Here I thought I'd share some of the decorations I've made for myself and love to take out year after year to make it feel like Christmas. These are just some of the ones I've made (it gets quite addictive; or I make them to sell at fairs but they never leave the house) with some ideas on how you could make some too.
Heart Garland
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| My handmade Christmas heart garland |
I've since made these garlands in different sizes and colours with various decorative features and they now also hang in quite a few peoples' houses. Not bad for a garland made from scraps I had!
Gingerbread garland
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| My handmade felt gingerbread garland |
I love gingerbread men (and women!). They always look so festive and cheery. When I wanted to make a garland for the rail across the top of the stairs last year they were my first choice. I used felt to give a bright and homely look choosing a gingery colour for the people and hearts and festive red, white and greens for the candy canes and holly leaves. The people are made simply by drawing around a gingerbread man cookie cutter twice, decorating one side with ribbons, bows, buttons and white embroidery thread then using blanket stitch to sew the two sides together. The gingham ribbons hold them on a length of cord which I then covered with felt holly leaves and big red buttons to look like berries. It took quite a while to make but I think it's definitely worth it!
Felt hanging decorations
Felt's a great fabric to work with as it's easy to cut, doesn't need hemming to stop it fraying and comes in an incredible range of colours. That's why I make so many decorations out of them! These hanging decorations are made in a similar way to the gingerbread men above but are stuffed to make them 3D. They hang from virtually every handle in my house at Christmas - doors, cupboards, drawers...
I also have them in lots of festive shapes including Father Christmas, puddings, snowmen, stockings, gifts, baubles, reindeer ... and they're just the ones I can see while sat here writing this! You can let your imagination run wild with them as they also look great in more simplistic shapes which are easy to sew.
Cross stitched pictures
When I used to have more time (and patience) I used to love doing cross stitching. I have quite a few decorations and pictures that are stitched but this little elf getting ready for Christmas is my favorite. It was part of a larger pattern of Santa's workshop which was then made into a stocking, but I didn't have the time to complete the whole project so I just took part of the pattern to make this picture.
Well, there are a few of my handmade creations, I hope they inspire your Christmas crafting too!
