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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Homemade Christmas Ornaments

I have been working on my Pinterest crafty boards making things that I have pinned. Lately its been ornaments. I have a few to show you today.
Last week we had our annual ladies ornament exchange at our church. We do it Yankee swap (Chinese Gift Exchange, Dirty Santa, Thieving Secret Santa, Parcel Pass, Christmas Swamp Thing, or Pollyanna) style. Usually my homemade ornaments aren't too popular, but this year it actually got "stolen" as many times as it could before being "frozen". It made me happy. Here is the ornament I made.
 
I always wanted to try quilling so I googled quilled snowflakes and found a site that had snowflakes and patterns you could buy to show you how to make a quilled snowflake in a glass ornament. I wasn't willing to pay the money for it so I thought I would try it out myself. I just read up on the basics of quilling and did my own design. I used some medical forceps (long gripping type, scissor handled like tools) and tacky glue and constructed it like a ship in a bottle.
You probably can't tell from the picture, but it is not a round ball, its one of those disk type ornaments.
This pic is the ornament held up to a lampshade. 
Once it was all dry I added some iridescent "snow" and tied a double sided ribbon and loop to hang it to the top.
It is very simple, but time consuming. This is my first quilled project. You can buy quilling paper that is pre-cut and tools for rolling the paper, but I used printer paper that I cut (not as perfect as the store stuff) and used my free tools, that God gave me, to roll the paper (fingers). I added a "crystal" to the middle of it also. You cant really tell from the photos. It gives it a little extra bling.

Here is another ornament I made just because I thought she was cute.
A felt and embroidery Matryoshka doll ornament. I got the directions and inspiration from My Sparkle blog. Hers is much cuter.. I think mine looks a bit like one of those Pai Dong Long Neck People. Still, I love her. Doesn't she have a sweet face?

Yesterday I was in Old Navy and passed by the huge impulse buy items in the checkout lanes. I impulsively decided that my daughter needed a pink, glitter water bracelet and my son needed a six pack of press and go mustaches. He was like.. "What do I need those for!". I replied to be cool and that I would wear one too. So I did.
When I was done playing I got an ah-ha moment. I decided that it would be perfect for sort of recreating a little ornament I had pinned on Pinterest. Here it is. I think it quite hilarious.
                                                                                       Source: wanelo.com via Elizabeth on Pinterest


Here is my version. My husband pointed out that they misspelled staching so I made sure to do it right on mine.
 It took me too many tries to write the wording with a paint pen. My print is awful, and this was a "good" one. I was going to use my Cricut but I let a friend borrow it. I may still re-do it, but for now it works. I used a disk ornament filled, once again, with "snow". I tell ya, that little bag had more "snow" in it than the whole state of Georgia gets in a year.. maybe two.  Next I tied it off with a cute ribbon scrap I had been saving hoarding for many many years.
And thats all!
Made any cute ornaments lately? Do share! I always need inspiration.



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5 comments:

  1. Your doll ornament is so cute. You are so funny! I love the mustache ornaments too.

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  2. Cute Cute Cute. I have quilled and I no its a lot of work, but to put it in a ornament you are nuts. LOL Both ornaments are cute.

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  3. any tips for attempting the snowflake in glass? I assume parts of it are pre constructed and the assembled inside..............what is the best way to hold the parts inside while adding additional pieces? thanks!

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  4. Anonymous- I think that I pre-assembled the middle section with the 6 teardrop shapes and then stuffed it carefully in the glass. Then I carefully glued the rest on piece by piece. I used a fabulous tacky glue by Crafters Pick called "The Ultimate". It is sticky and dries quickly. Perhaps some long tweezers might help with assembly. I used monofillament to hang it in the glass and tied that to the hanger that fits in the glass. Another option would be to use one of those plastic ornaments then you can assemble it to size and pop the 2 halves of the plastic ornament together. Probably much easier.

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  5. Thanks so much for the tips! I will give it a try and get a head start on next year's gifts!

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