Are you ready for some Christmas? Yes, that's right. While many of you were decorating for Halloween, I've been decorating a Christmas tree. 🙂

A happy, colorful, pom-pom-y, photo filled tree.

This month the Michaels Makers and I were given the Dream Tree Challenge! We were provided with a full, pre-lit tree, and asked to go nuts.

I've watched this challenge in years past and was blown away by the trees. And to be honest, it was a bit intimidating trying to come up with a plan after seeing all the beautiful ornaments, garlands, and Christmas-y accents at Michaels

We are working on a little remodel here, turning a formal dining room into a not-so-formal family space. We recently painted the walls white because I want color, fun accents, and homemade touches. A space that truly represents our family. And all of a sudden what I needed to do was clear.

I went that direction with the tree.

Gradient pom pom garland, natural stars,  a hint of silvery garland,

a snowy tree skirt, snowball ornaments,

and lots and lots of photos of our family. 🙂

These polaroid looking ornaments are my favorite touch. I found this Fujifilm Instax Wireless Printer and film at Michaels (it's on sale now!), which let me pick and print photos from my phone wirelessly to the printer. I like that I could edit them ahead of time instead of waiting to see what I got with a camera.

I made them into ornaments by gluing a bit of bakers' twine to the back of each.

I picked photos from throughout the last year. Nice photos, silly photos, memories from going to the carnival or park. The kids helped me pick them out too and enjoyed the process. Watching photos come out, seeing them develop over time, even shaking them like we used to with polaroids. 🙂 It was a fun project to do together.

The pom poms were a labor of love. 🙂 I bought a pom pom maker and these great yarn sampler packs at Michaels. My 6 and 5 year old helped with these too. They wound the yarn, cut it, and helped sort & arrange them into a rainbow for me.

The large start is made of wood. Michaels had a whole section of blank ornaments in wood, clear plastic, chalkboard, and metal for your DIY projects. I liked the raw texture of this star and left it (and the other paper mache stars down the tree) as is.

The tree skirt is a roll of buffalo snow. The snowball ornaments are little acrylic ornaments stuffed with bits of the buffalo snow. The kids helped with that too! This tree was clearly a team effort.

This tree just makes me so happy looking at it! It's colorful, a bit crazy, happy, and full of photos & memories. Just like the family who lives here.

Inspired to start decorating your own tree?

Check out some of the ornament projects and tutorials available on Michaels.com. Make sure you visit Michaels’ blog, The Glue String, to see the other 49 Michaels Makers’ dream holiday trees that were created this year:

From now until November 14, you can get FREE shipping on all Christmas trees that are 6ft or taller on Michaels.com! And psst... right now they're all 50% off.