Crafts brighten up home holiday decor

Sure, the stores are filled with beautiful pre-made decorations this time of year. But do you really want your home to look like everyone else’s?

HGTV designers were challenged to find what they could easily create out of two cheap, easy-to-find Christmas decorations: glass balls and cranberries, faux or real.

The visions were astonishingly diverse — from creating a holiday clock to wine glass “jewelry.” Here are two more of their designs, which are running in the Journal-World Pulse section for a two-week period:

Table top wreath centerpiece Supplies:

• Old red Christmas balls (medium to small) and a few gold and bronze for additional color

• Cranberry garland

• Shimmery or glittered gold and bronze leaves pulled off other old ornaments for filler

• Foam floral ring as a base

• Hot glue gun

• Spray paint in antique gold color

Directions:

• Spray paint foam floral ring gold.

• Once dry, wrap cranberry garland around floral ring to evenly cover as much of surface as possible.

• Randomly insert red ornaments into sides of foam ring using hot glue and slight pressure (be careful not to damage the ornaments).

• Glue leaves on to fill in blank areas of ring.

• Fill center of the ring with extra red, gold, and bronze ornaments. (You can also fill the open center area with a bowl of holiday candy or guacamole.)

Holiday cranberry vase Supplies:

• Fake decorative cranberries

• Small glass vase

• Spray paint in antique gold color

• Hot glue gun

• Christmas ornaments (to be used inside the vase)

• Cinnamon sticks

• Gold ribbon

Directions:

• Carefully spray inside of vase gold and let dry.

• Using glue gun, adhere cranberries to the vase until it is completely covered.

• Insert ornaments and cinnamon sticks.

• Use gold ribbon to create a decorative bow on the front.