DIY Christmas decorations

If you’re hopping over from Jones Design Company… Hi! I’m Jamie! My house is not nearly as festive and cute as Emily’s, but that’s ok! We like it!  My real life friend, Allison, wrote a funny post about Christmas decor (or lack thereof) in her home. It made me laugh probably because I can 100% relate. Andy and I have never had a real Christmas tree in our home! Kinda sad, well, not really that sad for us. Just the truth. We have always celebrated Christmas with family and lived in really small places so it hasn’t ever worked out. I always wonder where in the world people store all of that extra stuff! I’ve crafted up my modern wall tree a few different years, but sometimes there is no tree, like this year. And last, ha! And that’s ok with me. We still love Christmas time in Casa de Dorobek! And something tells me once the little bambino is here, he’ll be 9 months at this time next year, we’ll get a little more festive with our DIY Christmas decorations!

I wasn’t even going to post about my super amazing Christmas decorations, but The White Buffalo Styling Company asked me to be part of her 2013 Christmas Home tour of Bloggers, and I couldn’t resist sharing the true state of my house! So for now, here’s what we’ve (kinda) got going on for Christmas 2013:

1. Snowman window scene: I actually crafted this awesome little window scene back in August! That’s right, it was hot as heck and my neighbors clearly thought I was nuts drawing a snowman on my window and hanging Christmas lights in 100 degree weather. But, since it was a sponsored post, the approval process takes some time and it did not actually go live on the blog until November 5th! Needless to say, the snowman is not currently on my window. He came down mid September after the post was approved. But, I might put him back up this weekend! He was so cute and best of all, you can change his attire and accessories with a dry erase marker! See what Andy did to my poor snowman here. The giant snowflakes have found a new home in our house too, see #5!

2. Garage Christmas Tree: This is the same scenario as above, except that the official crafting of the garage Christmas tree happened in September and the post just went live last Thursday! Blogging is a crazy weird little world, huh? You craft for Christmas at the end of summer? Who doest that? This guy is cute and lives on the garage door we never open. The awesome Command™ Brand Outdoor Light Clips make stringing lights a cinch.

3. Advent calendar: So, I crafted up this advent calendar for Homes.com. You can find the complete tutorial here. It is not officially up on my wall still, but it is DIY Christmas decor that I made this year! I will absolutely make another one next year when the bambino can play with me. It was so easy. All you need is a wall, washi tape, and card stock. You can whip up this advent calendar in t-minus 19 minutes. Promise. You can take it down that quick too. And nothing to store.

4. Giant snowflakes: I originally made the giant snowflakes for the snowman scene on my window in #1, then wrote the tutorial for Homes.com and now the snowflakes are living on my fireplace! I stuck them above the mantle for the pictures for the tutorial. I made them out of random things I had on hand like paint sticks, popsicle sticks, toothpicks, and random wooden pieces. Then, I just used my handy dandy hot glue gun to stick them all together! You can find the complete tutorial here.

5. Peace wreath: This is my actual mantle as of today! I made the peace wreath back in October, but decided to add lights for Christmas time! The lights might never come down, just sayin’! We really like them up there! I added my bottle cap Christmas tree picture, a glass bowl of ornaments, and my white nutcracker to the mantle. Pretty simple. And that my friends, is the extent of my Christmas decorations! I just don’t have room to store Christmas stuff! Maybe one day. Oh and I’m thinking about using the lighted wreath as a holiday card holder too. Fun, right? I love getting Christmas snail mail cards in the mail and displaying throughout the season!

One more fun thing, I was on Good Day Austin last week as a Hometalk.com representative! So fun (and nerve racking)! I shared how to make a monogram Christmas wreath! It is probably the only other Christmas decoration I have besides what you see on my mantle! I actually made it last year for our front door in Florida. You can see a step by step and how nervous I was in this little video clip:

Be sure to check out Lucy’s beautiful home over at Crafterberry Bush! Her pictures are ohhh so pretty!

I’m just curious, where do you store Christmas stuff and where do you put your everyday things that get moved for Christmas stuff? I’d love to hear…