Repurposing Christmas Decorations

Hello!

A little while ago I was inspired by Patience Brewster to repurpose some holiday décor! Patience is an artist and illustrator who designs, among other things, beautiful and unique Christmas decorations. I was introduced to Patience’s work, and challenged – how can I repurpose my Christmas decorations for use all year round?

Let’s face it, we all have lots of Christmas decorations which are beautiful, sometimes quite pricey and even handmade – and they spend 11 months of the year gathering dust in the loft or cellar. There is nothing more exciting than dusting off the decorations and carefully unpacking them at the beginning of December, but isn’t it such a shame that something so beautiful is packed away for the majority of the year? Now I’m not expecting everyone to keep their Christmas tree up 365 days a year (that would obviously spoil the fun…) but what if you could sneak a little bit of Christmas into your everyday decor? Surely the odd bauble here and there would brighten up your dark evenings when you get in from work? Plus you wouldn’t have to hide away those beautiful decorations all year to only see the (dim) light of December days!

Rising to Patience Brewster’s challenge, I have come up with a few projects to get the most out of my Christmas decorations, by incorporating them into decor that will last the whole year round!

 

The first ornament I opted to repurpose was beads. We have several strings and varieties of beads that we hang on the tree every year, and they seemed like a very versatile decoration to start with! I picked out a vase made from recycled glass and filled the vase with the beads. I decided to place a candle on top of the beads to decorate our dining table, but it would also be a great way to display artificial flowers.

While I had the vase to hand, I also wanted to put my Christmas lights to use too! I just pushed the lights into the vase and when you switch them on, you have a really pretty feature. It looks great on an evening when you are watching a film with the lights off!

 

But you can’t possibly talk about Christmas decorations without talking about baubles! I’ve come up with three ways to put baubles to good use so that you can display them all year round! For the first project, I filled a shadow frame with some mini baubles and printed a positive message to go in it. I think this looks really cute and definitely not Christmassy so perfect for use all year round!

Also, how many of your Christmas decorations are actually Christmassy? Raking through my box I discovered that I actually have a lot of decorations that don’t relate to Christmas at all, such as these hearts, and there is no reason why they can’t be used throughout the year, then put on the tree in December. I have strung up these heart baubles to hang on the wall, they would be great as Valentine’s decorations or for other occasions in the year!

And if you fancy something a little more crafty, I have come up with a project to decorate a bauble to turn into a craft room decoration that can last the whole year round!

 

For the project you will need a bauble, some scissors, bakers twine, beads, glue and wooden skewers.

 

I mixed the glue with some water and soaked the bakers twine in it to ensure it was coated then started wrapping it around the bauble.

 

I kept wrapping the twine around the bauble until it was covered, then hung it up to dry. It might take some time due to the amount of glue on there. I left mine overnight and the majority of the next day just to be on the safe side!

 

While the bauble is drying cut the wooden skewers down to a shorter length. The ideal length will depend on your bauble, so I just judged by eye what was going to look best. You will want to glue a wooden bead onto the flat end of the skewer that you have trimmed. If the end of the skewer isn’t flat you can file it down with some sandpaper.

 

Once the bauble is dry, push the pointed ends of the skewers through the twine on the bauble and there you have it…your very own ball of yarn to hang in your craft room and it will still look adorable hung on your Christmas tree too!

 

Which project is your favourite? Do you repurpose your Christmas decorations? Or have some ideas on how you could? I’d love to hear about your projects! Or maybe you don’t celebrate Christmas; do you have a religious festival that you decorate for? Are you able to repurpose these decorations for the rest of the year?