DIY Christmas Tablescape

Since the thanksgiving tablescape was such a hit on social media or more importantly with me- it came out exactly how I envisioned it to (which does not always happen), I was under immense pressure for the Christmas tablescape. And since I had already announced I will be sharing it on the blog and social media channels there was no turning back. I would have liked this post to have gone live middle of last week, but by now you know how I delay things. The cold did not help either. Neither did final cut pro freezing on me several times while editing the videos. Nor did my mood (details on the instagram post). But here we are today, live with my Christmas decor DIY post.

For Christmas, I wanted to be a little more hands on with the decorations. I took to pinterest to find inspiration and found so much. Which can be a blessing and a curse. I wanted to do it all. But then there’s only so much one can do. I narrowed it to Air Dry Clay Ornaments, Clay candle houses, DIY White Yarn Trees and a christmas wreath.

The best way to finish off a Christmas tablescape is to place edible items for grab around the table. Think gingerbread houses or cookies, candy canes, chocolate barks. I completed the tablescape with these walnut christmas tree and chocolate bark that Bruijn.in sent, that worked so well with the entire natural and homemade theme. If you are looking for a cute edible christmas gift and are in Delhi, do check them out!

Breaking down my Christmas DIY Projects:

WINTER FOLIAGE CHRISTMAS WREATH

The first thing was to make a christmas wreath. I debated between artificial leaves and fresh, especially since fresh winter greens here in the plains might not be easily available. Also, I was not sure about the shelf life. But then I saw this video, and the final wreath and I wanted to attempt it. I am so glad I did. I managed to get most of the winter greens I wanted. The week I brought all of them home, my house smelled like the hills- a hint of eucalyptus, cedar, pine in all my rooms.

There are pros and cons of doing a fresh winter green wreath. While you eliminate plastic by using fresh greens, unless you were wise enough to pot these plants in your balcony or backyard for such instances, or are lucky enough to be staying close to a forest where you could forage these winter greens, you will most likely have to buy them off from someone who will be cutting these off commercially. Basically cutting from a forest, if they have not planted it themselves for commercial purposes. Its a decision you need to be aware of, and figure out a conscious decision for yourself.

The flower market that I generally go to when I need to source fresh flowers for shoot or otherwise, had many of these greens available but some I had to specifically ask for.

Things you will need to make your Winter Christmas wreath:

1. Fresh evergreens: Good winter greens to use that can be sourced here in India when making a wreath are princess pine, eucalyptus, juniper, araucaria and cedar. You can always mix fresh and faux greens if you like, or even use dried cones.
2. A wire base: You get these wreath wires abroad, but I was not able to find them here. Instead I used wooden embroidery frame for the project. For the size, choose depending on how big you want your final wreath to be. Mine was a 12 inch loop.
3. 22 gauge wire: I used this one.
4. Oven dried oranges, some faux berries, pine cones
5. Glue gun or wire to attach the embellishments.
6. Water spritzer or Wilt pruf/wilt stop

STEPS TO MAKE YOUR WINTER GREENS CHRISTMAS WREATH

1. Before you start making the wreath, lay out your clippings in a loose form around the wire frame to determine how much of each green you will need. This step isn’t necessary but it will make your job more smooth.
2. Create each individual bundle and keep aside. For each bundle, create layers with the different evergreens you are using. I liked using the pine as the base as it is fluffier and then added each of the others. The pine that I got was the princess pine and it is quite big, so I made two small pine bases out of one (shared how-to below).
3. Start making your christmas wreath by first attaching the 22 gauge paddle wire to your wreath frame. Wrap the wire tightly on 3-4 times and make sure it is secure.
4. Taking the same wire that is attached to your wire loop base, attach your first bundle. Make sure you go around the bundle at least 3 times to secure the bundle tightly to the frame.
5. The next bundle will be attached to the base of the first bundle again making the wire go 2-3 times to tightly secure.
6. To ensure that the wreath is fluffy when you attach the bundles make sure you alternate each bundle in opposing sides. The first bundle goes in center- the next will go slightly inwards, while the one after that goes slightly outwards. Like a slight zig zag.
7. Do this all the way around to make your wreath.
8. At the end fill the final gap with smaller bundles.
9. The last bundles can be tricky to add- you might need to lift the already secured bundles and tuck the new ones in to fill any gaps.
10. Once done take end of the wire and loop it around, and close it tightly to the frame.
11. Spray the wreath with water or wilt prif/wilt stop.
12. Attach your embellishments with a wire or hot glue. I used dried oranges, pine cone and some faux red berries.

