Friday Takeover

I'm taking on the Friday challenge at 365 Cards.

 

It's to use silver as the dominant color.  

 

 I do believe I managed it with this card.

 

I'm still feeling pretty full of cheer.  I believe I got this silver snowflake doily from my MIL and I had the silver sequin ball left over from my ornament projects.

 

The sparkles in the white felt are also silvery.

 

Come play along with me, as the 365 Cards year comes to a close...

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 25

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
 

I hope you've had a wonderful day no matter where you are and what you are doing.

 

I have been celebrating with family all day, but I did manage to complete my final ornament of the 2013 Christmas season.

I bought this plaster frame at Michael's for about $2.  The rest I had on hand.

 

I used a white acrylic paint (just slightly darker than the plaster).  I sponged on some red ink to give it a worn look, added a sentiment sticker and some green berries.

Like last year, I learned a few things.  In particular, I made the first several ornaments with things I already had in my stash.  By the time I visited any craft stores the Christmas items were already on sale.  Of course, if I was looking for anything specific I might not be able to find it - which is always the risk of not shopping early.  It would be worth paying a visit to the craft stores in the next couple of days to grab up clearance items.

 

The critical items in my ornament-making were hot glue, twine/jute/ribbon (for hanging the ornaments), and acrylic paint.  I used all of these things on several occasions.

 

If you popped by my blog regularly to check out my ornaments, thank you -- especially to Wendi for all the lovely comments!

 

I think I will probably hang up my crafting apron (okay, I don't actually wear one) until after the holidays, but I suspect that I'll be right back at it in the new year...

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 24

Well, if you didn't see this one coming, then you didn't see yesterday's post, lol!

 

I didn't follow a tutorial, but it pretty much went the way yesterday's bacon ornament went. 

 

Tomorrow's ornament will not be a food item, but something a little more special for Christmas Day.

My kids are tucked in, stockings are stuffed and this mom is heading to bed...

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 23

So when I search DIY Ornaments on Pinterest, one in particular caught Jamie's eye. {THIS} is the tutorial that I followed.

 

When I popped back on the computer to find it for this post, I searched for "Bacon Ornament" and you would not believe how many different pins appeared.  There's even one for a piece of bacon and an egg. 

 

I followed the tutorial closely, but I didn't see any need to add any wire since I used some stiff felt, plus I stuffed it to make it look squishy.

Here's my finished ornament

 

Another opportunity to use googly eyes, and I free cut a little smile.

 

Two more ornaments to go...

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 22

Ahhh, I've had a lovely day of church, cookie baking, soccer playing and ornament creating.

 

I got this idea from some adorable clothespin Santas that my girls have on their trees.

 

I already had some plain wooden clothespins in my stash (can't remember when I bought them).

 

I took them apart by removing the springs, and got out some acrylic paint.

 

I chose red, and Jamie made one with green paint.

 

Once it was dry, I hot glued this sequined ball to it.  Nice and simple

I can think of lots of things to add to these -- stickers, puff balls, glitter, bows, rhinestones, charms...lots of possibilities.

 

A set of these would make a wonderful gift!

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 21

I've had these set aside for a couple of months in anticipation of my 25 Days of Christmas Ornaments.

 

Can you spot the word I chose?

 

I hot glued them to some green cord and added a ribbon.

 

And there you have it

 

I almost added some berries to it, but I was afraid that would be a bit much.

 

It looks fabulous hanging on the tree!

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 20

Wow, it's been a long day, and my computer does not want to cooperate.  I'm afraid it just doesn't hold a charge anymore, and sometimes it just poops out.

 

But we're up and running now, and here's my ornament for today.

 

Actually, it's really Jamie's ornament.

 

I gave her a clear ornament and she got to browse around the craft room looking for items that would fit. 

 

She decided on green sparkly "berries", large red beads, tiny white beads, and tiny buttons.

 

I love how this turned out, and she was so cute giving it lots of thought.

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 19

So here's what I learned about mailing glass ornaments.  It's very expensive if you're wanting a guarantee that they don't break so you go to UPS and pay to have them packaged for you.

 

If I had it to do all over again, I would have paid attention to the fact that I was buying glass and not plastic ornaments.  But I'm still very happy with how yesterday's ornaments turned out and I'm glad to give them to my oldest niece and three nephews.

 

I have two more nieces, but they're too little for glass bulb ornaments (yikes!), so P&J created some letter ornaments for them instead, and that was the ornament project for today.

 

I found some whimsical letters at Michael's, already painted white.

 

Jamie chose to sponge on some bright green ink

 

Paige went with a blue/purple combo, to which she added some bling

 

 

Here's Jamie's finished project -- it's all her.  She even squeezed on the hot glue, but I put those little balls on where she told me to.

 

I forgot to take a picture of Paige's letter before I wrapped it.  She just added some more rhinestones and a little purple flower.

