I’m a crafty queen, especially around Christmas. I have my aunt Lois and cousin Christi to thank for my love of making. From painting to needlepoint to hot glue, my sister Monica and I would regularly spend hours creating ornaments, home decor and other fun projects.
As an adult, things haven’t changed much. Around my house, you’ll find a custom-made valance over the kitchen sink, oversized floor pillows for the pups and countless pillows scattered throughout the house. At Christmas, I amp it up to a new level. Here are some of my favorite recent creations.
The Big-Ass Reindeer
This was our biggest project for Christmas 2018. My fabulous husband Todd indulged my dream of having something MASSIVE in the front yard — to the tune of a 18-foot ginormous reindeer made from six sheets of plywood. We spent the whole weekend in our garage tracing patterns (which I found online), cutting and painting. My sister and her husband had to drive up to Dallas to help us erect this big buck. Next year, we’re adding a second deer, followed by a life-sized sleigh the year after that. (For scale, I’m 6’4″!)
I Like Big Balls & I Cannot Lie
I made this oversized, super-colorized ball wreath out of two pool noodles, more than 600 shatterproof ornaments, multiple bags of hot glue…and at least three bottles of wine, for creative inspiration. It took me about six hours over a few nights and now hangs over the mantel at my office. It’s so big that I had to put the seats down in my SUV to get it there. Fortunately, it barely weighs anything.
Pining for Christmas
For this wreath, we harvested about 100 pine cones from Todd’s parents’ home in the foothills of the stunningly beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina (thank you to my mother-in-law and daughter for this!). I hot glued them and dusted the whole thing with gold spray paint to give it a glistening look, and to cover the hot glue dots. I’ll probably add some ribbon(s) and maybe some greenery to it later, but for now, it’s a simple — but super heavy — wreath hanging on the door to our garage.
More Of My Balls
One of my very first Christmas crafts I made when we moved into our current house is this ball garland door decoration. It’s made with about 400 shatterproof ornaments strung onto polyester twine. I have washers tied to the tops so that they easily hang on nails at the top of each side of entrance between our foyer and the dining room. It’s always a show-stopper when we have parties.
What to make next year?! Definitely another reindeer. I’m also knocking around a few ideas for using leaves from the huge, quintessentially Southern magnolia tree growing in our front yard. I’ll keep you posted! 😉
