Homemade holidays: DIY decorations

Holiday decorating can be fun, if you let it. You don’t need to spend outrageous amounts of money to purchase sparkling new decorations for your home. Instead, make your own! There are so many readily available supplies and ideas (thank you, Pinterest!) that you can craft your own homemade holidays. Here are some easy projects that produce eye-catching results.

Gift-wrap your wall art

Surround yourself with the beauty of festive wrap, ribbons, and bows. Take down your framed artwork and wrap it up like a gift. Then place it back on the wall. If you have young children, give them a roll of plain paper and let them put their artistic talent to work with handprints, drawings, and maybe even a list to Santa. Use that artwork to wrap up and re-display your wall art over the holidays, or to cover a door.

Light up your glassware

Fill mason jars, wine bottles, stemware, and other glassware with miniature lights. You can create a centerpiece by placing them in a wreath or garland on the table. This soft light is a wonderful way to add a decorative touch to any space in your home, including your powder room and foyer. You can also make a festive luminaria using just some mason jars, frosted glass spray paint, and adhesive letters or designs. Then add LED tea lights, which you can buy in bulk at a dollar store!

Fill ‘er up

Purchase clear ornaments (plastic or glass), remove the top with the hanger and fill them with anything that is meaningful to you. You can start with fake snow and draw on a snowman’s face, or stuff the ornaments with colored paper shred that is used in gift baskets. Sprinkle with glitter, if you like. Do you have children who love Lego? Put some blocks in a ball. Use anything that will fit into the ornament’s opening: jingle bells, crystal beads, pom-poms, and even tiny marshmallows or colorful cereal! Or how about a hot cocoa ornament?

Hang your ornaments differently

Those colorful, sparkling holiday ornaments can go more places than on your tree. Hot glue an assortment to a wreath or craft an ornament topiary. Hang them from an empty picture frame. If you don’t have any frames, visit your local thrift shop to find affordable frames, then spray paint the frame in your favorite holiday color. Fill a large jar, bowl, or hurricane lamp with an assortment of ornaments in different sizes and the color palette you choose.

Recycle your literary genius

Here’s an idea for the book lover. Remove pages from books that you no longer want, or purchase them from a thrift shop or library. Tear the pages into small pieces and decoupage them on a plastic ornament. Embellish with raffia or holiday tags. You can also print out maps and decoupage them to make ornaments that showcase special places in your life. Once you get the hang of ripping pages from a book (and it can be hard for a book-lover), you can repurpose the paper and make a leaf wreath or “well-read wreath”. Here are some simple DIY holiday decorations you can craft with supplies from your local craft or dollar store!

Turn your creative endeavor into a festive event by bringing together friends and family

Set out the supplies and instructions for each project and let your guests pick and choose. You’d be amazed at what you can accomplish with a little glue and creativity! If all this holiday spirit sparks your wish for a new home to decorate, please talk to us at McGuinn Homes. We build new home communities throughout the Midlands and surrounding areas. If you plan to move soon, check out our quick move-in homes. Happy holidays from McGuinn Homes!