Hassle Free Homemade Holiday Decorations

Making your own Christmas decorations can be fun and rewarding. Along with several ideas of my own, I've listed several websites that you might check out with projects you can do yourself.

These are the sites with a brief description of each:

Allfreecrafts.com - Exactly as the name describes, a no frills site packed with projects for all skill levels. I liked the thumbnails beside the project names, because it allowed me to quickly scan many projects without having to select them individually.

Familyfun.go.com - This site had a Disney tag and appeared to be kid friendly.

Christmashomemadedecorations.com - This site looked like a great resource and is dedicated just to Christmas.

Bhg.com - Better Homes and Gardens has many samples on their site, but you will need to create a log in id and password to view them.

Here are some additional homemade ideas of my own.

1.Make a wreath using a coat hanger, ribbon, and old Christmas cards. Bend the hanger into a wreath form, leaving the hook as is for hanging. Wrap the wire with ribbon and hot glue in place. The punch holes in the corners of your cards and attach with extra ribbon.

2.Make your own small decorative trees using Styrofoam cones. These can be easily obtained from any craft store. Coat with white glue, and then roll in glitter.

3.Create your own angel with objects from nature. For mine I used Magnolia leaves for the skirt and wings. Dried ornamental grass forms the arms and torso and is secured with plastic coated picture wire. For the head I used a Magnolia seedpod and more ornamental grass for the halo. I am using it as decoration for my front door.

4.An ornament wreath. Fasten ornaments in the color scheme of your choice to a wire wreath form. Pipe cleaners would work great as fasteners because they would add linear forms that would peep out among the round ornaments.

5.Take an old file folder and trace or draw a design to cut out on its surface. After cutting out the design, Spray both sides with metallic spray paint of your choice. Overlap the top edges over one another and staple to form a large cylinder. You can cut it down if you would like to have a shorter luminary. For extra bling, add glue and roll in glitter, then use as a luminary for a flameless candle.

6.Purchase plain, clear glass ornaments from an art supply store. Paint by hand and top with a clear coat to seal. Or coat with glue and wrap in tissue paper, then seal the top with a spray fixative like polycrylic from your local hardware store.

7.Create a homemade wreath made of vines. Any vine plant will work as long as you have enough of it and it won't cause contact dermatitis (like poison ivy!). I love to use wild grape vines and since they are a nuisance plant in my yard, they need to be pulled up anyway. You might find it easiest to start the wreath by wrapping it around something round of a similar size, like a coffee can or gallon paint can. Once you get the roundness of the form, you can slide it off and continue to bind the bottom vines as you wrap around them.

8.Create luminaries out of brown paper bags by folding them in half lengthwise and cutting out a symmetrical design in the same way you would make homemade snowflakes.

9.Using a paper plate as a guide, create your own ribbon wreath. Using a small cup or glass jar as a template, trace its form and cut out a circle from the center of the plate. Then using a hole punch, punch holes every inch or so until you create a grid-like pattern of holes in the plate. (You might need to double over the paper to get holes in some of the middle sections.) Then thread red ribbon in and out through the holes, tying off the remaining ribbon into a bow at the top. For a more dramatic look, don't pull the ribbon tight so that you will have loops of ribbon that create a more full wreath.

10.Use another old file folder to create a standing 3-D tree. Spray the front and back green, then close and trace or draw a simple Christmas tree form on top. Cut both pieces together. Cut halfway down the center of one tree form and halfway up the bottom of the other. Slide your two pieces together. Kids might enjoy adding star or circle shaped stickers as decoration.