 

We finished them off with some textured glitter spray and a jute hanger.

 

I sure hope they like these.  There's something super special about a handmade gift, isn't there?

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 18

It's been one of those days where I haven't done anything particularly strenuous, but I am exhausted! 

 

That didn't stop me from making an ornament (actually several), but it did mean another trip out to the craft store.

 

Another Pinterest idea that I ran with -- it's an I Spy ornament.

 

The girls and I decided to make ornaments for their cousins this Christmas.  We selected several small items from the store and also from the craft room.

 

Here are the GIANT glass ornaments we bought along with several items we considered using (some of them didn't end up fitting through the opening.

 

Four cousins are getting one of these, so I sorted all the items onto 4 plates so I could make sure everything was evenly distributed.

 

I made sure to write down what ended up in each one (26 items per ornament), because they aren't completely identical.

 

Here's what it looks like "stuffed"

 

I put a different color of glitter in each one (mostly so I can keep them straight).

I also used some white sand I found in the craft store.

 

Here's the finished ornament

 

Honestly this thing is so heavy, I can't imagine putting it on the tree.  But it does look like an ornament with a silver cap and all. 

 

To be sure that no grains of sand fall through, I cut down a piece of cork (yes, that wine comes in handy again!) and hot glued it into place.  I took the "hook" out of the silver cap and hot glued that to the cork.

 

I hope they like it!  Now I just need to package it in a lot of bubble wrap and mail it to Iowa...wish me luck.





25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 17

So today I had a different ornament planned from the one that I actually made.

 

Paige and I were alone for a bit this evening, and when I asked her if she wanted to make an ornament with me, she said she had an idea and she wanted to teach it to me.

 

It involved a clear plastic spoon, some glitter, a Sharpie and a piece of ribbon.  Unfortunately we are out of plastic spoons, so we had to settle for knives.

 

She got everything set up called me in to create.

 

We drew a picture of something on one side, brushed the other side with Mod Podge and sprinkled glitter on it.  The ribbon was to be tied around the middle of the knife.

 

Here are our glittered sides (mine is red, hers is blue)

Here's the other side

 

As you can see, I drew a star on mine.  Since the knives had holes in them, I used a piece of jute to create a hanger.

 

I took a close-up of it sparkling on the tree

This project makes me so proud of my girl.  She is really getting creative, and she wasn't afraid to take a chance.  I asked her if she was ok with using knives, since she had envisioned doing this project with spoons.  She said she was, even if it didn't quite work out -- she was willing to give it a try.  In the end, this gave me all sorts of ideas of how to expand on this (mostly using spoons, actually), but the point is that this is how the creative process works. 

And most importantly, I spent a lovely evening with my daughter.

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 16

Here's a great pine cone ornament that starts with these supplies

 

Jamie and I picked out some glittery patterned paper, cut them into 1x1 inch squares and created a point at one end of each square

 

The tutorial I found online used pins to secure each piece, but I decided to use hot glue...a bit messier, but I didn't want to bother with pins.

 

I started at the bottom and layered them leaving just a small space left to add some faux berries

 

Jamie took this picture of me adding the leaves and berries.  Not only is she crafty, but she's turning into a pretty good photographer!

 

 

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 15

I had one of these little cardboard cones left, so I thought I would make a cornucopia out of it.

 

I selected some reindeer paper and cut some paper starting at the corner.  I totally eyeballed it - my preferred method of crafting, lol.

 

 

I cut two corners out, since one wasn't quite enough, and I layered them.

 

Paige and I worked on this together.  We added some pom-pom trim to the open end, and then glittered it using some Mod Podge as adhesive.

 

I found this strand of faux pearls among my ribbon scraps to create the hanger.

 

 

We added sime silvery glitter to the tip to finish it off

 

It still needs to dry before I can hang it on the tree.

 

I think I'm looking at another trip to the craft store to gather supplies for the next several ornaments.  Gee, that's too bad *wink*

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 14

Whew, what a fabulous fun-filled day I've had.  This is the first moment I've had to share this one, and technically it's tomorrow.

 

I had a short break between activities to put it together.  Although I got the idea from Pinterest, I put my own spin on it.

 

Here's the picture of the button tree I made

 

My MIL made me a bunch of these beautiful stick pins with beads on them, and I mostly have used them for cards, but this project was perfect for using one.

 

I chose the white/red bead combo, layered some buttons, and depending on which hole you put this pin through, they get off center giving the tree a whimsical look to it.

 

I have just a few corks lying around (ok yes, I love red wine), so I broke one in half to be the tree stand.

 

A dab of hot glue on at the base of the bottom button holds them up so the lower portion of the pin looks like the trunk.

 

I haven't added a hanger yet, but this will but a wonderful addition to my tree I think.

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments Day 13

I am going to make this quick because I am exhausted!  

I might just have to add details tomorrow, but here at least is a look at the ornament I made today.

