I’m a Thanksgiving purist, in that I insist we wait until after thanksgiving before we get all Christmasy. But now that we’re here, I’m onboard with kicking off Christmas!
I’ve had this idea for a while, and fortunately I was at my mom’s house for the weekend – she has a LOT of scrap Christmas paper plus blocks of wood that were perfect. I’ve been saving/hoarding ends of cut wood at our house too, so I’m sure I’ll be making even more of these once I get back to my house. Either way, if you’ve got scrap blocks of wood, odd bits of Christmas paper, and ribbon, this DIY decoration is free and easy to make! You can make as many or as few as you like, too – little stacks are cute, and giant stacks would be cool too.
Supplies:
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Scrap blocks of wood
Scrap Christmas wrapping paper
Ribbon
Tape and scissors
BEFORE: Scrap wood and wrapping paper.
Step 1: Prep the blocks. If you’ve cut all these blocks, they might have rough edges that need to be sanded down, otherwise the edges might rip through the paper. My mom, fortunately, had sanded these blocks a while ago because she’d originally wanted to make colorful building blocks out of them for my girls.
Step 2: Wrap the blocks. I tried to do 3-4 blocks for each wrapping paper that I had, just to get colorful variety. You could also do these as all the same wrapping paper for a more unified or minimal look.
Very simply, you just wrap the blocks like you would a real present. If you don’t have big enough strips to cover the whole block, I found it was fine if the bottom still showed some exposed wood – you won’t see the undersides anyway.
Wrapping the blocks.
Any size will do!
Step 3: Add ribbon ties. I considered using a hot glue gun to connect each “present” and hold them secure, but the ribbon held them pretty well once it was wrapped around a few times. If you’re doing a giant stack, you might want to hot glue them together to help with stability. Or, if you don’t want ribbon at all, you could glue them for a different t look entirely!
First, I practiced stacking the presents to see what heights I wanted and which paper looked best side by side.
Setting up stacks.
Again, basically wrap the ribbon around the wrapped blocks like you would do for a real present. I found that once I got the ribbons around once tightly, the blocks stayed in place and it was fairly easy to wrap the ribbon up and down and around again to get the look I wanted.
For a few of the stacks, I used bigger, prettier ribbon, and that I only had to put around once. That would look really pretty with fancier wrapping paper, especially with golds or whites. Again, we were going for colorful, but a mom can dream. 🤪
Ribbons on.
Step 4: Set them out! I arranged my stacks on my mom’s little ledge around her staircase, and they look quite cute all sitting together, but we might space them around once other decorations go up. They’d also look cute with garland or greens or lights behind and around them.
AFTER: Mini Present Decorations!
That’s it! I’m glad these look cute, and it was a great way to use all those scrap pieces of wood, not to mention the odd sizes of Christmas wrapping paper that were just waiting for a use.
Anyone else singing “It’s beginning to cost a lot like Christmas” a lot this month? 😆 As far as new Christmas decorations are concerned, I’ve been trying to rein in the spending or at least make what I can myself. While shopping for gifts on Amazon, however, I found a beautiful set of old-looking Christmas bells to go across a hallway or over a mantle. Price tag: $130. So, no, that was not going to happen. But the more I looked at them, the more I began to form a plan…
The star of this project? Pop bottles. (Many of you probably call them soda bottles, so bear with my Michigan terminology. lol) This whole project technically cost me nothing because I used scrap materials, leftover paint, and a spare tension rod. I guess you could say I lost out on the $0.10 I could’ve gotten for each bottle if I’d recycled them, so maybe I’m down $1.50. But $1.50 is certainly better than $130! 😜
BEFORE: Empty bottles.
Supplies:
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Step 1: Collect and clean pop bottles. You want to use bottles with rounded topsides, not angled like Coke bottles. Since we don’t drink a lot of pop in our house, I begged for empty bottles after Thanksgiving parties and started collecting them. 😂 I also used a pack of smaller SmartWater bottles to get a variety of sizes. I ended up with 15, which is about perfect for the space I wanted filled.
First, I rinsed out the bottles and caps, and then I pulled off the labels. The SmartWater bottles in particular had a lot of adhesive still stuck on, so I used some Goo Be Gone and wiped it all off.
Getting goo off.
Some of the 2 liters had scraps stuck on, but I pulled them off best I could and gave up on the rest, so don’t worry too much if you can’t get it all off.
Step 2: Cut the bottles to bell shapes. I tried a utility knife and a little hacksaw before finally using a sharp knife and scissors. For each bottle, I found a spot a little past halfway down and pushed the knife tip through to create a hole. Then, taking the scissors, I cut around the bottles to cut the top “bell” part free from the bottom.
