A mum spent eight hours painstakingly hand-making 350 decorations for her Christmas tree - and says she saved herself $2,250.
Sophie Brown, 36, has spent three weeks over four years making her own ornaments - including wire word baubles, upcycled Terrazzo baubles and ornate folded stars - to adorn her 10ft Christmas tree.
She has crafted various custom designs - including mercury glass baubles, ornate folder stars, mosaic trees and personalised name tags.
Some of Sophie's ornaments take her just minutes to make - such as the marble baubles made with nail polish and the wooden stars from repurposed clothing pegs - and others like the 'mosaic tiles' take about half a day.
She has also made commemorative decorations - including a crown in memory of Queen Elizabeth II and a cricket ball for Australian cricketer Shane Warne.
Sophie claims all of her decorations are cheaper than buying them from the shop and in some cases is able to make four baubles for the price of one shop-bought - she estimates she's spent just $750.
As well as her tree, Sophie has also just begun her '12 DIY's of Christmas' which sees her make handmade gifts, table settings and decor for her house - with Day 1 being a set of monogram pyjamas for her kids.
Mum-of-two Sophie, a professional crafter content creator, from Melbourne, Australia, said: "If the average ornament is $10 then for 300 of them it would be $3000, so - given that most DIY ones cost a quarter of that - I've probably saved 75% of that.
I make six new types every year and then make between five and eight of that type - so around 30 to 50 ornaments each year.
"I try to make stuff that can be customised so I do neutral things but you can make them colourful and to your taste.
"It can be cheaper as well - mercury glass baubles usually cost $30 per bauble but I can make four for that price, so it's allowing you to save money but also make it a bit more unique and beautiful.
"I have so many different ornaments for a fraction of the price.
"The common thing is being strategic on the materials you use.
"The clay ornaments, I can make 26 of them from a $15 piece of clay.
"The wooden beads - I can get eight stars out of two boxes of beads for $20, which is a lot cheaper than the shop, but the investment is the time.
"All of the ornaments are cheaper than store-bought ones - some significantly.
"Some are upcycled too and they can be made nicer and more expensive. Money is a lot tighter at this time of year so it's an important thing to think about."
Sophie's DIY Christmas began back in 2019, when she decided to offset the price of her Christmas tree with cheaper decorations.
She said: "I bought an artificial tree from this company years ago and because they are expensive I decided to do DIY ornaments.
"Since then I've been doing that every year and showing ways you can get creative and save money with new ideas.
Sophie Brown, 36, has spent three weeks over four years making her own ornaments - including wire word baubles, upcycled Terrazzo baubles and ornate folded stars - to adorn her 10ft Christmas tree.
She has crafted various custom designs - including mercury glass baubles, ornate folder stars, mosaic trees and personalised name tags.
Some of Sophie's ornaments take her just minutes to make - such as the marble baubles made with nail polish and the wooden stars from repurposed clothing pegs - and others like the 'mosaic tiles' take about half a day.
She has also made commemorative decorations - including a crown in memory of Queen Elizabeth II and a cricket ball for Australian cricketer Shane Warne.
Sophie claims all of her decorations are cheaper than buying them from the shop and in some cases is able to make four baubles for the price of one shop-bought - she estimates she's spent just $750.
As well as her tree, Sophie has also just begun her '12 DIY's of Christmas' which sees her make handmade gifts, table settings and decor for her house - with Day 1 being a set of monogram pyjamas for her kids.
Mum-of-two Sophie, a professional crafter content creator, from Melbourne, Australia, said: "If the average ornament is $10 then for 300 of them it would be $3000, so - given that most DIY ones cost a quarter of that - I've probably saved 75% of that.
I make six new types every year and then make between five and eight of that type - so around 30 to 50 ornaments each year.
"I try to make stuff that can be customised so I do neutral things but you can make them colourful and to your taste.
"It can be cheaper as well - mercury glass baubles usually cost $30 per bauble but I can make four for that price, so it's allowing you to save money but also make it a bit more unique and beautiful.
"I have so many different ornaments for a fraction of the price.
"The common thing is being strategic on the materials you use.
"The clay ornaments, I can make 26 of them from a $15 piece of clay.
"The wooden beads - I can get eight stars out of two boxes of beads for $20, which is a lot cheaper than the shop, but the investment is the time.
"All of the ornaments are cheaper than store-bought ones - some significantly.
"Some are upcycled too and they can be made nicer and more expensive. Money is a lot tighter at this time of year so it's an important thing to think about."
Sophie's DIY Christmas began back in 2019, when she decided to offset the price of her Christmas tree with cheaper decorations.
She said: "I bought an artificial tree from this company years ago and because they are expensive I decided to do DIY ornaments.
"Since then I've been doing that every year and showing ways you can get creative and save money with new ideas.
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FunTranscript
00:00 Here are five tree styling tips from someone whose only credentials are that they spend an obscene amount of time styling their 10-foot Christmas tree every year.
00:06 First thing you need to do is fluff your tree.
00:08 Now here's the difference between before and after fluffing.
00:11 What do I mean by fluffing?
00:12 Well, you're going to give it a juge.
00:13 Now the Balsam Hill trees come with gloves for this specific purpose, and this step should be done for any tree that comes in a bag or a box.
00:19 You're going to separate out the branches until you're filling out the gaps and giving the tree more body.
00:23 It takes a little bit of extra time, but the difference is huge.
00:25 Number two is to always use ornament hooks.
00:27 You can get hundreds of these for a few dollars, and it makes positioning things on your tree much easier.
00:32 Often I'll remove the original ornament string and I'll hang the hook directly onto the ornament.
00:35 Tip number three, I always start with my basic colored baubles first.
00:39 These are the really inexpensive ones that you can buy in bigger volumes.
00:42 This forms the base color scheme of my tree, and you can swap them out in the future if you want to change your color scheme.
00:46 But hold onto them because you may just go back to them in the future.
00:49 Tip number four is to lay out your ornaments in groups by color and type.
00:52 To save money, I actually made over 300 ornaments for my Christmas tree, and you can find the easy steps for these in my 20 DIY Ornaments eBook that's available via the link in my bio.
01:01 I lay those ornaments one group at a time over my Christmas tree.
01:04 Is it too much? Absolutely, but that is my style.
01:06 Tip number five is to use a remote-controlled power outlet.
01:09 You can pick one of these up for about $25 at your local hardware store, and it makes turning on the lights much easier.