November 2019 – Just Measuring Up

This post will show you how to make an easy DIY macrame Christmas tree decoration – perfect for decorating your mantel or bookshelves.

I just love this time of year.

And, there’s something so fun about making your own holiday decor.

You get to be creative, save money, and do something you love.

This week, our theme is 2-hour holiday decor. If you’re just joining us, every week for the month a talented group of DIY crafters and bloggers are sharing weekly themed projects.

Last year, I made this buffalo check wooden Christmas tree decor, and this year I’m sharing how to make this easy macrame holiday tree decoration.

Be sure to scroll to the end of the post to see all of the amazing holiday decorations that everyone made. I know you’ll be inspired 🙂

How to Make a Macrame Christmas Tree

This is a super simple DIY that anyone can make. You don’t need any fancy skills to do this – just a desire to make something.

If you like working with your hands, it’s the perfect craft for you, and it’s wonderful to create something from nothing using your hands.

If you don’t want to make this into a stand, you can make this into a wall hanging or even an ornament.

And stay tuned to the end – I have a fun modification for kids!

Materials for the Macrame Christmas Tree

Macrame cord
Thin wooden dowels (mine were 1/8” x 12”)
Popsicle stick
String of rhinestones
1 wood round for the stand
Wooden star
Optional: more embellishments
Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
Scissors

Making the Macrame Tree

First, take two wooden dowels and place them together at a point (think top of a triangle).

Take a popsicle stick and place it at the bottom to make the bottom of the triangle.

Then you’ll want to hot glue the bottom of the wooden dowels to the popsicle stick with a drop of glue on each side.

Make sure the dowels are still keeping the triangle shape at the top as the glue sets.

Then place a drop of hot glue and between the top two dowels.

You don’t want to glue one dowel on top of the other – you want the dowels to come to a point. Gently hold the dowels while the glue dries.

Next you’ll take one more wooden dowel and you’ll glue this to the middle of the triangle. You’ll want to have some stick out at the bottom to be your tree trunk.

Wrapping the Macrame

Next, you’ll start wrapping the macrame around the wooden dowels to make the DIY Christmas tree.

You can just wrap the macrame around and around, or you can do a pattern, like I did. Play around with the macrame and see what you like best.

To begin, I unwrapped a portion of my macrame ball and cut it, in order to work with a smaller ball of macrame. This way I could loop it better.

If you look at the materials picture at the beginning of the post, you can get a feel for the amount I used.

First, I just wrapped the macrame around the top inch or so of the tree. You can use a drop of hot glue to hold the string at the top.

After that, I started looping the macrame in a pattern.

Here’s the pattern I made:

Once your macrame is on the right side, take your ball of macrame over and place it through the left side of the triangle.

Then, pull the ball of macrame from the back.

Now, your macrame will be on the left side. That’s one loop.

Next, take the ball of macrame and place it through the right side of the triangle.

Pull it from the back. Continue this pattern.

The pattern should look like this (before you tighten it up):

Here’s what the pattern looks like a little farther down:

Once I got to the end of the tree, I needed to supplement with a little hot glue to hold the macrame in place, especially as I went around the popsicle stick.

I just did a simple loop here to hide the popsicle stick.

Embellishing and Adding the Tree Stand

With the macrame finished, I just had to decorate the tree and add the tree stand. I found this little wooden star I added to the top.

Of course, I adorned it with some rhinestones first.

Once the tree was done, I added strands of gemstones to act as holiday lights. I spaced these out evenly and alternated pearls and light pink rhinestones.

Then, I added a drop of hot glue to the middle of a wood round. I held the tree in place until the glue dried.

I love how simple but elegant it looks.

You can make a whole bunch of these in different sizes and patterns to create some fun holiday mantel decor for cheap!

Time and Cost of the Macrame Christmas Tree

I spent under $10 on the materials, and it took me about 2 hours to make.

Alternative for Kids

My son loves doing crafts together, and he always wants to make something similar all on his own.

So while I was working on this macrame craft, I set him up with a popsicle stick tree along with green yarn. He went to town and made this cute little Christmas tree. We glued it down to a little wooden stand and now he and his sister have a Christmas tree for their dollhouse. 🙂

I love giving my kids opportunities to be creative – and this was a fun one for him!

Be sure to check out the other DIY holiday decor projects this week! And, I’ll be back next week sharing another fun holiday project.

