Simple creative seasonal crafts and ornaments

Lately I’ve enjoyed finding many wonderful and simple tutorials and ideas online for holiday crafts and ornaments. These don’t really fit with my TanglePatterns.com site, but everyone there is very “crafty” in the best possible sort of way so I thought I’d share my discoveries over here with you all.

Printable nativity set from Marloes de Vries, a designer and illustrator from the NetherlandsThese caught my eye and I hope you find them fun and give some of them a whirl.

  1. Junk mail snowflakes – I couldn’t resist tweeting about this, so I had to start with this one from Canadian Michele Pacey over at her michelemademe.com blog. Check out her amazing snowflakes blizzard and look for the tutorial link on that page.
  2. Star template – also tweeted recently – a cool star template to tangle by CZT® Susan Breen Silvy. Here’s a link showing some of Susan’s beautiful creations using her templates.
  3. Print and build a nativity set – discovered at Jessica Jones’ How About Orange blog – from Marloes de Vries, a designer and illustrator from the Netherlands. I confess, I totally “borrowed” the nativity image above from Jessica without permission, hope she and Marloes don’t mind.
  4. 3D Paper ball ornaments – Jessica is a graphic and textile designer and she has several fine tutorials of her own on her site. Have a look at these beautiful 3D paper ornaments and imagine the possibilities. Be sure to check out her other tutorials for these DIY Christmas ornaments with paper: Spiky modern star, Another paper ball, Easy flower, Lacy 3D snowflake, Striped spaceship, and Paper snowflakes.
  5. Sweet paper cottages – Lori Vliegen creates paper cottages using from prints from her journal pages – I just love her lettering and she’s offering a workshop (… hmm, note to self: put this on Christmas wish list)
  6. Chenille stem poinsettias – simple and eye-catching ornaments for your tree or gift embellishments, this is “a really fast and easy craft, even kids can tackle”
  7. A host of tutorial links covering a wide range of crafts, from kitchy to gorgeous, can be found on Dotty’s Totally Tutorials, which is where I originally saw the Chenille Stem Poinsettias. From a recipe for Pretzel Christmas Candy, to tutorials for Puzzle Piece Christmas Trees, Stitched Christmas cards, beaded wreath ornaments, there’s lots more. Fancy making some root beer bottle Reindeer? Cute as can be! Have fun exploring Totally Tutorials.
  8. Here’s another take on stitched greeting cards by Tonia Davenport – no tutorial here, but certainly creative inspiration for the needlecrafters in the crowd.
  9. And then there’s the DIY page by Cathe Holden of justsomethingimade.com with all kinds of gifts to make. There’s bound to be something in there for someone on your list.
  10. Finally – what would holiday gifts be without festive gift wrap? For the men on your list, found via Lifehacker.com, from Chris at manmadediy.com comes this classy idea for typographical gift wrap on brown craft paper. And Alisa Burke creates wonderful gift wrap and gift toppers with recycled brown paper bags and white ink.

Okay, I don’t want to overwhelm with last minute things to do. But these are simple and fun, and just may be a family activity you will enjoy taking time out to do. Or make a note of them for next year 😉

If you find related tutorials worth sharing, please share with us in a comment. And many thanks to all the folks who share their tutorials and ideas with us.

Cheers and happy holidays to everyone!

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