Christmas Ornaments Made Easy

Each year the holiday season seems to begin a little earlier and cost twice as much as it did the year before. With the prices of holiday decorations skyrocketing there are alternatives to store bought ornamentation. With a few inexpensive supplies and some willing participants you can make some festive holiday decorations.

Salt Dough Ornaments

One of the easiest ways to make your own inexpensive homemade ornaments is with salt dough and cookie cutters. To make salt dough ornaments you will need 4 Cups of flour and 1 Cup of salt. Combine your flour and salt in a large bowl and slowly add water. You will add approximately 1 Cup of water. Again the water must be added slowly so as to not make your dough to thin. Once you have the dough at the proper consistency (that of bread dough) you can flour your working surface, roll your dough out and then cut out appropriate Christmas shapes. Don't forget to add a hole at the top of the ornament so that you can hang these keepsakes from your tree. These dough ornaments can either air dry or bake in your oven at a low temperature for a few hours. Once the ornaments are cooled you can paint them as you like. It should be noted that when you pack these ornaments up each year you will need to secure them in an air tight container. Otherwise you will run the risk of these ornaments molding.

Glass Balls

There are several ways to decorated glass Christmas balls. You can paint them (inside and out) or fill them with items. The cheapest glass ornaments that you can purchase can be found at hobby stores such as Michaels or Hobby Lobby. If you have very small children doing these projects with you then can actually purchase clear plastic balls instead of glass. They don't look quite as sharp as the glass variety but they are a lot safer and don't shatter into tiny shards when your two year old throws them across the room.

Once you have purchased your plain Christmas balls you can make gorgeous ornaments by painting the inside. Unless you are a gifted artist you may find it difficult to paint a scene on the inside of your Christmas ball. Instead place a few drops of paint into your ball and then twirl the ball in your hand. The twirling motion will help spread the paint around the inside of the glass. Allow the paint to dry for a short period of time and then add another color. Repeat until your ball is fully decorated. These balls have a unique look and the wonderful thing is that two are never the same.

If painting is not your thing you can always fill your glass ball with various items. I like to use scrap pieces of cross stitch thread. I take my remaining string and cut it into small pieces. I then separate the thread (they usually come with six strands in any given thread) and I drop the thread into the ball. The more color variety you use for your Christmas balls the prettier these ornaments turn out. If you are running short on thread you can also use scrap pieces of fabric. Just remember to cut the fabric up very small.

All of these balls make ideal gifts. You can do a set of six, box them and deliver them to your family and friends.

Wreath

One of the things that I have always loved about Christmas is holiday wreaths and swags. While these can be very expensive to buy or make (not to mention the amount of skill ones needs to posses to put these things together) there is an inexpensive and easy alternative.

You can easily make a festive holiday wreath with scrap material and one wire coat hanger. All you need to do is stretch the coat hanger out so that it resembles a circle. While you will not be able to make a complete circle you can come relatively close. You will need to cut your scrap material into strips measuring approximately three inches long. Next you will take one of your strips of fabric and tie it around the wire hanger. You want to tie the fabric around the wire hanger at the center of your strip of fabric. This way you will have material pointing up past the hanger as well as down. You will repeat this process until your wreath is full.

If you don't have the amount of material needed to fill an entire coat hanger you may want to try using a white garbage bag instead. You follow the same process with the garbage bag as you would with the fabric. Although it may sound unusual to use a garbage bag as a wreath the look is actually quite striking. I always hang ours on the front door and from the road you absolutely cannot tell that the wreath is made of plastic garbage bags. The trick with the garbage wreath is to place as many ties on the coat hanger as possible. This gives the wreath a full look.

With a little bit of ingenuity and some inexpensive supplies you can make your own holiday ornamentation without breaking the bank.