This Thanksgiving instead of spending money on table decorations spend some time with your family making your own with supplies already lying around the house. This sustainable approach to decorating will put money in your wallet and also put reusable items to good use. To learn more about these DIY projects, see below.

Twig Candle Holder

IMG_3552This is a great DIY for table decorations and for saving energy around the home by adding incandescent light around the house.

Supplies needed:

  • Twigs & Branches
  • Empty candle, jar, or glass ware
  • Hot glue or E-6000 super glue
  • Small hand held pruner (optional)
  • Tea light candles

Instructions:

  1. Collect twigs & branches from around your yard.
  2. Begin cutting twigs with small hand held pruner that are a little longer than the jar you are applying them to (or just use your fingers to break apart like I did, it gives a rougher look to the twigs). Once you have a big enough pile of branches set to the side for application.
  3. Begin applying hot glue or E-6000 super glue to each individual stick and begin applying them around the glass. I used my hot glue gun because it was what I had lying around the house.
  4. As you will find out, not all the sticks will lay perfectly straight onto the glass. After applying most of the big branches to the jar, take little twigs and place them within the cracks with a little extra glue. This will give the jar a more completed look.
  5. After you have added all the twigs to satisfy you let the glue dry. After the glue is dry go back and check for any loose twigs and reapply a little glue to secure.
  6. Place tea light candle in jar and enjoy!

TP Tube Turkeys

IMG_3432This is a great project to keep the kids preoccupied during the Holidays and to reuse TP Tubes that would’ve originally went to waste.

Supplies Needed:

  • TP Tubes
  • Marker
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Googly Eyes
  • Paint Brushes
  • Decorating Supplies

Instructions:

  1. IMG_3422Trace onto TP Tube three spikes for the head and twowings, and on the back trace out the feathers by making long vertical marks.
  2. Cut out turkey shape with scissors. Fold wings all the way down and only half of the head spike to show a neck. For the feathers, cut the slits on the back of the turkey and begin coaxing them to fan out with your hands.
  3. Decorate! There are infinite amount of ways you can do this. For most of these, we decided to use glitter. The easiest, less wasteful way to do this is to put the turkey on a sheet a paper, paint glue onto the feathers and wings with a small paintbrush, and shake glitter onto the turkey. When the desired amount of glitter is on the turkey, simply fold IMG_3427paper into a funnel like shape and put remaining, unused glitter back into its container. Repeat until the desired amount of glitter has been added.
  4. Glue googly eyes onto the head of the turkey. And there you have it, a TP Tube Turkey!

*If using glitter with kids sounds absolutely dreadful, you can always hand them some markers or crayons for decorating!