Crafty Christmas Decorations

Between cold stormy weekends and school ending soon for the holiday, this is a great time to have some crafty holiday projects that can engage the whole family in a few time-killing, charming decoration-making activities.  What says "keeping the family busy" more than a some glue, scraps of paper, or other craft-store finds?

Knick Knacks and Ric Rac showed charming Gingerbread Heart Ornaments with a Pennsylvania Dutch feel. Brown felt, colorful ric rac flowers, craft store pom poms and chenille sticks (pipe cleaners) make these inexpensive and charming.

Christmas Decoration Tutorials were the topic of Lisa Tilse's The Red Thread December 1st post. She aimed these specifically as projects for kids, and I think her colorful baubles hit it out of the park! Styrofoam balls, brightly colored scraps of fabric or paper, LOTS of glue is a combination that guarantees some mistake-proof messy fun.

Lisa also pointed us to Zakka Life's Flower Garlands. Made from cutting up one of the many catalogs we receive in the mail every day, these garlands are a cheerful decoration you can keep up all year.

While Berroco suggests these miniature knitted sweaters could be quite cool holiday ornaments, I envision them as inspiration for gift tags.  Giving a hand-knit sweater or scarf this year?  Use some of the scrap yarn to make a tiny version.  I'm not knitting this holiday season; I'm sewing aprons.  But I now see teeny-tiny aprons fused to card stock as my gift tags!

Living Creatively rates their Clay Ornaments as a beginner project that can be completed in 15 minutes plus drying time.

This is such a quick and easy way to make Christmas Ornaments and the results are just beautiful! You can hang the ornaments on the tree, tie them onto gifts or even use them as place settings. Working with clay is great fun and this is the perfect project to get kids involved in.

Felted Wool Sweaters were turned into adorable christmas tree ornaments by Dollar Store Crafts.  I fluffy heart felted sweaters! This year I'll branch out to use them in some decorations.

In the true spirit of extending an object's life, Susan Beal, contributor for CraftStylish, took old glass ornaments that had lost much of their luster and glitzed them up by gluing sparkly craft-store gems onto them. (ht to the Crafty Chica for pointing them out first.)

We can't decorate for the holidays without some hand made garlands.  If you're not in the daisy-chain garland stage of your life, check out another CraftyStylish project:  An Easy Crocheted Holiday Garland by Linda Permann.

That's all I have for now, though I'm positive that more crafty goodness will be popping up in the next couple weeks. Will I save those links for next year, or share a few last minute quickies with you?

And what are your favorite crafty holiday decorations?  Hit me up in comments with those you'd like to share.

Debra Roby is recovering from volunteering yesterday at The Miracle on Pier 48 where she met some truly fabulous folk! More typical times she blogs her creative life at A Stitch in Time and her journey to fitness at Weight for Deb.