Can you guess what that is?

Believe it or not, it's double-sided wrapping paper that I cut into strips and twisted.  I hot-glued the strips down as I wound them around the ornament.  

The picture really doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea.  I finished it off with some pink silk ribbon as the hanger.

On a separate note, yesterday's crayon ornaments were a big hit with the teachers & staff that the girls gave them to!  

I have plans for some more fabulous ornament-making with the girls this weekend...

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments Day 12

Tomorrow is the last day of school before winter break, and the girls wanted to make some ornaments for teachers & staff at their school.

 

Over the years we've collected hundreds of crayons, so we went through our stash, peeled off paper and gathered them in this jar

I picked up a package of clear ornaments at Michaels.  These have a pearlescent look to them

 

 

The girls created some pretty cool color combos in their ornaments

 

I used my hair dryer and spun the ornaments as the crayons melted.  I held on to the ornaments with an Ove Glove because they can get pretty hot.

 

Check out this one

 

Here are all the ornaments we created

 

I sprinkled some glitter in coordinating colors inside the ornaments and re-heated them, turning the ornaments to distribute the glitter.

 

Here's a close-up of my favorite one

 

Such a great project to do with the kiddos.

 

Here are a couple of things I learned:

 

- Use small pieces of crayon, because they will get stuck in there as the ornament cools. 

- It's not a quick process, so time and patience are critical with this one.

 

I hope the recipients like them because they are definitely extra special!

 



25 Days of Christmas Ornaments Day 11

I refuse to forget to post again, and I so adore this ornament that I wanted to share it right away!

 

I have seen some of these using various media, but I went with what I had on hand...some printer paper and chipboard.

 

I live in Washington proud of it.  I wanted to make a special ornament for our tree in the shape of the state.

 

Here are my supplies

 

I spread enough Mod Podge to cover the area around the state.  You might be able to see where the paper wrinkles outside of the area I stuck to the chipboard.

 

I sponged some red ink around the outside of the ornament, added a dimensional sticker in our part of the state and attached a hanger.

 

I wasn't planning on it being this easy, but it sure came together quickly.  I might have to make one for all the states I've lived in.

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments Day 10

Yikes!  I made the ornament and then waited to post until after the kiddos went to bed.

 

Except....

 

They didn't go to bed at the usual time since we had already received news of today being a snow day.

 

So here is the ornament and the photos I took

 

I cut strips of felt, about 12 inches long each.  Then I cut them in varying widths so that I could layer them and sew them together. 

 

I took some twine (I just adore the striped twine) and threaded it through a large needle.

Then I folded up each piece of "candy" like this

 

I poked the needle through one side (leaving several inches to create a hanger) and passed it back up through the other side.  I included a bead on the bottom for fun. 

 

I went crazy mixing up the colors, not worrying about using traditional colors.

 

Here's a side view

One thing I really enjoyed about this one is that I didn't worry about lining things up perfectly -- it just adds to the handmade look of these.

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 9

I love Pinterest!!

 

Here's another one that caught my eye, and the tutorial I used as a guideline.  I didn't use paper or punches, but I did use the same measurements.

 

Here's my ornament

 

I had this fabulous felt on hand that is stiff (like it's been starched) and it has glitter in it.  I made two 4 1/2" pieces instead of one, since the felt is glittered on only one side, and I glued them back-to-back.  Then I followed the rest of the instructions to hot glue the strips together at the top and bottom.

 

To create the loop, I used some felted string and then I added some faux holly berries to finish the ornament.

 

Here's a close-up photo

 

I'm all about the sparkles!

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 8

Pinterest is my favorite place to shop around for ornament ideas.  Sometimes I just get some ideas and put my own spin on them.  Other times I take someone else's suggestions and pretty much copy it.  This one was so simple, that I just needed a little guidance.  Here's the tutorial I followed.

 

P&J got involved, especially since glitter was a critical component.  We use several night lights around this house, and now, instead of throwing them away when they die I can repurpose them!

 

Here they are painting the bulbs with Mod Podge & glitter.

 

 

I had already hot glued some jute loops to the base of the bulbs, so they just had to glitter the bulbs.

 

Here's one

 

And the other

 

I can picture a whole tree full of these in every color.

 

 

 

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments DAY 7

This evening Jamie and I had a mommy/daughter date.  We snuggled on the couch eating mac 'n cheese (while watching the Santa Clause), made chocolate chip cookies and whipped up an adorable little Rudolph bulb ornament.

 

Here are the supplies I had on hand

 

Jamie dipped her thumb in light brown paint

 

We made 7 thumb prints

 

Here she is adding antlers using dark brown paint and a fine tipped brush

 

We decided he needed blue eyes, so we used this Sharpie

 

Some hot glue and tiny red pom poms made some cute noses.

I got this idea from Pinterest and it was a great one.  Quick, easy & fun for the kiddos, too!!