Winter Garland-Trying to Beautify the Ugly Blinds

After Christmas I am always glad to get all the clutter put away but my house feels kind of empty so I try and keep put up a few winter related decorations.  I usually don't like very much for winter because I love how "huge" and "open" my house feels after the Christmas tree, the Christmas moose collection, gingerbread men, Santa's and reindeer are put away.  I wanted to create a winter garland-something not Christmasy but still in keeping with the season.  I chose to snowballs, mittens, snow covered trees and sleds-Oh My.

I wanted to share how I made the elements I put on the garland-then the assembly is pretty basic-you should be able to figure it out just fine.

First up: Snowballs.

For these I used a bag of decorative snow (though you really don't need that much), glitter (I used Elmer's Glitter Brilliants Opal), a wooden skewer, Styrofoam balls and spray glue.

Place the ball on the skewer so that it will hold firmly in place.

Hold it over a trash can or bag and spray with the glue.  Then sprinkle it immediately with the decorative snow.

Place it back over a trash can or bag and spray lightly again and this time sprinkle with the glitter.  Tap off any excess.  Remove the ball and let it dry or you can put it upright on the stick in a jar and let it dry and use a new skewer to make another one.

Repeat to make as many as you want.  These would look really pretty in a large glass container too I think.

Next up: Snow covered Christmas trees

I found a pattern and directions here.  You kinda have to play around with these to get them the shape you want.  I cut mine varying sizes to get an assortment of trees.   I glued the folds down with glue dots and added a trunk.  

I thinned some white paint with water and dabbed it on the tree tops and sides.

Then using the Glitter Brilliants again I sprinkled glitter over the wet paint.

Here are the sparkly, snow capped trees when dry.  Poke a hole through the top and thread with a piece of string or embroidery floss.

Now onto: Sleds.  Anyone who has lived in a winter climate knows that sledding is the highlight of the winter months.  Oh if you only knew the stories I have to share about sledding.  I had to include these.  I used this post at Creating By Cami for my inspiration.  I thought that hers looked like they were a bit too much work so I made my own adaptation.  You will need 9 popsicle sticks total to make a sled.  The sled base uses full length sticks as well as the runners on the underside.  Here is what I learned while making these: popsicle sticks can be cut with scissors, they are very easy to round with a piece of sandpaper and they look fantastic painted with a watered down craft paint.  I didn't do a tutorial because I was making these at the wee dark hours of the night but I think you can pretty much figure them out from these two pictures.

Here is a picture of the underside of one.  The 5 base pieces are not glued together.  They are held together by the top short piece and 2 short pieces on the underside (glued on with hot glue).  After I made them I thinned some craft paint with water and painted them.  When they were dry I gave them a little sanding and added a handle.  I love, love, love these.  Wouldn't a "winter" themed Christmas tree be fun with sleds, mittens, snowballs and snow covered trees?

Finally I created some mini mittens as well.  I used this mitten pattern and cut these out of felt.  I tried to stitch different or add a different embellishment to each one.  After I had all these elements made I tore some fabric strips in coordinating colors to fill in between these decorations.  Then I assembled.

 To make the garland I started by threading on the snowballs.  To do this I used my wooden skewer to poke a hole all the way through the Styrofoam ball.  Then I used jute twine and threaded it through the snowball.  Slide the snowball to where you want it and tie a knot on either side.    Everything else can be added after the snowballs.  I love the finished product.  Fun and cheerful for those often dull winter days.