Christmas crafting in July

Ok, who’s with me, or is the year flying by? Before we know it, it will be Christmas time with all it’s festivities and traditions. So we thought we would share some Christmas crafting for the upcoming holiday season today to be prepared ahead of schedule. A girl can try, right?

GERMAN GLASS GLITTER

German glass glitter is a favorite to use over here. I love how it patinas over time, giving anything a truly superb vintage look and feel. This past year we shared how we covered some old fashion light bulbs to create some fabulous Christmas glitter ornaments.

If you click on the link above, it will take you to the original post with all the instructions on how to create your own old-fashioned Christmas light bulb ornaments.

I cannot wait to pull these out of the Christmas bin to see how they have patina’d over the year.

The first Christmas craft we created using German glass glitter were a pair of salt & pepper shakers. We cerated mini snow globes with bottle brush trees and faux snow.

These can be used as ornaments, as place settings for a seasonal tablescape, or as unique hostess gift since we will be mingling and gathering again this year. I use them often as decor in my kitchen over the holiday season.

Once again all the detailed information is in the original post if you just click on the link above or here{Christmas crafting}.

I found the salt & pepper shaker set at the Dollar Tree but your can also find them at thrift stores. Another great Dollar Tree item you can jazz up for Christmas using German glass glitter are these plastic snowflakes.

The snowflakes come in a pack of 10 or 12, which is a great deal. This helps offsets the cost of the German glass glitter. The patina on the edges makes it so worth it!

We do not have a step by step tutorial for this one but basically you just use spray adhesive all over the plastic snowflake and sprinkle with the glass glitter. Let it dry and repeat adding as many layers as you want. I believe we used 2 layers for these. Also remember to use a tray to catch all the excess glitter that doesn’t attach so you can save it for a later use.

BOOK PRINT PAGES

Another medium we love to use for crafting are book print pages. You can find old books at thrift stores and garage sales. You can also use new books from the Dollar Tree.

Through the years we have crafted an assortment of book print page Christmas trees. The tutorial for the tree all the way to the right with the gold star can be found in this post {book print Christmas}.

Although we do not have a blog post dedicated to a tutorial for the other two trees a quick search on Pinterest should find plenty of tutorials. Use the term {book pages Christmas tree} to yield a plethora of information. We also used book pages to decoupage plastic ornaments.

For the ornaments, I inked the edges of the torn pieces of pages with black ink. Once the decoupage medium was almost dry, a quick dusting of glitter was applied. For a finishing touch, black and ivory ribbon was attached to the hangers.

GARLANDS | BANNERS

Garlands and banners are always a great way to decorate a mantel or wrap around the Christmas tree or drape across an entry way. The uses are really endless. This first garland is fabulous because it’s super easy to make and you can actually use it from the fall season into Christmas and even into late winter decor. It’s a simple burlap and pine cone garland.

Once again all the instructions are in the original post.

Trust me when I say it’s super easy to make and so versatile to use in so many ways.

Another super versatile banner we’ve created is this burlap and chalkboard pennant banner. It’s semi home-made, remember that cooking show with Sandra Lee? She would use partially prepared foods as short cuts and we use a similar concept here. We started with a purchased burlap pennant banner, BUT we added the chalkboard so you can change the sentiment | message for whatever occasion or event.

We have used this chalkboard banner for so many holidays, birthdays, and events since you can customize the message to anything you want.

We hope one or all of these inspire you to get your craft on in July, getting ready for Christmastime. There’s nine crafts in this post and hopefully some resonate with you. Let me know is you have any questions or share some crafts you a have created yourself that you think fits my style. Merry Christmas in July!

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.

Harlan Miller

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sharing @ between naps on the porch