Homemade For The Holidays

DIY decorations personalize any décor, but come Christmastime, homemade crafts exceed the normal expectations with a twist of seasonal spirit. Embrace your inner crafting goddess this year, and get ready for old favorites and new traditions

By Mary Fons
CTW Features

Craft the perfect holiday with traditional DIY fare – like strung cranberries and popcorn – or whip up a new project to welcome the season home. Image courtesy iStockphoto

Homemade holiday decorations are decidedly more treasured than the ones you buy at the mall – one look at your child’s clothespin reindeer will tell you that.

And it might surprise you that you don’t have to be a superstar crafter with a woodshed and a budget as fat as Santa’s belly to create gorgeous holiday crafts. If you’ve got paper, scissors, some glue and an afternoon, you can warm up your home with creative crafts that don’t take much time or money.

“Paper is really fun to work with because you don't need a lot of tools and you have a low overhead [in terms of] supplies,” says Sarah Chazin, crafter and owner of Sacred Art, a Chicago shop that sells handmade fine art and crafts. “You can découpage anything with paper or wrapping paper scraps, including old glass globe ornaments or old wine bottles.” Chazin adds that different kinds of paper are good for different projects, due to their weight and texture.

“Collage winter scenes onto painted cardboard – you can do all sorts of cutouts and place glass on top to protect it, but [the board] can be a great display on a tray or on your dining room table, or used as a festive wine coaster.”

Brandy Agerbeck, a graphic facilitator and artist also living in Chicago says, “Strangely, as a kid, I lived to make snowflakes out of toothpicks poked into a Styrofoam ball sprayed with aerosol flake snow, [which] sounds terribly toxic to me now.” Agerbeck has become decidedly more “green” when she crafts these days, noting that re-purposing goods you’ve got on-hand is a smart, inexpensive, eco-friendly way to turn paper that would usually go into the trash into holiday cheer, instead.

“If you've got time and no money, cutting a flurry of snowflakes out of plain white paper is great,” Agerbeck says. “Have you spent all your money shopping online? Buy a couple rolls of wrapping paper and wrap empty shipping boxes. Stack them largest to smallest in ‘trees.’”

Agerbeck also recommends trimming other plants in your home besides the tree. “Cheap glass bulb ornaments can add ‘seasoning’ to your greenery.” And if you’ve got some of those white snowflakes leftover, sticking a hook through them will allow you to festoon your fern with some wintery ‘paper bling.’ Agerbeck says she’s always been “a sucker for paper chains” and suggests making “a paper quilt on a wall or door with scraps of wrapping paper and greeting cards.” “You do not need a lot of money to craft,” says Chazin, who reminds us of what every good crafter should know: One man’s trash is another crafter’s treasure. “I find tons of items in the alley or thrift stores that inspire me,” she says. But for those crafters who prefer new items as, there are great finds at local arts and crafts stores and lifestyle retailers. And Chazin points out something important to remember whenever you start whipping out the craft materials, whether you’re a novice or a season DIY’er working with paper or more sophisticated materials. “You are always your worst critic – especially when it comes to art. You get better the more you do it, like anything else.” Even clothespin reindeers, remember?

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