DIY | Tis the season | Christmas Decoration | Creativity in anything and everything!

In any decorating task, the most crucial part is the conceptualization. This part may change from time to time until the finish product has been presented. Every artist carry out a unique way or process of coming up with an idea and materializing it. I normally would draft my design through my imagination as long as I can draw it out mentally, if disorganization is being encountered, that’s the time I will resort to manual drafting. I’m not much into digital art so I still cling to the obsolete by utilizing PENCIL and PAPER.

Christmas season is one of those festivities in a year, that we all look forward to. At the start of BER months, particularly in the Philippines, the holiday season starts to breeze in the air through decorations everywhere, seasonal music being played and many anticipatory things/event you can think of, as part of our traditional preparations.

Here in UAE I have been partaking to the hard work and dedication of fellow Filipinos in the church community who are being assigned almost every year to decorate the St. Joseph’s Church during Christmas Season. For 2 consecutive years already we have been managing our designs to be economical and highly reusable, but still well thought off and properly executed.

Let me share with you our design last year, made from recycled and reused stuffs. We kept it simple yet classy and festive of course.

•white and green cartolina
•pencil and markers
•cutter and scissors
•glue gun, glue stick and liquid paste
•bbq sticks
•styro foam 4 inches thick
•graphic print outs (main center design and stars)
•card board
•any Christmas decorations you that you can reuse
•bamboo sticks

What to prepare before the set-up

•leaf patterns (I’ve prepared mine via freehand, much easier, for complicated patterns have it printed)
•graphic print outs pasted on card boards and pre-cut, secure them with bbq sticks at the back
•for the leaves, here’s what you need to do: mark several pieces as per the quantity you will need (in our case we made more than 600 pcs, quite a lot), cut the leaves INSIDE THE PENCIL MARKINGS to make it looking neat. The center of the leaves will be covered by green cartolina at the back (secured via liquid paste or glue stick, preferably glue stick) for color variation and to break the neutrality. Once the leaves are ready, secure each leaf on the bbq stick, starting from the tip of the leaf.
•secure the Christmas balls with the bbq sticks, by removing the tip cover from the balls where the bbq will be inserted
•pre-cut the styro foam as per your preferred base size

SET - UP TIME
Here’s the beauty when you are working on design elements that you have freely identified, you will be given the opportunity work creatively as you will be coming up with the final design through mix and match and rearranging elements.

1️⃣ Place the styro foam on a flat and sturdy surface and secure the Christmas Trees on the left part.

2️⃣ Proceed on securing the leaves in place, in this regard, I prefer them being spread on 1 side (right). Put variations in their position and height when arranging them.

3️⃣ Place the graphic cut outs which will serve as the main accent below the Christmas Trees, make sure that the graphic is elevated by putting styro cut outs at the back around 2-4 inches tall. Secure the stars on the left side of the main graphic.

4️⃣ Insert the Christmas balls beside the main graphic design.

5️⃣ Insert the smaller leaves in between the main leaves to add accent and break the neutral color scheme. You may opt to use foil to make it more festive.

OPTIONAL:

Made from print outs and card board, the shiny material (we patterned as star to give red a variation) was taken from used mall decorations. The word JOY can be hanged below the styro foam as additional accent.