Oftentimes over christmas people buy one time use decorations or gifts, accumulating into one time use plastic in landfills. As a way to be more environmentally conscious, as well as make decorations that can be reusable and recyclable you can opt for making your own decorations from things around your home! Here are some of my favorites:
A traditional and festive way to decorate your home, as well as leaving it smelling sweet and citrusy. Simply bake thinly sliced pieces of fruit such as oranges, grapefruit, blood oranges, pears or apples and thread through the fruit with string, lace, ribbon or twine to create this fun and easy craft. Typically you should bake the fruit at 150-200 degrees fahrenheit for 3-4 hours until fully dry. You can string other decorations into the garland such as pine cones, cranberries, dried leaves or festive shapes made out of felt.
If you are wanting a more creative and personalized way of decorating your house, a metal embossed ornament may be the perfect option! Though it sounds daunting, it is actually a very easy and fun craft to do. Just using any tin objects in your home, especially recycled tomato paste tubes or any thick aluminum foil. Turn to the side you don’t want exposed, and begin drawing out your design with a toothpick or needle.
You can get as creative as you want with the design, but some of the more popular options tend to be birds, stars, angels and moons.
A lot of thrift stores have materials for these, and your family and friends will appreciate a more heartfelt Christmas card rather than a store bought one. Be creative with it!! You can use almost any material, including fabric or knitted details! A little goes a long way, show your appreciation for others with these small gifts.
With unused socks you can easily make this cute decoration or gift. All you’ll need are some scissors, a needle and thread and the socks of your choice. I suggest carefully cutting your socks along with any pattern you find online, and hand sewing the pieces together. Make sure to knot the thread!
Take any biodegradable egg carton and cut into small pieces for the arms. Use a hot glue gun to glue the pieces together and paint with any color desirable. Thread string or ribbon through to turn it into an ornament or garland!
The holiday season is a great time to express creativity, so don’t be limited to just these ideas!
