Fuzzy Sticks Christmas Tree Ornaments

 

 

A while back I had purchased a package of Fuzzy Sticks (pipe cleaners) at our local dollar store for $1.00 . I was trying to figure out what to do with them and decided to do what everyone does with them. So here are some quick 5 minute or less Christmas Tree Ornaments or Gift Topper ideas. I was really amazed at what I was able to get done while I was waiting for dinner to finish cooking. This is great for kids to do or as a last-minute decoration idea. I really liked working with the Fuzzy Sticks and I can’t wait to get spring colored sticks to continue working with them.

Below I posted the instructions and supplies that will be needed for each ornament. I hope you enjoy making these as much as we did!

 

Candy Cane

Supplies Needed:

• 1 White Fuzzy Stick
• 1 Red Fuzzy Stick 

Instructions:

1. Bend the White Fuzzy Stick in half and then twist it together tightly
2. Do the same for the Red Fuzzy Stick.
3. Take both your White and Red Fuzzy Sticks together and twist them tightly as evenly as possible.
4. Lastly bend one end to make a hook

Thats it!

 

Wreath

Supplies Needed:

• 2 Green Fuzzy Stick
• 1 Red Fuzzy Stick

Instructions:

1. Take your 2 Green Fuzzy Sticks and twist them together.
2. Then bend it in half.
3. Take your bent half and your other end and bend it into a circle, twisting the ends together tightly.
4. The next step is take your Red Fuzzy Stick and cut about 1/3 of it off to make your bow.
5. Bend the Red Fuzzy Stick to make a small bow.
6. Then cut off another piece of the Red Stick about 1 inch long.
7. Attach your Red bow to your Green wreath with the 1 inch Red Fuzzy Stick.

All there is to it!

 

Christmas Tree

 

Supplies Needed:

• 2 White Fuzzy Stick
• 1 Red Fuzzy Stick
• 2 Brown Fuzzy Sticks
• 2 Green Fuzzy Sticks

Instructions:

1. Take your first Green Fuzzy Stick and bend it into a triangle, securing the ends at the top.
2. Take 1 of your Brown Fuzzy Sticks and cut it in half. bend it to make a 3/4 rectangle and twist the ends over the triangle to secure it.
3. Take the other 1/2 of the Brown Fuzzy Stick plus the other whole one and wrap them around your rectangle.
4. Then take your second Green Fuzzy Stick and size it up to the triangle making sure the ends stick over the bottom and over the top about a 1/2 so you can twist it on to the triangle.
5. Do the same with another strip of the Green Fuzzy Stick.
6. Make sure your 2 Green strips are secured to the bottom and the top.
7. The next step is to take 1 of your White Fuzzy Sticks and bend it into a star.
8. Cut a 1 inch Stick out of your other White Fuzzy Sticks and wrap it around the middle of your star and the top of the tree, so to secure the star on top of the tree.
9. Then cut an extra 5   1 inch strips of white and 5    1 inch strips of the red.
10. Take your strips and wrap them around the green spreading them out as you go.

All Finished!!

 

Like I said these are really quick to make and the kids will love to help. I hope you enjoy. Please comment back and share your Fuzzy Sticks Ornaments.

Paper Christmas Light Garland

I love Garland!! I don’t know why I just do. I was actually making these for ornaments originally, However last-minute turned it into garland. So really these cute little paper light bulbs would look great anywhere. Be careful when string them or hanging them as the ends are pretty flimsy.

Well let’s get started.

Supplies Needed:

• 1 sheet of red construction paper
• 1 sheet of white construction paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Red glitter
• Silver glitter
• Gold glitter glue
• Hole punch
• String
• Black puffy Paint

Instructions:

1. Draw or take a template of a classic style Christmas light bulb and trace it 10 times on each color construction paper.
2. Cut out your light bulbs
3. take all your red colored light bulbs and brush your glue on just the light bulb section of the light bulb.
4. After you glue about 3 or 4 take your red glitter and sprinkle it over the light bulb making sure to cover all the glue.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 or the rest of your red light bulbs.
6. After you are done putting the glitter on the bulb take your gold glitter glue and cover the part of the light bulb that would screw in.
7. Set aside all your red bulbs to dry for about 30 min.
8. While your red bulbs are drying repeat steps 3-7 for the white construction paper light bulbs using the sliver glitter for the bulb part and continuing to use the gold glitter glue like you used for the red bulbs.
9. After your 30 min or so are done for your red bulbs take your black puffy paint and draw 3 lines across the bottom part where the bulb would screw in.
10. Then set aside again to dry for about 4-6 hours
11. Repeat steps 9 and 10 for the silver bulbs.
12. After your drying time has passed take your bulbs and repeat the whole process on the other side.
13. When everything is done drying it’s time to string your bulbs and hang them up. Watch them sparkle.