How to use princess pine available in India for this wreath:

• Do see this video by Garden Answer. She explains the whole process very well.
• Since you are using fresh greenery, overtime the leaves will shrink so make sure each bundle is tightly secure with the wire
• Try to use one continuous wire. It ensures that everything is tightly tied together.
• Wilt pruf/wilt stop helps to retain the moisture. We dont get it here, so I have been spritzing it with water.
• Another way to make sure your fresh wreath stays green longer is to hydrate the foliage in water overnight before starting your wreath. You could do this step even after your wreath is made and before you add any dry elements. Fill a shallow wide container with water and place your wreath in it so that the backside of the wreath is in water for a couple of hours. Remove and let the excess water dry off before hanging the wreath.
• Make sure your wreaths are away from direct sunlight. Best is to hang your wreath outside in shade so that it keeps getting some moisture. Inside, fresh wreaths and greens tend to last no more than a couple of weeks. If you are using the heater, the wreath will dry out quicker.
• While this wreath is amazing on the door, or as I placed it between my window mirrors, this would be great as a centerpiece or even hanging from above your dining table with some battery operated candles.

AIR DRY CLAY CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

After Rukmini of Trumatter opened my eyes to air dry clay, it has become some sort of an obsession. Its not that bad, but yes I love using it for DIY decor pieces. Not everything comes out how I want, but I like the whole process of using hands to create something. When I was working on The Pink CakeBOx I would make a lot of model figurines with fondant and while time consuming, I enjoyed that process quite a bit. I am glad some of the tools I got for that are now being used for these air dry projects since the concept and technique is similar. Fondant yields edible results, air dry clay stays for much longer.

For my christmas decor, I made christmas tags that I used as napkin rings. I also made some christmas trees that I hung from dried branches to make my neutral decor centerpiece. Both the merry christmas tags and the clay christmas trees can be used as ornaments or even gift tags. You could add color to them with acrylic paint/ or colored markers, or leave as is for a white neutral decor theme.

For the DIY clay christmas trees and clay christmas tags,  you will need the following:

1. Air dry clay: I used this air dry clay brand that I got from amazon.
2. Permanent marker : While I used black sharpie, you could use any color. You could also use acrylic paints if you like and go crazy.
3. Round cutter: I got mine from the US. The round cutters were a fluted set from ateco brand. They are super expensive right now on amazon india’s website, but any round cutter will do. You could also use the top of a steel glass, or steel katori or canning bottle cap in your desired size.
4. Fresh juniper needles or any leaf of your preference for stamping your design on the clay tags
5. Alphabet stamp embosser: This was a buy from before, but a similar one is available on amazon here.
6. Tree cutter: Again a buy from before, but these are easily available online, or cake decor shops. Worst case scenario make your own template on a thick card stock paper, and use that to cut your desired shape.
7. Small star cutter: I used this to attach to the top of my clay tree, on which was also where I also pierced the hole to hang the ribbon/wire from
8. Floral wire/ ribbon or twine
9. Toothpick/thin needles/ chopsticks or invest in these clay shaping tools if you plan to work with air dry clay a lot. I had my set from before.

Steps to make the DIY clay christmas tags/ napkin rings:

1. Knead the air dry clay.
2. Roll out the clay between two chop sticks for an even thickness.
3. Using a round cutter, stamp out a circle.
4. Make a hole with a chop stick on top.
5. Make your design: For the top leaf design, I used needle juniper pushed inside the clay, and removed it with the help of a needle. With the same needle tool I also made some dots to look like berries.
6. Stamp out your message. I used a similar alphabet embosser to write Merry Christmas. If using as placecards or gift tags you could add names as well.
7. For the beads, I made small clay rounds of two different sizes and right after shaping, I a passed a toothpick through them to make space for a wire or thin ribbon to go through. You could use wooden beads of two sizes as well to create these tags that were originally inspired from here.
8. Use a ribbon/twine or thin wire to pass through the round tag- tie it at the top before adding the beads so that the beads place perfectly on top. Use the ribbon/wire/twine to tie around the napkin.

