This is a guest post written by Jenny Holt.
The cooler seasons are upon us and the world seems excited to be alive around the holidays. Chimneys are warming, ovens are baking and decorations are donning the beauties of Christmas party holiday cheer. Sparkling ornaments, colorful ribbons, and festive adornments light up our senses.
The great thing about smart decorating is its versatility. Smart decorators find the best ways to re-use those gorgeous Christmas decorations after the party is over. With a few decorating tweaks, beautiful Christmas decorations can be used all year long. Once the decorating is done there is time to think of other fun festive ideas.
GO NATURAL
Fabulous decorations often begin with Mother Nature. Mother Nature has been decorating and re-purposing beautiful items for eons. Pinecones, twigs, pebbles and foliage offer incredible decorating potential that can be used in the home over and over again, all year long. Most natural items can be easily treated with paints, inks, natural dyes and other decorative mediums.
MIX WITH METALLIC
Mix metallic candlestick holders, silvery ornament balls, and figurines with textures like rattan, feathers and decorative grasses for pops of vibrant and reflective light. Hide any hooks typical ornaments may have under other decorative pieces for a lovely year-round look.
LEFTOVER WRAPPING PAPER
After the Christmas party is over and the faux packages we wrapped for that perfect Christmas tree presentation did their job, don’t throw them out. Re-use the wrapping paper to make incredible year-round accent pieces. Colorful wrapping paper wreaths are attractive and very easy to make for any time of year.
Cut various sized strips of favorite wrapping paper. Roll them into rose shapes. Hot glue onto a Styrofoam wreath found at any local craft store and voila! The sweetest wrapping paper wreaths are the ones we make ourselves.
Turn wrapping paper remnants into whimsical or sophisticated place card holders for fancy dinners or food items on buffet tables. Glitter, buttons, coins and even leftover Christmas party trinkets are only a few fabulous and reusable items at hand.