Cutting bottles.
Try to cut as straight around as you can so the bottom of the bell will be level and even. I tried to think of ways to maybe draw a guideline around the bottles, but I figured I’d be able to cut about as straight as I’d be able to draw anyway. 🤷♀️ I tested by setting the cut “bell” tops on my counter. If they were tilted too much, I knew which spots to cut down. If there was a gap around the bottom, I trimmed the other places to even it out.
Bottles cut!
Step 3: Hot glue the bottoms. I didn’t love how jagged the bottoms of the bells were from cutting, plus I wanted them to look more like old metal. I ended up taking my hot glue gun and adding a ring of glue around the bottom of each bell. This almost made it look like melted glass (…which gave me an idea for later, so stay tuned for another project using the leftover bottoms of the bottles).
Hot glued rims.
Step 4: Spray paint black. I wanted a base coat on my bells so that they’d look dark from the undersides. And, a black undercoat would add an aged look to the bells under the metallic paint of the next coat. Also, I wanted the tops and caps of each bell to be black.
I prepped my craft room by placing some flat cardboard on my turntable, and then I set the bottles on top. I sprayed the bottles all over with one good coat of the black, then let them sit to dry.
Painted black.
Step 5: Cover caps and spray paint metallic gold and silver. Since I wanted the tops to stay black, I took some painters tape and wrapped the tops of the bottles to cover them. Then I divided up my bottles and decided to make 6 silver and 9 rose gold. ( I used rose gold because that was what I had already and I like how it looks a little coppery, but you could do straight gold instead.)
I spray painted these one color at a time, making sure to get them all over as best I could. I also held them by the taped tops and lightly sprayed on the insides, mostly around the rims, which will be most visible from below when these are hanging.
Caps covered and bells painted.
Step 6: Remove tape and add loops. I let the paint dry and then brought the bells upstairs to finish them up. Gently, I pulled off the tape. Then I took some rope/ties and decided what lengths to make my loops for hanging the bells. (I was going to use twine but didn’t have enough, so that would be a nice option too.)
I wanted the bells to hang at slightly different lengths, so I decided on 3 different lengths for my loops. I cut 5 short strips at about 4 inches, 6 long strips at about 10 inches, and 4 strips between those 2 lengths at about 6 inches.
Loop strips cut.
Taking my hot glue gun, I added a blob of glue to either end of one strip at a time, then pressed the ends on either side of the bell’s cap area. This made a nice loop at the top of each bell. I tried to vary what length of loop I put on which size bell, but there was no rhyme or reason to it.
Loops glued on.
Step 7: Wrap cap area. I had a lot of extra gold tape from another project, and I really like how this easily added a different look to the tops of each bell. I was worried about the tops of the bells looking too much like pop bottles, and this tape worked great to pull my whole plan together by making the cap area look like the attachments for the bells.
Basically I just wrapped the metallic gold tape around the bottom of the cap, making sure to also cover the ends of the loops.
Gold rim added.
Step 8: Prep the tension rod. I could have just spray painted the rod black or gold or silver and been done with it, but I wanted to wrap mine in a strip of burlap fabric to add to the rustic-but-cozy look. First, I put the tension rod up across my entryway hall to be sure it was the right length, nice and tight. Then I cut my strip of burlap.
Burlap ready.
Next, I used my hot glue gun and stuck the end of the burlap around the end of the tension rod. Twisting the burlap loosely around the rod, I glued it again at the other end to hold it secure. Finally, I went back around the burlap and glued it together where it gapped too much and the rod was visible.
Step 9: Add the bells and hang. I planned the order of my bells by setting them along my counter. Once happy with the plan, I gently pulled the rod back free and held it up with one hand while using my other hand to slide the bells’ loops along the rod into place.
The really nice thing about hanging this is that it’s SO light. I was able to hold the whole thing while climbing on a chair to stand tall enough to reach where I wanted this in place. I pushed the rod in place so it was tight, made sure it was level, and that was it!
Bells hung.
Step 10: Customize! The bells looked pretty cool alone, but I felt like the whole thing needed a little extra pizzazz. There are all kinds of ways you could customize this decoration to finish it off. Adding LED lights would be cool. Wrapping a small garland of greens would be pretty too, or some red or green ribbon. I had some fake poinsettias and decided to add a floral pop of festive red. I simply climbed back up and stuck the stems through the gaps in the burlap, and for a few I wrapped the stems around the rod to hold them in position.
Florals added.
Done!
AFTER: Christmas Bells!
Now, fingers crossed that my plan for the bottle bottoms goes this well…
