Christmas home tour, DIY projects to inspire

I'm very happy with my natural Christmas vignette in the dining room. I've used homemade wreaths hung on shutters. 3 Thrift store pitchers filled with cuttings from our own tree. Homemade bowl made of a doilie filled with cuttings and white ornaments.

On the mantle 3 glass containers filled with red and green Christmas ornaments. A vintage flour sieve is filled with fresh clippings and a little birdie and star tucked in there for some color.

The green Christmas tree made out of wood got a layer of white paint. And planted next to the decorated tree it looks really nice. The Christmas tree has LOTS of lights and I used scraps of lace to decorate the tree branches. Simple, natural and rustic.

Still at the forest I laid out my tree shape. Back at the house I used a hot glue gun to glue the logs to the biggest log. I've put it in one of the white pitchers and voila, another Christmas tree is made.

Another simple but effective craft with driftwood was making these stars. I just used a hot glue gun and put the pieces together. I used lace to hang them up on a shutter. The beauty of these is that you don't want them perfectly good looking.
Wood is natural and so is this star shape :)

 

Driftwood Christmas Tree

 
Driftwood trees

This Christmas season I've been busy making lots of decorations with driftwood. It's so easy to make and I just love how it looks. It's rustic and natural and really brings the whole family in the holiday spirit.

I'm so grateful for the times when my little boy naps AND I have the energy and inspiration to make something nice. My daughter is a great person to have around when I'm crafting. She's always watching me and is in awe of everything I make. She will say it's pretty or other nice things to keep me going. I'm very happy she's into crafting too and I hope for her it will last a lifetime since it's a superb gift to have; the ability to craft.

And now the star of this blog post: Making Driftwood Christmas trees.

I'll start this blog post off with a confession: the base was made by my husband. 
Oh the shame... I like to call it teamwork =) Maybe someday I will feel comfortable crafting outside the box.

1. I bought some knitting needles at the thrift store for $0.50. 
2. My husband used a little bit of leftover wood to make the base. Free.
3. Forest wood from South Lake Tahoe. Free.
4. = Priceless Christmas tree.

Whilst the kids were playing on the playground I dragged a big bag around to collect pieces of wood. 
This time around I knew exactly what to make so I looked for enough pieces of different sizes. 
Since it was frosty on the ground when I was collecting I had to let the wood dry for a few days. I put 
it by the heater and after that it was in my garage for another 2 weeks.
This DIY project is done in a few simple steps.
 Letting the wood dry.

1. After my husband made me 2 bases I sorted the wood for similar thickness and color and lengths 
that would add up nicely in a christmas tree shape. I laid it out and measured with my base to see if 
I had enough pieces to fill it all the way up. 
Measuring.
2. After that I started drilling holes. How big the hole should be depends on the size knitting needle 
you're using. Also use a big block of wood on your work surface if you don't want to drill holes in your 
kitchen counter. Yep, the kitchen was my work space for this craft :)
Drilling.
3. After each drill I put the stick on the the base to see if it would work. Even after measuring in the 
beginning on one tree I had to add another stick to make it to the top. This is because sometimes I 
would flip the stick and then everything is slightly off.
All done.
4. Wow, you're done already! 
If you want you can decorate the tree with ribbon or little ornaments.
These trees will be reused again for Valentine's Day. I actually see a lot of use in their 
future.

Letting my girl help me decorate.

 How to make the base.
The base is about a third of the length. Drill a hole in the bottom of both pieces just slightly smaller than the width of the knitting needle. Put a bit of wood glue in the middle and hold the pieces in a 90 degree angle, and glue together. Now one piece of wood is slightly higher than the other so you have to correct this on both ends with a little piece of wood. Glue it underneath so it's not wobbly anymore. You can slide in the knitting needle and since it's slightly smaller it stays put.

Driftwood wreaths

It all started with a sunny afternoon spend at the shore of south Lake Tahoe. I saw a the little pieces of beautiful driftwood and I just knew I had to take some home. At that time I didn't have an idea yet of what to make with it but I knew I would think of something. My daughter helped me pick out the best pieces. She was great at that. 


My collection of driftwood.

The first things I made was wreaths. 3 Different sizes but all the same style.

I started with some longer pieces and laid down a circle shape. After gluing them together with hot glue. (Using my friend's glue gun since I couldn't wait for mine to be found after such a long time of not using it!!!) After that it was easy peasy. I just kept adding layers working my way in. When I was satisfied with how thick my wreath was I added some shorter sticks on top. Especially those with a nice color and some with some sparkly sand on it.

Close up of the homemade wreath.

I still had plenty driftwood left so I made 2 more. For the 2nd one I made I started with making a circle and then working my way outwards. I didn't like working like this as much so I started working inwards again. Hence the smallest wreath.

After that I made one more wreath and I had used up all my driftwood. This one got a special little sheep on it. It's a childhood treasure from my husband. His great grandmother crochet it for him when he was still a small child.




The wreaths got center attention on my wall with with shutters.