Holiday Craft Ideas (What We Made)

 

As a follow up to yesterday’s post, I wanted to share the specific projects the guests at our holiday crafting party were able to make and take home. 

We set up three different “stations” based on the themes of paper, moss and nature, offering a couple of different crafts at each one.  What I like most about the projects is that almost all of them could also be used throughout the year.  Here’s what we made:

 

(Yes, we tore up books for these projects.  If it makes you feel better, they weren’t very good ones…)

 

 

 

The book page trees were one of the easiest crafts we did.  (And, I think they have a fun Anthropologie vibe.)  We pre-painted two sizes of terra cotta pots with spray chalkboard paint, and provided skewers in two lengths.  (I just bought inexpensive dowel rods, cut them to length and used a pencil sharpener on each end.) 

 

 

 

Once I was ready to start stacking the book pages, I first used pages torn in half, then torn in thirds, in fourths, etc., working my way to the top.  (We didn’t pre-cut anything.)  Older books work great because the pages almost fall apart when you fold them.

 

 

 

This is a super easy project for kids, too.  (Unless they try to stab each other with the skewers. . .)  Of course, they also think it’s fun to be able to tear up a book without getting in trouble.

 

 

 

 

We also made book page wreaths.  Simple?  Yes.  Time-consuming?  Double yes.  But, it’s a great craft if you’ve got a friend to do it with, time to work on it and lots of glue sticks.  We just used straw wreaths (with the plastic still on) and rolled each page into a cone, hot gluing them to the wreath in layers. 

 

 

I found that it was easiest to start by turning the wreath over, hot gluing two layers of longer book pages to the back.  Then, I flipped it over and glued shorter pages to the front in layers.  It may look a mess while you’re doing it, but you really can’t mess it up.

 

 

Mine is now hanging on the front of the bookcases in our office:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this station, everyone did their own thing, with the option of making a moss-covered wreath, trees, or topiaries.  Here’s what we supplied:

 

• Styrofoam wreath, ball and tree forms    
• A variety of pots and small urns
• A mixture of moss
• Embellishments like faux fruit and glittery styrofoam balls
• Rubb ‘n' Buff (to decorate the plain terracotta pots)
• Hot glue guns

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since some of the other crafts took more time, we wanted to offer a station where they could quickly put together another project to take home.  For the “nature” station, we supplied several driftwood pieces, succulents, air plants, pinecones and hot glue guns. 

 

 

 

 

These make great centerpieces or accessories to set on a coffee table.  Here’s a similar one I did and dressed up for our holiday table:

 

 

 

 

What holiday crafts are you planning to make this year?