


Now that Thanksgiving is over, I’m SO excited to share these DIY Christmas Decor Hacks!
Christmas is the best holiday for decorations and I know almost everyone would agree! The twinkle lights, the bows, the snowy glitter!
Everything about it is just so magical!
Being the creative crafter that I am, I’m pretty sure I find some DIY decor project to do basically every year.
I’m always touching up this or that. Repurposing something to make it fit the current style a bit more etc.
Well! I’m at it again this Christmas and THIS time, I’m going to share with y’all how I did each DIY Christmas decor hack!
1. DIY Burlap Garland
Our very first tree as a couple was a white, glittery tree. When it’s lit the tree is gorgeous just one it’s own!
Back in “the day”, I thought it would be fun to have white, red, and turquoise/aqua as our Christmas theme….cringe…
Let me just tell you now… it did not go well. I’ll be honest. I was like 22 HA!
I tried to do an “Elf like” Candy Cane stripe kind of theme. Once again…. It did not go well….
A year or so later, I started seeing good how burlap, white and dark hunter green looked so nice together. Especially at Christmas!
(This was the beginning of my transition to a totally neutral color scheme!)
SO! I switched out my stockings to homemade, cable knit stockings. I removed ALL the red and aqua decor. Including the red candy striped ribbon used on the tree for garland.
It looked SO much classier! However, that meant that I didn’t have a garland for my tree!
After seeing how much I loved burlap thrown in the decor mix, I decided to make my own burlap garland!
This garland is SUPER easy to make and a great DIY Christmas decor hack!
Materials:
Here’s what you’ll need for this DIY Christmas decor hack:
- Strips of burlap (about 7-10 inches wide depending on how thick you want it)
- tan/burlap colored thread or fishing line
- Needle
THAT’S IT!
How To:
This may sound complicated all “typed out” but this is incredibly simple.
You’re basically going to lay your strip of burlap out flat and start at one corner with your thread or fishing line.
(Be sure to knot it well so it holds in the burlap)
Once you’ve knotted your thread at one corner, sew in a BIG zig zag down the entire strip in this pattern
\
\
\
|
/
/
/
|
\
\
\
You’ll see in the picture below, that I do a sitch when I reach the side of the burlap strip before starting a new zig zag.
You’ll want to make sure your zig zag are all on the same side of the burlap strip. It doesn’t matter the front or the back.
I found it easier to keep the zig zag on the top so I could see what I was doing and the stitch in between each on the back side. That stitch is about 1.5-2 inches long.
As you stitch, you can be cinching up the burlap on the thread. This is where the ruffles and puckers come in!
You can make it super tight and ruffled or loosely ruffled. Both look great! I will say, it does take a LOT of burlap to make really tight ruffles so I went with the looser look.
Over the years, I keep making more and more when I have scraps of burlap. It’s so easy to make and looks so cute in the tree!
It’s such a fun and easy DIY Christmas decor hack!
2. DIY Burlap Tree Skirt
This DIY Christmas decor hack is extremely simple!
For years we had a white, glittery tree skirt to go with our white tree. It looked wonderful!
Until we had to wash it several times. And that plus all the sequins everywhere wash just…..a lot…..
For a while I’ve been wanting to “revamp” or rethink our tree skirt. I’ve seen people use burlap and make a layered ruffle, tree skirt.
However, I wasn’t sure I was wanting to go that route.
It dawned on me after setting out some of my smaller Christmas trees around the house, to do a wrapped burlap tree skirt!
I LOVE how simple it is and pretty much foolproof!
Materials:
- 1-2 yards of burlap (or even several pieces sewn together)
- Twine or fishing line
- Cardboard
- Bow (optional)
How To:
First of all, I didn’t have one large piece of burlap. Only a table runner I didn’t use anymore.
So I decided to cut it in half and sew it together to make one large piece.
Once I had sewn the pieces together, I traced a circle (more like an oval) around the tree stand on a piece of cardboard.
You can see from the picture it’s not a perfect circle (or shape really!!). The cardboard is more to help the burlap hold it’s form around the base of the tree.
Next I put the burlap down first, then the cardboard and put the tree stand right on top of it.
I found it easier to do the finishing touches with the tree actually in the stand so that I could tie the burlap higher on the stand.
Because the burlap wasn’t one large piece to begin with, the sides were a bit short and didn’t reach the middle of stand.
This is where my fishing line came in handy. Using a needle, I basically cinched the burlap up from the inside, tucking the shorter pieces as I went.
If your burlap reaches the stand on all sides, you can just skip that part and use your twine to wrap around it.
If you’re happy with the twine wrapped look, then you’re done!
I decided to add a bow (it matched the tree topper too) to give it more of a “present” look.
(Because of the baby being into EVERYTHING this year, I won’t be having any presents under the tree until Christmas! So having a cute under tree look is extra helpful this year!)
I LOVE the way this DIY Christmas decor hack turned out!
3. DIY Flocked Christmas Tree
Like I said above, we’ve had a white Christmas tree for years. After seeing how awesome dusty green looks in our house, I’ve been wanting to switch to a green tree!
Secretly, I kind of always had my eye out for a flocked green tree but I didn’t ever want to “cash in” on one!
When I was approached by a company who wanted me to review their Christmas tree I was SO excited!
I knew it was green but I ALSO knew I could FLOCK IT!
You know me! Why buy it when I can make it the way I want it!
Materials:
Hot To:
This DIY Christmas decor hack is a bit of a project.
So flocking a tree with flocking spray is kind of self explanatory. However, I did discover some things along the way.
First, I took the tree outside and opened up the bottom layer. I figured that it would be easier to spray the tree at all angles adding one layer of the tree at a time.
It’s definitely better to do little light coats rather than thick ones.
I kept going like this and added the top two sections of the tree.
Once I had finished the first coat and it had dried, I gave it a bit of a second coat.
It was really looking good!
So here’s where I made my first mistake…
I noticed that the flocking spray dried in a powder and it shook off a bit. With only two cans of snow spray, I didn’t spray as many layers as I otherwise would have.
Once I had given the tree two coats using both cans, I let it dry for an hour or so. When I went back to check on it, it was pretty dusty.
Being the problem solver that I am, I started thinking of ways to make the flocking more secure.
So I grabbed some clear spray paint and gave the tree a good coat or two. Here’s the part where things went a bit wrong…
Since the flocking dries in a powder form, the clear wet paint actually dissolved the flocking a bit! SO I was 2 steps back!
In hindsight, I wonder if I had more cans of flocking spray if more layers would have hardened the powder a bit more making it less likely to fall off.
This meant I had to shift my plan a bit!
Once I got the tree inside, I noticed that it was just barely “dusty” green. So the paint had dissolved a lot of the flocking.
SO! I threw down a tarp around my tree and grabbed some white craft paint. With my round sponge brush, I started dabbing the branches giving them a white coating.
It started to look more like a flocked tree!
After a few rounds of that, I decided to call it a “day” on flocking my tree… at least for this year! I may go back and give it some more touches of white here or there.
Even after all the trouble, I’m very pleased with how the tree turned out!
Very excited to call this tree our own now and use it year after year!
I had a ton of fun with these DIY Christmas decor hacks!
Merry Christmas!
– – – –
Have you ever tried any projects like this? Have any questions about one of my projects or a project you’d like me to do a tutorial on, shoot me an email!! I’d LOVE to hear from you! Be sure to subscribe below so you never miss anything! Also follow me on Instagram and Pinterest!
Your tree is so beautiful! And your photo with Parker is so cute.