Give yourself and your loved ones an up-cycled and recycled Christmas with a difference!
Christmas is such a magical time of year….and yes! I am indeed a sucker for Christmas. I love the lights, the decoration, the holiday cheer and the general sense of festivity and jolliness. but what I do love the most (apart from the pine getting stuck in your hair, socks and everything else), it is making our own eco friendly and 100% recycled decoration.
These little twig ornaments are gorgeous and look great around the house all year round, not just at xmas.
You will need:
1) Assorted beads
2) Garden wire, 26 inches long
3) Twigs (collect bits of wood)
4) Felt
5) A feather
6) Glue
7) Scissors
8) White paint & brush
Step 1:
Gather 3 twigs that you can snap into 3 different sizes: 4 inches, 3 inches and 2 inches long. Give them a good clean with a cloth to get rid of the dirt. If you want your decoration to be in a natural wood color, then leave the twigs as they are. If you want a white one, you need to paint your pieces of wood. To paint them, you can use household paint or Acrylic paint. Once the paint dries , go to step 2.
(*) TIP: Try and chose twigs that are fatter (wider) at the 2 broken ends and thinner in the centre. this will help the wire remain tight around twigs and prevent them from sliding off.
Step 2:
With a craft knife, make a small incision at the base of your feather and poke the garden wire through the “cut” you just made (this can be a little fiddly so be patient). Twist the wire around the feather a few times tightening it as you go along. Thread a few beads into the wire. See images below.
Step3:
Wrap your wire around the centre of your longest twig – the 4 inch one – once and pull tight. Wrap it again, but this time make sure you poke the end of the wire underneath the second loop to make sure the wire is securely looped around the twig (please see image below). Pull gently on the wore to tighten it around the twig.
Step 4:
Thread some more beads and then repeat step 3 with the 3 inch twig. (thread the beads in the space between the twigs)
step 5:
Thread some more beads into the wire and repeat step 3 with the 2 inch twig. Finish off by adding a few more decorative beads. Leave a couple of inches and make a loop at the end of the wire. (See image in step 6).
Ok, you should now have a feather and 3 twigs separated by beads.
Step 6:
Trace 2 identical hearts onto the felt and cut them.
Step 7:
Glue the back of the first felt heart and place the 2 inch wire gap you made in step 5 (between the last bead and the end loop) in the centre of the glued heart (see image). Glue the back of the second heart and, glued sides together, “sandwich” the wire between 2 felt hearts.
Step 8:
Wait for th glue to dry … and …ta da!!!! lovely eco-friendly Christmas decoration.
This gorgeous “trinket” (as my lovely daughter Sacha calls it), is not just for Christmas, it is a quirky eco friendly decorative ornament that you can hang anywhere around the house.
I have one hanging in the bathroom, one in my daughter’s bedroom hanging on her book shelves and one in the bedroom…They all look great and brighten up the rooms!
Enjoy this tutorial and leave me a comment if you find it useful…and please do send some pictures if you make some, I would love to see them 
