Week of Christmas crafts: Day 1

So....since the holidays are approaching, I've decided to post 5 Christmas crafts this week. Dare I use the word, "giddy", to describe my feelings about decorating/crafting for this holiday? Yes, I believe I shall. I'm giddy. There. I said it And no, I'm not skipping Thanksgiving all together. If you'll recal this post, I've had some Indians/pumpkins gracing my entryway since taking down all the Halloween hullabaloo.

So...onto the first craft of the week.
My inspiration came from the blog, Shanty 2 Chic, and just like HGTV's 'inspiration room', we're gonna call this my 'inspiration craft'. Mmmkay?

Aren't they bee-u-tiful?
Yep. I thought so too.
Here's what you'll need:

1. Some foam trees in varying heights- I got the 2-pack of white ones at Wally World and the green from the hob lob
2. pretty ribbon- as you can see, my decor colors this year are not strictly red/green. And I probably don't even need to say this, but please only only buy ribbon at the hob lob when it's half off, since that happens all.the.time. And, this could even be done with fabric, which I'm going to attempt next. I'll let ya know how that turns out.
3. wooden spools- from the aisle with all the wooden stuff at hob lob. Came in a pack of 4
4. wooden finials for the tops- came in a pack of 3 at the hob lob
5. handy dandy glue gun.

Here's a closer look at those packages. The chic from Shanty 2 Chic used the tops/bottoms of some wooden stair rails to make the bases for her trees, but we don't all have those lying around, do we?? Hmmm?

To start, grab one of your trees and decide which ribbon you'd like to prettify it with. I started small. Attach your ribbon at the bottom with a dab o glue, wrapping all the way to the top. You may want to make some lil pleats, which I'll show you later on the bigger one.

Once you've wrapped all the way to the top, it will look something like this:


pretty, ain't she?

Moving right along.... here's tree #2:

On this one, I did little pleat thingys all the way around. Just pinch a bit of ribbon together and secure with glue, like this:

and this:

and this:

until you've made it to the top. Now, remember those little wooden goodies? If you'd like them white, you'll also need white spray (which I plum forgot to put in the materials list). Go outside, place on large piece of paper, and get to spraying. Try not to do this step on the windiest day ever or you'll end up chasing your little wooden parts all over your yard. Just sayin...

Here they are after being sprayed, not to be confused with "spayed".

Stick that little finial into the top of each tree, making a hole: remove finial and put glue into hole; replace finial. Easy enough? Yes. Then, put glue on top of spool and stick onto the bottom of each tree to make the base. And....

You have some lovely ribbon trees!

(next to a pic of some cutiepatootie kids...)

Here they are again since one pic just isn't enough.

And since you still have ribbon left, you can make a cute headband for a baby girl that looks like this:

I took the ribbon, twisted it with tulle, attached it to a pink felt circle with some glue, and voila!

(pink headband was purchased at Target in a pack of about 6)

And here's my beautiful model:

So...there ya have it. Day 1 of Christmas craft-a-palooza. And today was a bonus- 2 crafts for the price of one. Almost.

Tune back tomorrow for more crafting goodness, and have a wonderful Monday!

(off to school we go, but...only 2 days this week. Ya to the hoo.)