See More Holiday 2-Hour Decor Projects

More Projects You’ll Love

If you missed last week’s project, check out this easy no-sew holiday embroidery hoop.
Like working with macrame? Try DIY string art with this simple holiday scene.
Need some homemade gift ideas? Check out these fun gift ideas you can make!

It’s that time of year again!

Time for our annual Deck the Home Holiday Challenges!

This year, we have an amazing group of DIY bloggers creating all things holiday! For the next five weeks, every week has a new theme.

This week’s theme is door decor. Last year, we made a simple wooden star and this year we made a nativity scene embroidery hoop wreath – that’s double sided!! If you flip it over, there’s a Happy Harvest theme.

And the back of the embroidery hoop:

Be sure to check out everyone’s projects. They truly are awesome! There are so many incredible ideas- and each one links to a full tutorial, so you can make it yourself.

How to Make a No-Sew Nativity Scene Hoop

I absolutely adore nativity scenes – they just warm my heart. I knew I wanted to include a nativity scene in my holiday DIY projects this year. So, I was able to do so by making this fun little embroidery hoop. It’s super simple and no-sew! Here’s how I made it:

Materials

Embroidery hoop
Holiday fabrics (Christmas one and Thanksgiving one)
Adhesive gold rhinestones in various small sizes
Burlap ribbon (I used a thin one for the stable and a thicker one for the cut-outs – see pic)
Thanksgiving (or any holiday) scrap book paper or embellishments
Scissors ( and squiggly scissors if you have them)
Pen/pencil
Hot glue gun and sticks OR mod podge and foam brush OR zots (adhesive glue drops)

What are zots? Zots are little adhesive glue spots that work really well for craft projects. They are helpful in laying out your scene to see how it will look – but you can easily still move it around. They are very sticky and effective.

Front – Nativity Scene

I love walking the craft stores for inspiration and for their on-sale bins! I found both of these cute holiday fabrics (the gray background with the tree and the orange leaves) in the dollar bin at A.C.Moore. Definitely check the ends of aisles and their holiday sections for sales and inspiration.

Attach Fabric

To the make the nativity scene, first, separate your embroidery hoop circles. Place your fabric down on the smaller circle, place the larger circle on top, and tighten.

Pull the fabric from the back to make it tight – and adjust the screw again if you need to.

Cut and Attach Burlap

Next, cut strips of the burlap ribbon for the nativity. Cut out Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus from the burlap. If you aren’t great at drawing, just google “outlines” with your phrase and you can print and trace – or attempt to draw it from the outline.

Lay everything out. I centered the nativity horizontally, but I placed the nativity more in the foreground to have a bigger starry sky.

Use mod podge or zots to attach the nativity to your fabric. I used zots – they worked well!

Add Embellishments

Now it’s time for the rhinestones. Place the gold rhinestones in the sky as stars. You might need to use mod podge (or hot glue and tweezers) for these if the adhesive isn’t enough stick.

I put the largest rhinestone above the nativity and scattered the rest throughout.

And, the front side is finished!

Back Side – Happy Harvest

First, I flipped over the embroidery hoop and trimmed down the fabric on the back. I left about an inch or so.

Then, I placed about an inch of hot glue on the inside of the embroidery hoop (see pic) and pulled the fabric tight and stuck it to the glue.

I continued around the perimeter of the hoop gluing and sticking the fabric until I reached the end.

Next, I liberally traced the inner hoop on my second fabric. This fabric was the one being used on the back side.

After that, cut out the fabric on the line you drew.

Next place the fabric right-side-up on the embroidery hoop (where you intend for it to go), and place the larger hoop on top.

This step will take a few minutes.

If the edges of the second fabric are sticking out on the first side (see below pic), then you’ll need to readjust.

So you’ll want to take the outer hoop off, trim the fabric, and try again.

It takes a few tries, but it’s definitely worth it to have dual sided holiday décor.

Once you have the fabric on the back side, you are ready to start decorating your second side.

The fabric I had was such a busy print that nothing with too much of a pattern would work.

So, I simply used Thanksgiving scrap book paper and made a two cut-outs that I liked.

I used squiggly scissors to make them look fancier.

I also cut out some scrap bown paper to frame the pumpkin cut-out.

Last, I used Zots to stick them on, and couldn’t be happier with the results.

This easy DIY flip wreath is doubled-sided and you can create one side for Thanksgiving and one side for Christmas.

It’s super easy to make, there’s no sewing required, and it’s a fun DIY for the holiday season.

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