Connect the dangling straw to the top by twisting the wire
5) Spray paint gold or silver.
6) To make it so that an ornament can be hung in the lantern, take wire and string it down from the top of the standing connections and create a hook for the ornament to hang. Or you can put whatever you want in the middle of the lantern. Put it next to some coffee table books and a candle and it makes the perfect coffee table decoration.
Fuzzy White Christmas Tree-
Materials:
Cardboard Paper Towel Roll
Cardboard
Wire
Tinsel (Sparkly and Fuzzy)
Hot Glue Gun and Glue
Cardboard Knife
1) Cut four small slices an inch long in to one end of the paper towel roll. These should be cut at the north, south, east, west points.
2) Cut two pieces of cardboard in the shape of a trapezoid as the base so that the tree can stand. Put together so they are perpendicular on top of each other. Cut 1 inch on the top on one side and then 1 inch on the bottom of the other so they can be inserted together.
3) Paint the paper towel roll and cardboard white.
4) Cut holes going up along the paper towel roll. The hole should puncture all the way through to the other side of the paper towel roll so you can see through from one side to another. I spaced them out two inches from each other going up the roll following each of the slits from the bottom of the roll. You are also going want to create holes going up between the slits too. The holes should create diagonal patterns. I used a knife but you can use a box cutter or exacto knife, just be careful no matter what you use.
5) Once all the holes are cut, sting wire through the paper towel roll, through the holes, so that it goes through to the other side and glue in place so they don't move back and forth. Cut 4 wires at 10 inches, 4 wires at 8 inches, 4 wires at 6 inches, and 2 wires at 4 inches.
6) Glue the tinsel on the top of the wire so it is covered. Do this going all the way up the paper towel roll making sure as you go higher, the wires get shorter and shorter as to form a cone, like a tree.
7) At the top of the tree, fold the edge in to itself so the hole is smaller and comes to something like a point.
8) Wrap the tinsel around the exposed top to cover it and then cut a small part of tinsel and glue it in the whole to make it come to a point. You can take snow and spread it at the base of the tree to make it look like a mini snowy Christmas.
Christmas Ornament Tree-
Materials:
Foam Cone
Red/Green and Silver/White Ornaments
Smaller Silver/White and Red/Green Beads (for the space in between ornaments)
Hot Glue Gun and Glue
1) Take the little silver tops off the ornaments.
2) Start with the bottom of the cone. Stick the top of the ornament in to the foam to create a hole where it will be glued. Take it out and put hot glue in foam and then stick the ornament back in the hole. Start from the bottom and work your way, spiraling, up to the top. Glue in between ornaments so they are stable.
*They will not all fit going up the cone so don't worry if you need to stop using a certain ornament. In fact, I would suggest randomly placing them along the cone instead of doing three different ornaments spiraling up. It will look at lot more consistent and you won't have a problem with discontinuing the spiral like I did (it was my first time doing this DIY so I learned some tips and tricks while I did it for you guys).
4) When you get towards the top, try to use only three ornaments at the top instead of four so that it doesn't look awkwardly large (like mine). Then, once you have the three at the top, you can place the last one in the center of the three to create the point. If you want, you can even top the one with a fun star (unfortunately something I did not have at the time).
5) Once the ornaments are glued on, take the smaller beads and glue them in to the cracks between the ornaments to keep the rest of the foam from showing.
* If there are any small beads left, place them around the base of the tree so that it doesn't stand alone and flows well with the rest of the decor.