 Total time should take around 8-10 hours, However 90% of it is drying time.

For the people who are following me or are just finding this blog I have spent a total of  $20.00 on supplies to make all the Christmas decorations and crafts for 2011. This will make the 13th project working off the same materials. The supplies consisted of:

• 200 sheets of construction paper (Large Pack $3.49)
• Big bottle of Elmers glue ($1.10)
• 1- 4 oz bottle of red glitter ($2.25)
• 1- 4 oz bottle of silver glitter ($2.25)
• 1 -4 oz bottle of gold glitter ($2.25)
• 1 -sm Tulip puffy paint black ($.97)
• 1 -sm Tulip puffy paint red ($.97)
• 1 -sm Tulip puffy paint white ($.97)
• 10 pack- of glitter glue ($1.00)
• 50 sheets of christmas colored tissue paper($2.99)
• 1 pack of Christmas colored fuzzy sticks ($1.00)

 total $19.24 then add some tax.

Everything else was stuff I found lying around my house or was given to me for free. I just wanted to show for a small amount of money you can really make your house full of beautiful decorations and keepsake gift ideas.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Please comment back and share your paper Christmas bulbs. I would love to see what you did with them.

 Happy Holidays!

Winterberry Wreath

I have to say that for my first non paper wreath I was very proud of this one. Earlier last week I had stopped out by my Husbands Grams House to pick up her 5’5” santa for my entrance way. Well she had given me a box full of material and pieces of decorations that she had once wanted to put together and never got the chance or was recycling pieces of a decoration and was going to use the pieces somewhere else. Either way I brought home this box and inside was a melting pot of different christmas type material.

As I sorted through everything and started putting pieces together I found the materials to make this cute little wreath that fits perfectly in my front door window. I am not the biggest fan of birds, however when I found the perfect family of 3 with the little cardinals I figured it was the perfect touch for the winterberry Wreath. Listed below are the supplies I used and a brief description of how I made the wreath.

Supplies Used:

• 12 single strands of (I used fake) winterberries (The individual strands looked pretty scares and scraggly, but trust me you’ll need the room for twisting the stems around each other.
• a hook for hanging
• 3 cardinals

Instructions:

Start taking your strands and twisting them together. Keep taking the end together to see if it’s the size you would like. When you have reached your desired size take your ends and another strand of your winterberries twisting everything together so that its secure. This should take up half your strands. Then take your other half and start twisting them around your more bearer areas, so that you can evenly spread out your winterberries around the wreath. When you are finished with your wreath then go on to  embellish it with a bow or some birds or whatever you like.

Really it was pretty simple, and to be really honest I sorta fell into this project on accident. As I was taking the strands out of the box, 4 of the strands had  hooked into each other and as I sat there and stared at it I realized that there were a bunch of the strands and instead of trying to delicately untangle the strands that hooked together why not start wrapping the other strands around my already hooked strands and well this was the final outcome of my tangled mess.

Please comment back and comeback and share your Winterberry Wreath Projects.

Paper Christmas Tree Sun Catcher

This turned out to actually be a nice looking decoration for the windows during the holiday season, or really anywhere that is well lite. As this project seemed to be a little more detailed and time-consuming then a few of my more recent projects, it was still just as fun!! This is a project where really you can use anything you want to decorate the tree, whether it be little foam stickers, crayons, or paper. The kids will love it!

The whole idea of this project is to make it appear that when the tree is held up to light that the holes where the tissue paper belong act as the tree lights. So then let get started!!

