DIY Paper Garland

I've been pretty excited about holidays lately and my new "thing" is making garland. It's a really simple and inexpensive way to add some holiday spirit to a room. I started on Etsy, trying to figure out what kind of garland I could easily manage re-creating. About half an hour later, I had this hanging over the entry way to the kitchen!

 

I noticed that a lot of these types of garland on Etsy were sewn together with a sewing machine. For fall/Thanksgiving, I wanted to incorporate a more natural look and the hemp from my previous projects was just what I needed! I gathered card stock in my favorite fall colors, a one-inch circular hole punch, scissors, and photo squares to make this super cute garland. If you don't have photo squares, spray adhesive would work well too.

After cutting off about six feet of the hemp, I began cutting out my card stock circles with the hole punch. After I had a large amount of each color, I placed photo corners on the back of two circles and adhered them together with the hemp in the middle. I continued this process with a pattern of five different colored circles until I reached the end of the hemp cord, knotting a loop at each end for ease of hanging. Ta-da! I saw similar garland strands on Etsy for $10 plus $4 for shipping. This project didn't cost me anything!

While I had my supplies out, I went ahead and made a garland for Christmas. Instead of the fall colors and the hemp, I used red and green circles and a white satin ribbon. Same concept and just as cute!

I originally got the idea to make my own holiday garland when I found bat cut-outs at the Dollar Tree just before Halloween. As you can see from the photo below, I turned it into something festive with a regular hole punch and some orange satin ribbon.

 

How do you add simple touches to your home for the holidays?

DIY Shell Ornament

For those of you who do not know me in "real" life, I live on an island off the east coast. Our tiny island suffered a bit of damage from recent Hurricane Sandy, but this is nothing we haven't seen before. The upside of a hurricane is the shells that wash onto the shore.

 

 And after searching for about an hour, I was satisfied with my finds. A few perfect starfish, a perfect sand dollar, and a bunch of pretty white clam shells. I actually picked up the clam shells with the intention of hanging them on the Christmas tree.

 

After a soak in a 50/50 mixture of bleach and water, I got my awesome boyfriend to drill a tiny hole in the shells so that I can hang them. Use a small drill bit and a lot of patience.

 

Note: Do not ever put starfish in bleach. You will return to the bowl waiting to find a perfectly clean, stink-free starfish and it will be gone. Gone. The bleach literally eats it.

 

I used some of the hemp from yesterday's ornament to make a loop and they are ready for the tree. I can't wait to put up the tree and have tons of natural and simple ornaments on display this year.

While we're on the topic of shell projects, check out this mirror I made last summer. Have you ever made anything with the shells brought home from a beach vacation or from shells laying around the house? If you have, I want to know about it!

DIY Hemp Ornament

Before Halloween had even arrived, I was ready to put up the Christmas tree. If you can't tell, I LOVE Christmas. When my tree idea got vetoed, I decided to start thinking about Christmas-related projects. Last December, I bought some clear glass ball ornaments at Michaels on sale and had full intentions of decorating them for Christmas 2011. Oops... Needless to say, I've been searching the web for some easy DIY ornament projects for these little guys. Because I'm obsessed with the ideas of simple, rustic, and natural, I thought I'd look around the house for some twine and see what I could come up with. I couldn't find any twine, but instead, I found a bunch of hemp.

 

I cut off about four feet of hemp and started cramming it inside the glass ball. It twisted and did its own thing with minimal effort on my part and I think they look great! I added a piece of white satin ribbon for a touch of femininity and ta-da! It is just about the easiest project I have ever come across (and the cheapest!). This picture does not do these little guys justice. They are going to look amazing on my tree!

What does your tree usually look like? Do you coordinate the ornaments? Do you have a theme? Is it a random collection with your child's handmade beauties?