Get Your Home In Holiday Shape

Christmas is fast approaching, but there's still time to make your house festive and stylish for the holidays.

On The Early Show Thursday, celebrity party planner Colin Cowie said the key is making beautiful wreaths and centerpieces -- and he demonstrated how to do it without much time or trouble.

Cowie mentioned three styles: modern, ruby red, and fancy/romantic.

Colin says you can put the wreaths all over your house and you can put the centerpieces on tables, mantles and just about anywhere in the home.

The styles you create should also go with the decor in your home, and your gift wrapping.

Everything you need can be bought in your local crafts store!

LOOK #1: MODERN

WREATH: Modern Square Wreath
This is modern and new. You need a square wreath made out of boxwood -- it smells very good! The boxwood is very dense and will enable you to have a clean palette to work with. This features stripes of small Christmas balls in silver, citrine, emerald, plum and violet. The stripes are made of Christmas balls that are all hot-glued on the wreath. Stripes are very trendy this season. Some can be made thick and others thin. There's no need to measure a straight line. Each one is on an angle to resemble the look of a candy cane. The bow on this wreath is on the bottom left corner instead of the traditional middle.

CENTERPIECE: Candle With Bling
The centerpiece is a three-wick candle on a boxwood base with crystals hot glued onto it in colors coordinated with the wreath. Use square tapers with plane white candles. This will enable you to have symmetry with the wreath and centerpiece. Adding gemstones or crystals will pick up the light. These candles should be placed in a tight multi-tiered clusters - using only three-or-four candles. You can use the excess boxwood from the wreath.

LOOK #2: RUBY RED

WREATH: Round Mixed Green Wreath
Ruby red is one of the great colors of the holidays. Cowie says to use traditional materials to get this look. He decorated the wreath with a garland of silk, amaryllis heads, red lights, and three different clusters of red balls, shiny matte and glitter. You can use a real or artificial wreath. You don't need to spend the money on flowers that will die: Decorate with silk flowers that are easy to find at your local craft store. With all these materials, it appears that you made second wreath on top of the original one. Using traditional Christmas colors, you have the traditional look, but the setup makes it look more modern and contemporary. It's best to create this look with wire.

CENTERPIECE: Glass Hurricane With A Red Metallic Candle
This centerpiece consists of a glass hurricane with a red metallic candle surrounded by red ornaments. Two red pillars flank the hurricane and a garland of silk amaryllis snakes around the base. It has the same garland used in the wreath above. In the hurricane, if you don't want to use Christmas balls, you can use red cranberries or red gem rocks/table jewels that can be purchased in a canister.

LOOK #3: FANCY/ROMANTIC

WREATH: Silver, Champagne and Pearl
Here we have a round, flocked wreath covered in white lights, holiday balls in the above-mentioned colors, and possibly pheasant feathers. This look will have fake snow on it. There will be a series of different size balls on the wreath completely covering the wreath in champagne, pearls, and silver. There will be white lights throughout the wreath. You could also incorporate baby's breath. This is not a traditional wreath with all very non traditional neutral tones. Using the feathers adds an entirely different modern approach to the look.

CENTERPIECE: Glass and Mercury Glass Candlesticks, Platinum Metallic Tapers, Fake Snow and Diamonds
This is the more sophisticated look for a centerpiece. It is timeless and extremely romantic. You need to use three or four different heights of tapered candles, and tapered lights to get this centerpiece. Sprinkle fake snow on tables. You can make a skinny long, or short wide candlescape depending on the size of your dining table. The more you add to it the bigger you can make it. The candlesticks will be either silver or clear. You can use 10 of each. Make sure that you use odd numbers, that there are different heights, and use all kinds of candles, and synthetic snow.