As the holiday season steadily approaches, it’s time to start decking your halls! These thoughtful holiday projects are incredibly easy and time-saving, which will give you more time to plan and enjoy the most wonderful time of the year in your festive abode! From DIY holiday bows to DIY Christmas ornaments, there’s something here for just about anyone.

Dashing DIY Holiday Décor Ideas

Put your artful eye and creativity to work as you make beautiful holiday decor items sure to add a touch of sentimental holiday spirit to your home. Feeling overwhelmed by the multitude of projects and limited time and/or creative prowess? Don’t fret! Many of these ideas incorporate store-bought items for easy projects that are half homemade and entirely charming!

Ribbon and Bows

During the holiday season, ribbon and bows are definitely a few of our favorite things! You can start your holiday DIY projects by creating homemade ribbon bows that you can add to any number of items: decorative packages, garland, wreaths, pine swags, table lamps and more. Bows can be placed almost anywhere in your home around the holidays! All you need is a favorite ribbon and a few supplies that can be found at most craft stores, such as strong scissors, wire twisty, cable ties etc. Try a sparkly red ribbon for sophisticated bows or a plaid ribbon for a rustic feel.

You can also use ribbon in other creative ways. Wrap 2.5- to 5-inch wide ribbon around your front entry door, centering it from top to bottom. Use an office stapler to secure the ends of the ribbon together at eye level on the outside of your door. Wrap ribbon around the door side to side, stapling the vertical ribbon at eye level on the vertical ribbon crossing, inside and outside. Now, make two full bows and office staple them at the crossed ribbons on both sides. Walla, the front door is a large, inviting holiday package to welcome friends and family for the holidays. (Pro tip: This is a great, quick home décor trick not just the holidays, but for birthday parties, showers and family events. Just select the ribbon according to the party theme. It’s also fun to add a computer made sign or large tag to the outside bow, like a gift tag, announcing the celebration, i.e.: Congratulation Patrick! Class of 2019!)

Trimming the Tree

There are many ways to trim a tree, and you can personalize it by adding DIY touches throughout the process. Start with a pre-lit artificial Christmas tree or add the lights of your choice to your real or artificial tree. Next, you can wrap the tree with your favorite DIY ribbon of choice, or even place a variety of the DIY ribbon bows that you created to add style and dimension throughout your tree. Have you perfected your bow making technique? You can even use a large, homemade bow at the top of your tree en lieu of a traditional tree topper.

Next, it’s time to start adding accents. A simple, natural, accent to add; pinecones. The designer trick to make pinecone into ornaments or décor is to add a touch of glitter or paint to the outer edges of the pinecone. White, silver and gold always work with Christmas ornaments for the holiday. Add a ribbon as a hanger for the pinecones or cluster pinecones together to add dimension to the tree. (Pro tip: This DIY idea can be added to tablescaping, creating consistent elements in your whole home’s holiday décor.)

Additional Ornaments

Of course, no tree is complete without ornaments! There are a number of styles of ornaments you can create on your own, as simple as using materials such as felt and paint, to as involved as cross-stitching. One DIY ornament idea is cutting out a Santa shape in red felt, then using a black Sharpie or even glue and fun jewels to decorate him for the tree! Get the kids involved, and you’ll have a fun holiday memory, as well as a variety of creative ornaments.

If the task of decorating your entire tree with DIY ornaments seems a little formidable, don’t worry! You can add a few homemade ornaments to a pre-lit artificial Christmas tree and your favorite store-bought glass bulbs, icicles and more for a personalized, yet stunning display.

There are also simple ways to update those “experienced” shatterproof ornaments that come in multi packs: sparkle them up with accents. A touch of glue: add some glitter, craft jewels, a ribbon or glitz cord. Change the ornament hanger to foil curling ribbon, with curls everywhere. Just like that, a simple shatter proof shape becomes a fabulous bauble.

One quick way to add dimension to your tree is to group together glass or shatterproof ball shape ornaments with curling ribbons or floral wire in clusters to create larger scale textured ornament groups (think of grape clusters) and place them in the tree deeper, while you place single ornaments on the outer tips. Mix your tree theme colors for interest (try silver with red).

Did you get a little carried away and create more ornaments than your tree can handle? Don’t worry! There are many ways you can incorporate these ornaments throughout your home. Create a hanging ornament array that you can enjoy with family and friends as you gather around the dinner table. All you will need is your favorite ornaments, such as bird ornaments, snowflakes or classic icicles, and some string, curling ribbon or fish line. Hang these at various heights from your dining room chandelier to create an eye-catching display above the table! You can also hang ornaments from the Christmas garland wrapped around your banister, or fill a bowl or platter with ornaments for an easy DIY tabletop display.

With the DIY holiday decor ideas from above, your home is sure to stand out from the rest and shine like no other during the season of giving and celebrations!