Handmade Recycled Christmas!

Since Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year and I usually go all out, I kinda run out of steam by the time it gets to Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, but I'm not usually at my house for the holiday and so I don't decorate very much for it. I love the buying presents part, but I kinda of slack on the rest of it (compared with the Halloween celebrations, anyway).

But not this year! There have been so many good ideas for cute holiday decorations that this year, I'm going all out on a Handmade Recycled Christmas! I've been even more inspired to use things I have around the house, rather than going and out and buying new ornaments. We're having a special Holiday Party that I'll be posting about soon, so I'm trying to get the house festive in time. Here's a few of the things I've started making and plan to finish asap:

Paper Bag Ornaments:

So easy and fun to make! I'm going to hang them over the table in our bay window. I made a few different sizes and may also make smaller ones to hang from the wreath on our front door to tie everything together. I used Trader Joe's paper bags like she used as well and I love the way they look, although I might make some smaller ones out of festive scrapbooking paper I have lying around.

Circular Ornaments:

I plan on making these a little more simple by just using my craft punch and then instead of alternating gluing sides, I'm just going to use a scrapbooking adhesive square to attach each one. Kind of like the ones here, only with more circles!

More fun handmade ornament ideas to try:
String Snowballs
Lots of ornaments to make


Shimmering Stacked Trees:

These are made from newspaper, but I'm also recycling my old magazines that I'm going to throw away.

Paper Evergreens:

I'm also making paper trees like these out of the same Trader Joe paper bags to match the ornaments!

Plastic Bag Pom-Poms:

I think these would be fun attached together to make a garland, I guess I'd just need a *lot* of plastic bags... Target here I come!

Cardboard wreath:

Now I wish I hadn't thrown out my Piperlime box! And here's another fun idea if I only had some fun bottle caps in festive colors.

Other great ideas:
Card Display
Advent Calendar
Fabric Garland


So, I'll be sure to post pics after our party and when everything's all done! Happy Holidays!