Christmas Decoration Project

Image: A Little Hut

And so it begins.....

There has been much discussion in our home about when Christmas starts.

Is it when everything from windscreen wipers to organic fair trade coffee becomes available in gift baskets?
Is it when twinkly lights appear on the neighbours house and seem to be powered by a mini nuclear reactors?
Or is it when you start taking photos of your dog wearing reindeer antlers?

In truth, it's actually when all the shops start to sell an eclectic range of elastic pants with special re-inforced waist bands.



In our house, it's when the tree arrives, which happened this week.

We welcome the tree in to our home with a healthy drop of mulled wine and Doris Day singing Silver Bells on the stereo. Then it's time to decorate the tree and sit back to watch our mid riffs expand over the next 2 weeks.

Each year, I try to reduce the need for waste by recycling whenever I can.
From Wrapping Paper to Gift Bows.

Image: Greenista (left), How About Orange (right)

This year, I'm trying to extend that philosophy to the decorations and ornaments.

Over at A Little Hut there is a wonderfully simple tutorial that recycles the empty cardboard ring from sellotape - which is one thing we'll probably all be using this Christmas.

Image: A Little Hut

 The Materials you will need are:

- Cardboard ring - which you will paint white.
- White card stock & red card stock (or you could use old book pages & magazine pages)
- Some red embroidery thread and a push pin
- Some Glue, a craft knife and a metal Ruler


The instructions are:

- Paint the cardboard ring white and let it dry.

- Cut white strips of card stock that are slightly narrower in width than the width of the cardboard ring.

- Glue the strips to one another by overlapping 1/4" (5mm) of each end of the strips. You should end up with a strip that is at least 60" (152cm) long.

- Fold the strips accordion style at 3/4" (2cm) intervals. Glue the opposite ends of the folded strip to form a full circle.

Image: A Little Hut

- Using a push pin, make one hole in the center of the width of the ring. Thread a length of embroidery thread through the hole that is long enough to hang the ornament.

- Tuck the ring of folded white strips inside the card board ring. Add dots of glue to the edges of some of the outer folds of the white paper and glue to them to the inside of the ring.

- Cut six strips of red paper that are the same width of the white strip and twice as long as the height of the folds. Fold each red strip in half.

Image: A Little Hut

- Tuck the red pieces inside the folds of the white paper to form a 6 point star. It might take some trial and error to make the star look symmetrical. Once they are in the right place glue the red paper to the inside of the accordion folds.

Image: A Little Hut

And that's it. It couldn't be simpler.

If you don't have a cardboard ring, you can make your own by making a circle with a strip of card board from something like a cereal box. Sellotape them together and that wrap them around a few times to create a thick edge and then paint it white.