When we were trying to come up with some cheap and easy ideas to incorporate into our Thrifty Christmas Tablescape, I was inspired by a garland made by our friend Brynn of Chartreuse and a Twist.  As Colleen mentioned Monday, she created cute fluffy yarn balls and strung them up to make a garland.  Since I was feeling particularly lazy, I was trying to come up with a way to make something similar without going to the store for yarn.  That’s when I thought cottonballs may just be the ticket.  I had a big old bag of them already, so I took some twine that I also had and gave it a shot.  This resulted in what is without a doubt one of our easiest DIYs to date.

What you’ll need:

- Bag of cottonballs

- Twine (the striped baker’s twine added to cuteness factor and a little pop of color but any other string would work as well)

- Nail (If you are fancy enough to have a thin knitting needle then good for you.  I was not and my little nail worked just fine.  Just make sure you are using a nail that has a head so you string won’t slide right off.)

- Scissors

What you’ll do:

1.  Tie a knot at the end of your twine/string around your needle and pull it tight.

2.  Insert the nail into the middle of your cotton ball.  I found that it was easier to push through the flat part where you can see the cotton rolled around versus the fluffy part.  Just look at your ball and you can figure out what I mean.  You may have to work your needle around a little to get it you the end of the cotton.

3.  You can see here how it gets a little stuck up in the cotton sometimes.  Just work it around and push until you can see it pop through.

4.  Pull out the nail.  Sometimes part of the cotton comes with the end of the nail a bit.  I found that my balls looked fluffier if I fixed them up after the fact by straightening them out and tweaking them a little.

5.  Finish by putting enough cottonballs on so that your garland is as long as you want it to be with your balls being close enough together (This is purely personal preference).   Each of my strands took about 19 cottonballs but they were pretty long.  Spread them all out and voila!

I think they make a pretty fun little decoration when grouped together.  Check out the rest of our Thrifty Christmas tablescape here.

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I really like to keep stuff.  I’m not quite as bad as Megan, who hoards boxes and bags alike (sorry to call you out Megs), but I just despise throwing things away that could potentially have another purpose later in life. Will this tossed aside ribbon one day come to my rescue in a DIY project gone awry?  Will I need this Anthropologie bag to carry all of my things next time I move?  So needless to say, whenever I come upon a food or beverage container that is even remotely attractive, I save it.  Corey had these fancy beer bottles that he was collecting for me and I racked my brain for a week to try to figure out what to do with them.  I did consider snow globes a la the mason jar ones we made last year, but I figured I couldn’t really fit anything in them except snow.  Finally, I had an epiphany that I should make them into taper candle holders.  This has been done many times before, but I think the tinsel glitter courtesy of Martha makes me love them even more.  You guys gotta get some of this stuff.  It makes things look like angels.  See more pictures of my oh so fancy tinseled candlesticks in our Christmas tablescape from yesterday.

What you’ll need:

- Pretty glass bottles of your choice – wine or beer would work best

- Spray paint – I used Krylon White in a satin finish

- Martha Stewart Decoupage Glue and Sealer (or similar crafting glue)

- Martha Stewart Tinsel Glitter in Sterling (just real good lookin)

- Short taper candles

What you’ll do:

1) Spray paint your bottles.  Is it just me or have I been doing a lot of spray painting recently?

2) Glue the area of your bottles that you would like covered in glitter.

3) Pour glitter on the glue.  I’m not sure it gets any easier than this.

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