Recently I attended a bazaar sale at a church with some girlfriends where we were walking off with bargains from the fun and frivolous to the perfect and practical. I spotted some Styrofoam cones for pennies and gobbled up a glutton’s share. My girlfriends were asking, “but what can you do with those things?”
I enthusiastically starting sharing memories of past Christmas crafts and inspirations for future ones, and soon everyone wanted a Styrofoam cone for Christmas crafts and this article had written itself.
A Styrofoam cone, sold in white or green and a variety of sizes, is an open-ended pallet for creating numerous Christmas tree crafts and Christmas centerpieces. Crafters of all ages can create unique Christmas decorations from Styrofoam cones.
Holly and Green Christmas Tree Crafts from Styrofoam Cones
The first and most obvious use of Styrofoam cones is to create a Christmas tree craft or Christmas centerpiece using natural greenery from the pine family and/or of course Holly to turn this cone into a miniature Christmas tree centerpiece. These Christmas centerpieces are cheap if you have access to some greens and really easy to do. Simply collect your greens, lay them out in piles from longest to shortest, trim if necessary and start inserting the Holly or greens, longest first, from bottom to top. You’re done. One is lovely but a trio of these Christmas crafts in various heights has real eye appeal.
Decoupage Christmas Tree Crafts from Styrofoam Cones
These Christmas crafts sound crafty but really but look very sleek and modern in the end. Simply pull all of your magazines out of the recycling bin and search for greens of all colors and sizes. Tear them out. Yes, tearing creates a neater look than cutting with scissors in this case. Apply decoupage glue (sometimes called modge podge, or a mixture of 2/3 glue and 1/3 water usually does the trick too) to the tree and paste on your greens from bottom to top overlapping. At the top simply shape the paper into a cone tip. Go over the whole Christmas tree with a light coat of decoupage. Tiny rhinestones make this Christmas tree sparkle. Of course you can use mixed colors but in my experience this one looks great with a theme of all red or all of any color. You can go non-traditional with bright blue, pink or whatever fits your favorite color scheme. This Christmas tree craft makes a nice gift or a perfect Christmas decoration for a half bath.
Natural Christmas Tree Craft from Styrofoam Cones
This is one of my most favorite Christmas tree crafts made with a Styrofoam cone. Go on a nature walk and collect small pinecones, seedpods, nutshells, acorns and other natural “debris” from the forest. This Christmas tree craft really does require a hot glue gun for long lasting success. Start at the bottom and glue on your natural treasures for an elegant natural looking Christmas tree craft. It is beautiful as is, but I’ve also hit them with a mist of gold spray paint for some real Christmas glam.
Odds and Ends Christmas Tree Craft from Styrofoam Cones
Odds and ends Christmas tree crafts are really a fun family Christmas craft project. Everyone can contribute something. Either paint or spray paint the Styrofoam cone green or the background color of your choice. Let everyone clean out the junk in your house and you’ll be amazed what you come up with to decorate this Christmas tree. Don’t forget the junk drawers and the collection of odds and ends that wind up in the laundry room or in and under the couch. Every collection will vary but some of the stuff we found to decorate our odds and ends Christmas crafts trees have included buttons, bolts, a lone plastic army man, a Barbie shoe, scraps of ribbon, flag pins and a happy to find new service pacifier. This Christmas craft is really a way to create a “green” Christmas tree and to have fun together as a family.
Potholder Loop Christmas Tree Crafts from Styrofoam Cones
This Christmas craft surprises even me but in the end this is the Christmas tree craft that I created with my first Styrofoam cone this year. A few years ago I started having found memories of making potholders as a child. I thought it would be a fun project to do while watching Mary Kate and Ashley movies (often for the bizillionenth time) with my daughter or pretending, I mean watching, football with my husband. It turns out that as an adult I really didn’t enjoy making potholders anymore yet I couldn’t bring myself to throw away the bag of potholder loops. That was a good thing because they were put to good us with our latest Christmas tree craft. We simply added the loops over the cone and layered them from the bottom up. About half the way up the tree we began to double wrap them with a figure eight. For the finishing touch, we added some jewels and a metal star and the end result was fantastic- a multi-colored Christmas tree to adorn the buffet in our eclectic colored dining room.
Which just goes to show that with a Styrofoam cone and a little imagination, you can create unique Christmas crafts. For my next Christmas tree craft, I am planning to cover one with seashells for friends that own a beach house.
These Christmas tree crafts are also a fun Christmas decoration for nursing home residents that have limited space.
An assortment of an odd number of Christmas tree crafts made from Styrofoam cones in varying heights are jolly Christmas decorations for mantles, piano tops, buffets and dinner tables.
