Rustic living; conjures up images of log cabins, cozy hearths, tree-laden backyards, and smoke filled chimneys. Even if you are not living in a log cabin, you can easily create rustic Christmas crafts that can be used year after year.

Rustic Christmas wreath:

Pine cones are a definite must for this craft. While you are outdoors scouring the ground for them, look for pheasant feathers, pine branches, crow feathers, and chunks of bark or bits of oddly shaped wood. You can use all sorts of different sizes of pine cones.

Clean and dry the pine cones to prepare them for painting. Depending on your color theme, you can paint the cones a deep burgundy or a dark green to keep with the Christmas colors. Acrylic paint is fine. You can also add a bit of 'frosting' spray to the tips to give them a festive flair. You can either wire the pine cones together, or glue them to a cardboard backing. Cut a piece of cardboard into the desired doughnut shape. This is a great way to lay your design out first so that you do not 'glue first' then 'regret later'.

You can space the pine cones out or nestle them together in threes, or make a continuous loop. Long feathers can be glued between the layers, bark bits can be wedged between those pine cone groupings, pine branches can be wired to the pine cones themselves, and by adding some cinnamon twigs, the wreath will not only look festive but also smell festive. You can add colored dried wheat shafts or dyed baby's breath too, available at many craft stores.

Add a distressed piece of wood to the top or bottom of the wreath instead of a bow.

If you use cardboard as a backing, this might make it easier to hang and less likely for the wreath to bend or lose its shape over the holiday.

Create a rustic table runner:

There are many plain table runners available just waiting to be decorated. Christmas stencils are in abundance but if you want to give your table setting your rustic touch, perhaps grab some deer, rabbit, and bear stencils along with that Christmas tree or stocking stencil. Alternate the images and paint colors and you will have a table runner that suites your taste.

Another idea for a Christmas table setting is to acquire an old oil lamp, still rusty, or there is paint available to give new objects a rusty countenance. Surround it with pine cones, branches, acorns, feathers and holly.

Make a Pine Cone garland:

Using the same supplies as for the Christmas wreath, use fishing line or craft wire to create a garland for the front porch, window, or staircase railing. Add pine branches (fake or real), dried cranberries, beads, small Christmas ornaments, cinnamon twigs or vanilla beans to the garland. It can be used as a window decoration or maybe use it to fill an empty glass vase on a shelf in the living room.

Some bigger projects might involve using the spare bark, cranberries, and spare Christmas ornaments to decorate around a mirror. It does not have to be a permanent decoration. Get that cardboard out again and use it to frame the mirror. You can surround the whole thing or just use a strip to decorate over top the mirror. Glue your pine cones and other sundries to the cardboard. You can rubber cement the cardboard to the edge of the mirror - rubber cement can be cut away using sharp scissors or an 'exacto' knife.

Rustic does not always mean you have to run out and spend hundreds of dollars in paint just to achieve 'the distressed look'. Rustic can defined as being a bit coarse in texture, simple, sturdy, a little old-fashioned, home-made, organic, and unsophisticated. While hundreds of dollars can by you that rustic look, with a little help from Nature you can give your Christmas craft projects that same look without the financial stress.

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