Christmas Table Decorations Handmade Part two

Christmas trees for some reason are the big favorite for our own Christmas table decorations over the years being constructed from various things from ginger bread to empty glass baby food jars .

All of the above Christmas table decorations are all made from the same basic tree template more or less either with or without the stand, template can be seen on bottom row. Basically two or more depending on how many pattern pieces you want to cut two,four ,six or even eight are cut and folded along the center length ways this can be most obviously seen in the third image. They are then glued back to back at the fold and then decorated by painting or glitter or with bits and bobs of miniature Christmas decor (found always at most dollar stores).
Even the last all white tree, even these Christmas table decorations were made from a slightly altered basic template, but here eight pattern pieces were cut .Ours were quite large when complete and we cut them from pieces of Bristol board rather than paper the largest stood almost two feet tall we were able to hang Hershey kisses and candy canes from their branches.

These items of Christmas table decorations while still Christmas trees are made with scraps of fabric rather than paper,, although in most cases I guess that card stock or paper could be used instead .Here is where I must make a little confession not all of the images displayed here are actually my own they are borrowed from Google(how was I to know years ago that one day I would decide to write this post) but the images included look exactly like or very similar to our own homemade christmas table decorations except in the case of the second image above which only reminds me of a set of Christmas trees we made one year but at least with this image you will be able to imagine the rest . how ours differed from the image above was that we first of all used fabric in various shades of the same color I think of course recalling now we chose the Christmas colors red white and green ,the white being a lacy fabric that had a snow flake design . We stiffened circles of fabric using fabric stiffener over polystyrene cone shapes of varying sizes covering the cone forms in grease proof so the fabric did not stick to the foam. when the fabric cones were dry we simply stacked them one on top of the other tacking into place in a couple of spots with clear hot glue in addition to this we fringed the edges of each cone shape to give a more pine tree like effect .

The first image from this grouping of Christmas table decorations is also made with stiffened fabric pieces , you can either make them with either three or four triangle shapes which ever you find easier. We merely stiffened the material triangles folded them all over at the edges by 1 cm and glued them together clamping the edges with clothes pegs until they dried . Ours were large enough to go over the Christmas wine bottles that sat in the middle of the table ,you can decorate them with mini baubles and rick rack or sew on sequins , the Christmas tartans fabrics lend themselves very well to this idea.

The last image is in fact is not of Christmas table decoration as it stands about three and a half feet tall, but we have made Christmas table decorations exactly the same but on a much smaller scale. For this you will need lots of cardboard rescued from you blue bin ,a piece of dowel the length or proposed height of your tree and some material scraps. Its nice if they are all in some shade of green  but not necessary you can make a pink Christmas tree if you want to .However I do suggest that you also find a contrasting colored fabric to give relief and to represent tinsel see the gold in the image above. From the cardboard and the fabric scraps because we are making a tree which is more or less cone shaped we want to cut a series of ever decreasing in size circles to form the foundations  for these  Christmas table decorations . What ever diameter of cardboard circles you cut ,cut a fabric circle two to three inches larger than each circle respectively .Lay your cardboard circles on top of their corresponding fabric circles ,fold the wider fabric circle on top of the cardboard towards the center of the circle pleating the edge as you go . You can hot glue ,staple or, even hand sew your pleats into place (I Used a stapler) Cut a cross in the center of each fabric and cardboard circle and poke each one over the dowel until your dowel is filled .For the very last piece do not cut the cross just scrunch it in the center to form  the point of your cone or top of your Christmas tree finish it off by adding a star or some other ornament, or you can do as I have done leave some dowel exposed at the top of the tree and slide on an ornament.  To help define the cone shape further in these Christmas table decorations at random intervals I added small plain circles of cardboard without fabric covering no more that two inches in diameter sometimes two at a time to give the larger circles a downward slope at the outer edges to more resemble a the Christmas tree shape. Glue the dowel into the base of a plant pot or other container you will probably depending on the size of your Christmas tree have to weigh down the container with garden pebbles or glass pebbles what ever you have to hold your creation upright as it will in most cases be top heavy and prone to falling over.

Now I always thought despite the fact that my Christmas guests always oohed and awed over my pine cone tree Christmas table decorations I always figured it was because my guests were not really of the crafting, DIY, homemade crew so were easily impressed by something that was a little different and handmade and always thought that probably thousands of people had come up with this idea but perhaps that’s not so after all as when I looked for images for this post which I expected there to be hundreds of I found only one so perhaps its not such a common idea as far as Christmas table decorations go at all. When ever I have made pine cone Christmas trees I always paint them either white or cream and add a few shiny beads as Christmas balls and tiny sprigs of silk holly. as you can see from these images you can also create a companion pine cone wreath for your wall which look equally well in original brown or painted

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