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."

"Last year there were over 500 ornaments - including the shop-bought ones - on the tree and another 50 hand-made this year so that's 550 ornaments on the tree."

"I began sharing the DIY decorations on social media and they started to go viral."

"The tree company asked if we wanted to partner with them but we already had one of their trees and they asked if we wanted the bigger one - 305cm. "

"I'm 6ft tall but I still had to get on a ladder to get to the top, it took me a whole day to decorate."

Sophie says her DIY ornaments can be customised to suit different styles of Christmas trees.

She said: "It's also about customising it to make it your own, so my tree is very bright and colourful here in the Aussie summer so it's about taking it and making it work for your own personal taste."

"Lots of people want to change their colour scheme each year - so you can just repaint them to your taste for that year so you're not throwing things out."

After her decorations went down well on social media, Sophie decided to launch a book with details on how to make her top 20 ornaments.

She said: "I'd been thinking I needed to put them in a book and I've categorised it so there's beginner stuff and really confident stuff in there."

"In the book, you can make two or three different ornaments out of the same materials and it's great for getting the kids involved too."

Sophie's tree is not the only thing to receive the handmade treatment, with her '12 DIY's of Christmas' now firmly underway.

She said: "I do table settings, food gifts, gifts for the kid's teachers, table centrepieces with candles"

"These are things that I use as decor at home or for gifts."

"I think gifts are a really easy place to start as they are so affordable and a homemade gift has that personal element which is always a hit."

"Whether that's a food gift or something that's been crafted, financially it can save you so much more as well."

"Handmade things like a food gift can be a really good option - it's inexpensive and easy to do in volume."

"Dry sangria kits are a good option which are a really simple and nice idea."

Sophie's book: https://stan.store/nesti/p/get-crafty-this-christmas-with-my-ebook

Some of Sophie's designs -

1. Marbled baubles
2. Embossed baubles
3. Mercury glass baubles
4. Ornate folded stars
5. Mosaic trees
6. Mini wreaths
7. Crystal snowflakes
8. Bead stars
9. Textured stars
10. Upcycled Terrazzo baubles
11. Wooden stars
12. Raffia arches
13. Terrazzo chips
14. Paper flowers
16. Polymer Terrazzo arches
17. Wire word baubles
18. Personalised name ornaments
19. Christmas sweaters
20. Flora baubles