Steps to make the DIY Christmas Tree

1. Knead the air dry clay.
2. Roll out the clay between two chop sticks for an even thickness.
3. Using a tree cutter or template, stamp out a tree.
4. Add a tiny star on top with the help of little water and your finger or flat edged tool.
5. Make a small hole on the star.
6. Let dry flat overnight.
7. Once dry, using a marker draw out your design.
8. Hang it with the help of a wire/twine/ribbon.

DIY CLAY HOUSE TEA LIGHT HOLDER

I love those white scandinavian type house tea light holders I have been seeing everywhere. I looked at a few blog posts on them online and set off to make my own. I used this template for the house shown in the video (but tweaked the dimensions to make the house slightly shorter and wider).

The taller one was actually my first try and I just winged it with that one, since I did not expect much from it (and it shows). The next one, which features in the video I have shared was slightly better and cleaner. There is still room for improvement but certain tricks and tips I learnt from the first try helped. Sharing them below.

Tips and tricks while making your clay house tea light holder:

1. Roll the clay slightly thick. With the first clay house, I went too thin, so I am guessing that when it tried it became a little wobbly.
2. Having two chop sticks on the side while rolling out helps in keeping an even thickness and getting better results.
3. Make sure you dry with a weight on since they can sometimes bend while drying. I place a parchment paper below and above the cutouts, and then place a weight over it while drying. That way they retain the flatness in their shape. With the clay trees also you should do this. Placing something over did lengthen the drying time but at least my pieces came out flatter.
4. Use your finger dabbed with some water to smooth the edges out. Keeping a small piece of sponge handy to smooth the clay also helps.
5. Sand the house once it is completely dry for a smoother finish.
6. Score your dried cut outs, and use slip to stick the walls of the houses to each other. Slip is basically watered down clay to make a slurry kind of paste. Once you apply your slip and stick the walls, use a sponge or your hands to smoothen the surface out.
7. These clay shaping tools help, but your fingers and sponge do too.
8. While I have used tea lights in the ones I made, I would suggest to use the battery operated ones since I do feel that these are not that fire resistant. Also next time I would make windows on the side walls as well for an added 360 degree glow.

DIY WHITE YARN CHRISTMAS TREE

I saw these yarn trees on several DIY pages and just loved the look of the white neutral christmas theme decor they fit perfectly into. They are super simple to make. Having a glue gun helps since it does stick everything quickly and securely. My first try was the tallest of the tree and thats why you can see some gaps in it. The next couple I was careful as to be super tight while wrapping the tree and making sure there were no gaps. They were better.

While you get readily made styrofoam cones abroad and some craft stores here, but its super easy to make your own too. This tutorial on making your own cones helped me to make mine.

What you will need:

1. Poster board or slightly thick paper that is sturdy yet bendable.
2. Glue gun
3. Scale and pencil: While a protractor compass set would be ideal but I do not have one. A scale and pencil will do just fine to creat your quarter circle
4. Yarn:  Find a natural fibre yarn- its more expensive but natural wool gives a better result than the synthetic kinds. You could go for any color really, you could mix and match. I wanted a neutral color theme, so I chose white. I would recommend buying the chunkiest yarn you can find. It give a more fuzzy feeling and the result is definitely better.
5. Scissors

Steps to make your DIY Yarn Christmas Tree

1. For your cone base, trace out a quarter circle. Remember the desired height of your cone will be the radius of the circle.
2. Heat up your hot glue gun 
3. Stick the edges of your quarter circle with hot glue to make a cone shape.
4. Starting at the bottom of the cone, add a dab of hot glue and stick the edge of your yarn.
5. Add a ring of hot glue around the bottom, and immediately wrap the yarn around the bottom and press.
6. Circle the yarn around the cone, placing a small dot of glue every few rings to hold the yarn in place.
7. Create a few different sizes to create your white winter wonderland.