Christmas centerpiece

I always liked Christmas whether if it was just the four of us in France  (my parents, my sister and I) or the whole Portuguese part of the family together while living in Portugal where no one can actually hear each other because it's so loud... For me it's always that special time of the year that we all sit together and have good food and nice presents for each other.

Also the houses are so nicely decorated each year and on Christmas eve there is always a nice centerpiece on the table. This one is very simple and I really enjoyed doing it because it was one more of those projects that seemed so obvious before I began so I didn't really plan much in advance, I just chose and collected the materials as I went along...

So I finally went for a candle in a tuna can which I wrapped in decor tissue hot glued the can in a carton base and some pine cones around the can. I used some sprigs of pine tree to decorate around the candle and some red wild berries on the pine cones. (In the end I didn't use the ribbon.)

Although I've sprayed all with diluted glue (that's why the old spray bottle) I'm not sure how much this will last... I'll let you know...

Christmas crown

Last time we went to the forest with our little one I let her walk on the leafs and showed her all the leafs, chestnuts and pine cones and I picked up a few to make Christmas decorations.

First one is this Christmas crown. I used a big bowl to draw the outer circle on the card and a compasses for the inner one. Then I cut the crown out of the card using scissors and a exacto knife. I glued the cone pines to the circle with hot glue and then decorated with the ribbons. I also used a ribbon to hang it on the door.

Very natural and simple decoration for Christmas, just my style! ;)

Christmas balls!

You know me... (well... maybe you don't, but you'll know that...) I'm not able to throw anything in the wrong bin so I was storing the old lamp bulbs to take them all together to the store until this idea hit me - what if I made them pretty? So pretty that I can use them as a decoration? Maybe in the Christmas tree?

One of the times I went to this very cheap store that has a craft section I found this decorative pearls and just knew right away I would use them for this project ;)

I used decorative pearls on the bulb, nail polish to paint the base and I forgot to include two things in the picture: nylon cord to hang the bulbs and ribbons for decoration.

Card Christmas Tree

What is Christmas without a Christmas tree, right?

With a cat and a one year old baby that walks all round the house I wonder how much time would my Christmas tree survive this year... I'm still considering, but in the meantime I thought I would do a card one inspire by a magazine (Portuguese magazine called "Especial Nova Gente - Solucoes" no. 16) and some random posts on Facebook... 

Sorry but I'm so enthusiastic that I first made the tree and then took the pictures of what I used, so the card in the photo is actually just what's left after cutting the tree... :D

I used:

- Card box that I brought from the supermarket to do the tree itself

- Green paint and paint brush to paint the tree

- Random small colored boxes to do the decorations (little stars, christmas trees, snow mens, snow flakes, crowns)

- Colored spiky paper where I wrote some words related with Christmas (you can also write your best moments of the year or your expectations for next year)

- Glue pads to glue the decorations (could have used glue if I was sure about the location of each decoration to begin with, but this way I could go by trial - error...)

- (obviously) I needed drawing material to draw everything on the cards and scissors to cut it all 

I like the result! What about you? Inspired yet?

Newpaper basket

Not that this has anything to do with Christmas but I challenged myself to do a basket with all the newspapers and advertisements that were delivered to us in our mailbox although we have the "nee/nee" sticker...

All you need is paper but it has to be wide enough for the size of the box you want to build, the pieces with which you start with have to  be big enough to cover the base and 2 sides. I used open newspaper sheets and the result was a big box!

The glue is not really needed but I applied some to keep the newspaper sheets folded (stick glue) and the strong glue for some loose ends when finishing.

I used masking tape at the top to make it prettier. Did it work? :P

Now that I made the first one I think I could do so much better, but this one was not bad at all, hum? :D

Christmas Candles

We already see all over stores-Christmas is coming!!! This year I will do my own decorations and I hope I can inspire you to do some also instead of buying them...

Recycling Yourself's  first Christmas crafts are thematic candles but be sure to use this ones with electrical candles since the top is polystyrene so you could have fire hazard if you use a real candle!

I realized it's not really easy to figure out all materials used from a picture so from now I will put the material used under the picture ;)

Santa Claus:

Wool, red fabric and sewing line and needle were used to make Santa Claus' hat.

The hair on the side is cotton, the beard is protective paper 

The eyes were bought and I drew the mouth and nose.

The belt is from used paper that I painted black.

... and of course the body is the glass jar painted red!

Snow man:

Coffee capsule and black painted paper for snow man's hat.

The eyes and nose were bought.

The scarf was made from a old shirt and the buttons are from the same shirt. 

... and of course the body is the glass jar and it's covered by protective paper!

So these go to the dinning table during Christmas! Aren't they cute?