Tired of the same old red, green and blue combinations on my Christmas tree, this year I opted to keep it delicate and simple with hints of green combined with white. What I like the most about my tree is the fact that most of my ornaments either are recycled from previous years, or made by me.

During one of my trips to Michaels,  I bought some vintage inspired scrapbook papers and used them to make origami doves. I admit this was he first time I’ve ever made anything origami, but what worked for me was some Youtube tutorials. I used two different dove’s designs, one with a medium level of difficulty, and the other was very easy to do. To hang my Japanese masterpieces, I used some natural fiber strings that mixed very well with the burlap ribbon used in the rest of the tree.

For the recycled ornaments, I had a couple of brown metal and some wooden snowflakes from Target that I bought two years ago. I painted them all with white spray paint but from the wooden ones, left the metal part intact. Last year I bought (also from Target) some felt snowflakes in orange and green. The material of the center was in wood, so from the orange ones I took away this part and with spray glue added some green glitter. They now look more Christmassy than before.

At this point I knew I needed something white, so I remembered that I always wanted to try one idea I found on Pinterest where, with some cornstarch and baking soda, one can do clay decorations. You can find the recipe here. When I did this at home, my recipe ended up needing more baking soda since the consistency was a bit watery and damp, making it difficult to cut with the cookie cutters. For the texture of both the angels and stars, I bought some inexpensive rubber stamps available at Michaels.

To cover some blank spots here and there, I bought some fiber hearts and used some small crystal balls to finish what now I call my Country/natural Christmas tree. Hope you enjoyed my recycled/almost-hand-made tree. Have a Merry Christmas!!!