Supplies Needed:

• 1-2 sheets of green paper (depending on how large you want your christmas tree, However just remember you have to get a whole punch around the tree)
• 1 sheet of brown paper
• 1 sheet of yellow or gold paper
• 1 sheet of each color tissue paper you want for your lights
• Scissors
• Glue
• Glitter (For the tree garland, your choice in color. I used gold)

 

Instructions:

1. Take your 2 sheets of green paper and trace of draw 2 identical Christmas Trees.
2. With the brown paper cut a small rectangle for the tree trunk.
3. On the yellow or gold piece of paper  draw or trace a small star.
4. Cut all your pieces out
5. Then take your 2 green trees and line them up so the edges are lined up evenly all the way around.
6. After your edges are lined up take your single hole punch and start punching a few holes scattered in different places around the trees(Make sure your holes line up on both pages). To punch some holes in the middle you will need to lightly fold both pieces of your paper without making a hard crease in the process.
7. After your holes are punched take one of the trees with the pen traced side up and lay it in front of you. (It’s time to put the lights on the tree!)
8. Take your colored tissue paper and cut little squares about 1 inch by 1 inch.
9. After you cut out your tissue paper to the number of holes you put on your tree lay them out they way you want them.
10. When you are done laying out your lights glue them down to the tree. (Warning don’t use a lot of glue when tacking these down the tissue paper will start to dissolve.
11. If you prefer your lights to have a deeper color and a little less light shine through copy the same pattern on the other tree just make sure you put the tissue paper in the right holes so they colors and the tree still line up.
12. After you have glued your tissue paper down to you trees and let them dry a little its time to assemble the tree together. lay you first tree so the tissue side is the up side then glue your brown rectangle at the bottom of the tree for the tree trunk.
13. Then glue on the other tree tissue side on the down side. Make sure when you lay this down all your edges line up so the light will shine through the tissue paper covered holes.
14. Now its time to decorate the tree!!!
15. Take your glue and draw wavy lines across the tree where you want the garland to go across.
16. Then sprinkle your glitter over the glue making sure to cover all the glue areas. Shake off access glitter.
17. Color or stick on your tree ornaments and add anything else you would like for your tree decorations.
18. Now take your yellow or gold star and glue that to the top of the tree.
19. I added some light gold glitter glue that I had left over from a past project to the top of the star for a little extra texture but that’s up to you.

That is it!! Take your tree and hold it up to the window or a light and watch your Christmas Tree Glow. My little one really thought this was a neat decoration, seeing how Christmas lights are one of his most favorite things to look at this time of year.

Please comment back and remember to come back and share your Christmas Tree Sun Catcher Projects.

Family Hand Wreath

This was a project that even my Husband got into working on with us. So on one of his nights off we all sat down tracing hands and cutting them out. I still have not let my little one use a scissors yet, however he is showing great signs that he is ready for his first pair of safty scissors. Im sure this will be another proud moment is this crafting moms life. The layers in the wreath im sure are obvious as they go my little boy, myself, and then my husband.

Christmas Family Hand Wreath

Supplies:

• Average amount of sheets of paper per adult 6-10
• Average amount of sheets of paper per child 2-6
• 1 sheet of white paper
• glue
• clear tap
• glitter (red or silver)
• scissors

Instructions:

1. Trace your child’s hand onto the piece of construction paper. ( It is best if you trace one and cut it out and then use that as a template for the rest) Make sure you try to utilize as much space as to fit as many hands on the paper as you can. My son is 4 yrs old and I was able to get 4 hands on a piece of paper and my husband was able to get 5 so try to sqeeze as many as you can to save on paper. I used 12 in my wreath. Do the same for every member in your family. For the adults you wont need as many hands because they will cover more space.
2. After you have traced all your hands then cut them all out.
3. After you are finished cutting out your hands be sure to place them all so that the ink side is facing you. If you wish to have your child color the wreath let them color the hands at this point then when they are done place them all so that the coloring side is face down.
4. Now it is time to form your wreath. Start by working from the front to the back (securing each layer before moving on to the next.(steps 5 and 6)) Place your hands in a circle making sure you leave an empty space in the middle. Try and get the hands around the circle as evenly as possible.
5. Now use your clear tap and place little pieces of tap around the inner edge to keep the hand wreath in position.
6. Then take your glue and glue down the hands to each other.
7. When you are finished gluing turn the wreath over and glue any other parts of the palms of the hands that are flopping around.

Thats it for the wreath. If you would like to add a paper bow the instructions for the bow are below

Bow Instructions:

1. On your white piece of paper draw the shape of a bow and cut it out
2. brush on a coat of glue on the entire bow
3. sprinkle your glitter to cover the whole bow
4. set aside and allow ample amount of drying time.
5. When dry glue your bow onto the bottom of your wreath

Thats it!! Please comment back and I would love to see your Christmas Family Hand Wreaths