Easy Winter Tree Decor

Christmas is over and V. is so sad that the tree is gone and the decorations with it which caused us to get creative with winter decorations. Since my little explorer loves to play in the woods, I gave her a task... go and find some cool branches and bring them back to the house. As usual, she went above and beyond the call of duty and brought back what looked like several small trees. Although we couldn't use all of them, a few worked rather nicely. We fashioned them into the winter decor you see below. It was a completely free project and added a little more ambiance to our bare "after Christmas" decor. For those of you that are like us and need a little post Christmas fun..this is the project for you!

Supplies: 

Twigs

Epsom salts

Glass bottle

Step 1: Send your energetic child to get some dry twigs or branches.

Step 2: Fill a bottle 3/4 with Epsom salts

Step 3: Shove the twigs in and arrange them to your liking

 Step 4: Find a fun shelf or mantle to put them on!

After seeing that we had a stack of Christmas cards that we had no idea how to display, we took it one step further. We punched a hole in each card, tied a loop with some twine and hung the cards from the tree. It was a nice way to display the photo cards for at least a little longer! 

"Can" We Build A Snowman

Cheesy title, I know. So I hate throwing things away...especially if I can reuse them. We had a huge sweet potato can and a smaller condensed milk can. They seemed like the perfect pair to make a snowman. We also used a toilet paper tube to make his hat. I have to admit that this project took a little bit of time because all the paint had to dry, but it was pretty easy. I also had all the materials laying around so I didn't have to make trip to the store.

Supplies: 

2 cans

two tubes of white paint

1 orange tube of paint

3 small foam brushes

1 tube black paint

black construction paper

toilet paper tube cut in half

buttons

scrap of material

2 twigs

glue gun

1 kabob stick

Step 1: We painted both cans. They needed a thick coat. If you can see the silver through the first coat, it may require a second one. 

Step 2: While waiting for the cans to dry, we painted the t.p. tube black. I then broke the tip off of the kabob stick and painted it orange.

Step 3: After everything dries, glue the small can on top of the large can. Decorate the rest of your snowman by gluing on buttons and the orange kabob stick. I tied the scrap of material around the small can. It could be glued, but I didn't think it was necessary. I then glued on the twigs for arms. 

Step 4: To make the hat, cut the black construction paper to fit the top and a large circle for the bottom of the t.p. tube. Glue both circles on the tube. Next glue the hat on. 

Now you have an amazing recycled snowman that will never melt!