May my Christmas be paper white!

[LuminousMom]

This is our first Christmas in our home, and we've been here two years! Year one we went to my husbands families 400 miles away, and year two we went to my parents in Washington. This year we are staying home and I am really excited to start new traditions. One big problem with this, however, is I dont have any holiday decor. We have our tree (fake, kinda weird since I grew up on a Christmas tree farm - but its easy.) and we have some cheap plastic ornaments we bought when Micah was a baby; but aside from that I never invested much in it. So out of necessity my theme for this year was born.Paper White Christmas! I want to use as much paper as possible, because I have quite a bit of it around to begin with and it can easily be recycled. 

So the search began for cheap (important) easy (more important) and kid friendly (most important) paper decor. Good old Martha had some great ideas:

1. Paper Doily Wreath... isn't that just breathtaking? Look how it glows!

2. Stiffened Doily's hung as snowflakes in the window. It reminds me of some stiffened hand crochet doilies my mom had on our tree for years and years. (I will use paper ones instead)

3. Doily tree star topper. I imagine them, rather than a tree topper (or along with) as ornaments, hung from the ceiling with mono filament, or strung together as a garland! Imagine how gorgeous they would be with a light dusting of iridescent powder?

So, with those three ideas in mind I set out to find materials and price out what this may cost me.
Locally, I could only find doilies at Michaels; although I will check Walmart this weekend because someone suggested they may have them. I picked up a few packs today to start messing with. A pack of 4" doilies was 1.99 and contains 30. A pack of 6" doilies was 1.99 and contained 20.

Tips for the projects:

1. Martha's wreath suggests using what are known (in this country) as bouquet cuffs. They are shaped like a cone and are meant to have stems inserted into them. The problem is, I could not only not find paper ones ANYWHERE in the US, and when I did find them (from a German supplier) they were WAY out of my budget at almost .99c per cuff. As you will see from Martha's post, they claim they used about 100 of them.. wow that's one pricey wreath! SO.. my mind starts turning and I realise that I can make my own paper doily cones quite simply. You simply cut 1/2 of the way into a doily and overlap at the cut, lining up the pattern at the top and tape or glue. At the tip of the cone, snip a space large enough to slip the Christmas light through.
EXTRA TIP: For more detailed instructions and photos on how to make such a paper cone, visit the brilliant blog of Zakka Life (here, she uses them to make Doily flower cubes.)
I purchased an 18" wire frame for 2.99, and using the prices at Michaels it should cost me about 6.00 in doilies, and a string of lights to make my wreath. All said and done the project should be less than 15.00 total and stored carefully (I may invest in one of those wreath storage boxes from rubbermaid) should last for years to come!

2. As I mentioned before I don't have any crochet doilies so I am simply going to use more paper ones, perhaps folding them and snipping away at the centers ala 2st grade, and letting my kids tape them to our front window and front door with some double stick. Super simple and its really nostalgic and vintage feeling to me. I may attempt a curtain of them as well, by using a tensioned curtain rod and stringing some on mono filament, but only if my kids agree not to yank it down 10 times a day (not likely.)

3. I may stagger some of the stars on garlands like these, also by Martha. I think these can be used sparingly to create a great effect and stored properly should last for years to come as well!

My best friend is flying here in ONE WEEK (cant wait!) and staying until the 15th of December which gives us plenty of time to work on these great crafts. I will post pictures of our progress and any new ideas I stumble on in the meantime, I cant wait to see how it all turns out.

I am also going to hand-make all the ornaments for my tree. I am going to make some tissue paper poms in white and cream, like I made for my DD's room (see here..) but making them the size of a regular ornament ball. I am also going to hand sew some felt ornaments in the shape of birds, as well as some more intricate 3-D ones. I'll use some doilies and make icicle shaped cones to hang as well, and I am using white feathers to make ornaments out of too. I've been researching origami that might work, and how to make fun 3-d paper ornaments too.

 I was even thinking about wrapping tulle around my lights on the tree to give it even a softer glow.. we'll see! I am so excited to do it all with my buddy and most of all I am excited to avoid having to buy anything but supplies.

Tags: christmas decor, paper arts, paper crafts, dailybuzz, daily buzz, handmade holidays, wreath, party decor

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