Holiday Decorating Made Easy

If you’ve been a long-time reader of Dollar Store Style, you know that I love simple! At Christmastime quick and easy is the only way to go. We’ve all got enough to do without stressing over crafts that take a sleigh-load of materials and instructions to make. At least, that’s my excuse!

Anyhow, here’s my take on holiday decorating made easy for Christmas. As you will see, I’m into red and white this year but don’t let that stop you from using your own colour choices.

Ribbon Door Banner

To make this door banner you will need:

– a 56-inch length of wide ribbon (not wire-edged)
– thin ribbon in a matching colour
– 3 old Christmas cards of similar size (fronts only)
– scissors
– glue gun

1) Turn over about two inches of one end of the wide ribbon and hot glue to the reverse side to make a loop for the hanger.

2) Space the Christmas cards about 5-inches apart on the ribbon and hot glue in place.

3) Cut a notch in the bottom of the ribbon.

4) Insert a short length of thin ribbon into the loop at the top and tie to make a hanger. Hide the tied ends inside the loop.

Gingerbread Decoration

Make a simple decoration out of a small gingerbread house, some faux greenery, a square vase and salt for snow. (Thank-you Martha Stewart for the salt idea!)

The thing about using salt for snow is that it’s a reasonably inexpensive substitute for that messy fake snow we’ve all used in the past. In fact, you can get two big containers of no-name salt for a buck at Dollarama.

The tiny gingerbread house came in a box; meant as a stocking stuffer, I presume. I left the cellophane covering on it to keep it fresh for the season and inserted a couple of sprigs of faux pine to stand in for trees.

Ornament Garland

Make this inexpensive ornament garland using:

– 2 packages of six medium-sized ornaments
– 2 to 3 packages of six small ornaments
– 1 package of Christmas straws
– a length of thin elasticized string
– scissors

1) Tie a loop in one end of the string and slide an ornament on.

2) Cut straws into 1-1 ½-inch lengths to use as spacers and alternate ornaments and spacers until your garland is finished.

3) Tie a loop in the other end and hang. I use 3M Command hooks for hanging decorations so I don’t have to pound holes in the walls. When Christmas is over, Command strips come off with no muss and no fuss.

Pinecone and Mesh Bow Wreath

For this project you will need:

– 1 metal wreath form (I found mine at Dollar Tree this past fall)
– 2, 9-foot wired pine garlands
– miniature pinecones
– four mesh bows in the colour of your choice (see tutorial for making mesh bows here)
– hot glue gun

1) One at a time, wrap the pine garlands tightly around the wreath form until it is fully covered. You may need to cut the end off of the last garland if you have too much. You can glue the garland on as you go but I found that bending the wire ends around the metal wreath form was sufficient.
2) Hot glue miniature pinecones all around the wreath.
3) Space the mesh bows at intervals around the wreath and hot glue into place.

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