Christmas Mantle and Banister Decorations

Christmas decor can get very elaborate, but it's okay to keep your decorations simple. A single pine bough from the garden or a garden shop is all you need to get started making a pretty banister decoration. A bundle of straight twigs can be used to make a cute Christmas tree for the mantel. Stick with the natural color palette and make big snowflakes using brown paper instead of white.

Decorating the Banister:

1. Christmas banister decorations start with the greenery. Take your PowerGear2™ loppers out into the garden and cut a pine branch, which you'll use to make swags for the banister. The PowerGear2™ loppers cut through thick branches up to 2" in diameter. One branch may be all you need to make three or four festive swags. Pick up a few loose pine cones to tie onto the swags with colored raffia.

2. Using your PowerGear2™ pruners, cut a stem off a main pine branch. The pruners will cut through stems up to ¾ " in diameter, and the low-friction coating allows the blades to glide through sticky pine wood easily.

3. Make bundles of three stems each and tie the bundles together with twine.

4. Weave a 15" length of raffia around each of the three pine cones. You do not even need to tie a knot, as the raffia will wedge tightly between the prickly sections of pine cone. Now, tie the pine cones onto the swags at the top. You'll need three or four swags like this, each with three pine cones. Make the swags as full or as loose as you like. Since they're fresh from the garden, they will hold their needles for a long time.

5. Tie the swags on the banister railing with twine, hanging one between every three or four railings. A jaunty red ribbon knotted around the banister will hide the twine.

6. Fill in the space along the railing with some holiday sentiment — a snippet of a song, a favorite expression, or simply "Merry Christmas." We used a round can as a template to make 3 ½" circles out of cardboard and spelled out "merry and bright." The Amplify® Mixed Media scissors are the perfect tool for cutting out cardboard circles. The sharp scissors cut easily through the cardboard (or even heavier materials).

7. Use a bright red felt-tip marker to make one letter on each big circle and a hole punch to make a hole at the top. Then, attach the letters to the banister railing with shimmering silver pipe cleaners.

Decorating the Mantel:

During the holidays, everyone seems to gather around the hearth. Christmas mantel decorations should glow as brightly as the fireplace. Candlelight is part of the magic formula, but a few easy decorating touches can make the mantel as pretty as a present under the tree.

1. Start by making a stylized Christmas tree with straight sticks trimmed from the garden with PowerGear2™ loppers. You'll need 10-12 sticks, graduated in length from about 15" to 3" long. Cut several one inch sections, to use as spacers between the longer sticks. You can cut the sticks and spacers in just a few minutes using your loppers since they are designed to provide you with up to 3x more power on every cut. Trim the pieces neatly with your PowerGear2™ Pruner. With just two privet stems, you'll probably have all the pieces you need to make more than one tree.

2. Use a small drill bit and make a hole in the center of each straight stem and through each of the spacer pieces. Then, take a sturdy wire (like a landscaping flag that landscape crews use to mark lines) and slip the sticks on the wire, starting with the longest piece at the bottom.

3. Set the tree in a terra-cotta flowerpot filled with gravel, so the wire goes down through the gravel and out the drainage hole, where it can be bent sharply to one side with pliers, which will stabilize the tree. Now it's ready to be placed on the mantel.

4. Cut 10" squares from a brown paper grocery bag to make snowflakes. Fold the squares in half diagonally and then fold in half diagonally again. With the right angle at the top, fold the left corner two-thirds of the way across the bottom of the paper, and then fold the remaining third in over that from the right, maintaining a sharp point at the top. Then cut the bottom of the square, using your Amplify® Mixed Media shears. The scissors will have no trouble cutting through the thick layers of craft paper, and your cuts (and your snowflakes) will look sharp and clean.

5. After you snip in from both the long sides of the folded paper, unfold it to reveal your snowflake. It's true what they say: no two will ever be the same. Make a variety of sizes and hang on the wall above the mantel, using removable tape or putty.

6. Add some pillar candles in clear candle holders, and your mantel decorations will glow warmly. We wrapped the candle holders with red raffia to create a peppermint-stripe effect. You can accessorize the decorations with pine cones or snippets of pine — just keep the flammable pine away from the candle flames.

Now your pretty mantel decoration is ready for the holiday season. The tree requires no maintenance and the craft-paper snowflakes will never melt away.

Click herefor more inspiration on creating Christmas decor, ornaments and gifts.