2 X DIY Christmas Decorations | Cone Trees & Crackers!

I've put these 2 quick & easy projects together because they are both ideal for last-minute Christmas decorating, and because they both have a similar 'cosy' vibe :)

The first is a no-sew fabric cracker garland, and the second is a pair of 'mini tree' cone ornaments; either sequin or yarn covered.

I hope you enjoy them!

For the Cracker Garland, you will need:

- Fabric; I used a tartan/plaid fleece

- Toilet roll tubes

- Ruler

- Scissors

- Fast-drying clear glue that is suitable for fabric; I used UHU all-purpose adhesive

- Twine/string/ribbon; I used a thin twine for stringing the crackers together, and a braided cord for tying up the ends of the crackers

- Elastic bands & a large yarn needle could also come in handy (optional)

For the Sequin Cone Tree, you will need:

- A Styrofoam cone; I used a cone 21 cm tall

- Sequin/'Lills' pins

- Large sequins with a single hole; I used iridescent 20 mm sequins

- Silver pipe cleaner

- A knitting needle or something similar like a skewer

- Scissors

For the Yarn-Wrapped Cone Tree, you will need:

- A Styrofoam cone; I used a cone 21 cm tall

- Yarn; I used super chunky chenille yarn (very soft) in red and in white.

- Gold pipe cleaner

- PVA glue

- A cheap paintbrush

- A Stronger clear-drying glue; I used UHU all-purpose adhesive

- A knitting needle or something similar like a skewer

- Scissors

The first step is to cut out a rectangle of fabric for each of the cardboard tubes you want to make into a cracker.

My cardboard tubes were 10.5 cm long, so I made the length of the fabric rectangles 26.5 cm to give me 8 cm of excess fabric at each end.

The circumference of my cardboard tubes was 15 cm, so I made the width of the fabric rectangles 18 cm because I only need a few extra cm of fabric widthwise.

Once you have a piece of fabric for each tube, cut each tube along the length, as shown in the photo.

Centre the cardboard tube on the fabric rectangle, as shown, and add a line of glue along the top and bottom edges of the fabric. Note that these glue lines should line up with the cardboard tube and not go along the entire fabric edge.

Wrap the fabric around the tube, tuck each edge inside the tube, and glue the fabric edges just inside the opening.

Once this has dried, add a line of glue along the fabric edge on one side of the opening, again only adding glue where the tube edge is and not beyond.

Press the fabric edges together to close the opening. If you have some elastic bands handy, these can be useful for holding the tubes together as the glue dries.

The reason I make the joins like this is so that there is no fabric overlap and it's a very smooth join. Looks much nicer!

Repeat the same for all of the cardboard tubes.

Take your twine - or whatever you are using to string your crackers together - and feed a long length of it through all of the crackers. I used a large yarn needle to do this, but you could use your hands easily enough!

Spread the crackers out along the twine as you want them to be displayed, then cut lengths of twine/cord and start tying these around each end of the crackers in a bow.

Trim off any excess twine.

Now it's time to hang the garland up on the mantelpiece!

Take a pipe cleaner and shape one end into a star shape. To do this I made 5 'points' of equal size, then arranged these into a sort of circular shape.

Use a knitting needle or something similar to create a hole in the top of the Styrofoam cone - a few cm deep.

Trim off excess pipe cleaner, and push the star topper into the hole.

You don't need to glue this in place, but you can do.

Now it's time to add the sequins all over the cone!

First, place sequins all around the bottom, overlapping them slightly to hide the foam underneath as best as you can. Line the sequins up with the base, and keep each one held in place with a sequin pin.

Note: When you push the pins in, do this at an angle (pointing downwards into the cone) to help stop the sequins from falling off. Also, don't push the pins all of the way in; leave them sticking out slightly to provide space for the sequin to hang from.

Then add sequins around the cone just above this line of sequins. You will want these to overlap not just each other but also the sequins below - in order to try and hide the foam from view.

Carry on in the same way all of the way to the top.

In the same way as with the sequin tree, create a star shape at one end of a pipe cleaner.

Make a hole in the top of the cone - a few cm deep - then trim the pipe cleaner to size and push it into this hole.

Have some PVA glue and a paintbrush at-the-ready for this next step. Also, have some red yarn and some white yarn unravelled and lined up next to each other.

First, use a stronger glue than PVA to attach the beginnings of the 2 yarns at the top of the tree, next to the star. Leave a small amount of excess yarn sticking out to trim off later.

Then apply PVA glue around the top of the cone, just below where the yarn is now attached.

Wrap the yarns (held together) tightly around the cone until this glue is covered.

Then add more glue to the cone below this yarn, and carry on wrapping. Continue to add more glue, then wrap more yarn, all of the way down the cone.

At the end, glue the yarns using the stronger glue again. Once the glue has dried, cut off the excess yarn at the top and bottom of the cone.

You've finished!

I hope you enjoyed making these ornaments :)