3 DIY Christmas Tree-Making Crafts You Have To Try

Well...'tis the season! Is it just me or does it seem like the time between Halloween and Christmas gets shorter every year? I feel like I just put my pumpkin seeds in the oven to toast and here I am pulling out the Christmas decorations and putting lights on the tree.

This year my husband and I decided to hit the "reset" button on decorations and get out of the 'same thing, different year' rut. We were beginning to feel like decorating for the holidays was losing the fun and festive feeling and becoming more of a routine. Everything had its place and looked the same year after year, so...we are donating/recycling/trashing a lot of our older, tired pieces and getting some new ones! The problem with this, is that buying new decorations, especially this year, is a costly plan. To offset some of the cost, AND have some fun and make some memories, we are going to enlist the help of our grown kids and craft some of the new decorations. After some research and a few trial runs I came up with my three favorite Christmas tree-making crafts. I love, love, love using smaller Christmas trees to decorate my mantle and table tops and these easy, DIY trees are so cute and really simple to tweak and add your personal touches. So if you are looking to add some new decorations to the mix, or are wanting some fun crafts to do while the Christmas music is playing, Give these a try!

Yarn Christmas Tree: These trees can be as traditional or glamorous as you desire. The list of things needed is short, easy to find and CHEAP! There are several ways to make these trees your own and fit in with your particular style:

1) Use regular yarn for a sleek, minimalist look or thick, chunky yarn for a more "natural" looking tree

2) Wrap the yarn in perfect lines stacking directly above the line below and leave it at that OR you can top the wrapped tree with lines that are wrapped on slight angles, criss crossing and overlapping to add texture to the finished product

3) Adding dowel "trunks" of varying heights that sit on a wooden car wheels (that you can find at a craft store) or wooden thread spools gives depth to your scene OR for a simple look you can skip the trunk all together and sit the tree directly on the table or mantle

4) Once wrapped you can call it done OR you can embellish with bead "ornaments", glitter and/or tree toppers.

The full tutorial that I used is from A Beautiful Mess and you can find it here: Yarn Tree DIY

Christmas Tree Cake Toppers: Bringing a simple cake to a holiday Open House that you want to dress up? Or don't have the cake decorating skills to Wow everyone at your holiday table? These super easy and adorable toppers can really up your cake game. In my house, I used a drill bit and made some holes for the cake pop sticks in a piece of reclaimed wood and skipped the cake altogether! If you don't have a drill...or wood... you can use floral foam to stick your trees in and cover it with some fake snow. I used a few different types of veneer for variety and they look great! Check out the tutorial by Your DIY Family here: Easy Peasy Christmas tree toppers

Tartan Christmas Trees: These are ADORABLE! Making these trees requires sewing, but it can be done by hand or on a sewing machine and is very simple. Since you use just a few items that you may have lying around the house, you can tackle this DIY any time. I tweaked the product just a bit and used small blocks of wood for the tree "stands" rather than wooden spools...but you can use whatever you want: spools, wood, floral foam...or anything else that you can think of! I also used the fill from an old pillow I was going to throw away, so I had everything I needed on hand. Piller Box Blue has a great tutorial that you can follow here: Adorable Tartan Trees

Christmas is just a few short weeks away! So whether you are like me and looking to change up your decorations this year, or if you just want to add some new ones to your stockpile, give these wonderful tree ideas a try, soon. I think you will really love the way they look! And...you have the added bonus of telling people you made them yourself, which is always a GREAT feeling.

Happy Holidays! And Happy crafting!