Friday, December 12, 2008

Oh Crafty Christmas Tree!

Tip Junkie is having a little Christmas Tree shindig that I just could not resist joining in.
I am by no means a hard core crafty person unless it's Christmas time and then I feel like I'm cranking out a new ornament every day. Maybe not that much but I love making ornaments for my tree. 90% of the ornaments on my tree I made. I knew that if I was going to fill up a tree that's been fairly bare over the years, that I was going to have make the ornaments myself.

Most of my crafty ornament ideas have came from other great crafty websites.
(I realize some the candy canes are a bit clumped together, my 4 year old doesn't know much about even spacing)
I don't really have a set theme other than most of it being handmade. I do like the color theme of reds and whites. My lights are red and white which you can't really tell in this picture.
Most of my ornaments were very simple to make and materials that I had around the house.
This is one of my scottie dogs that I made last year. I had some gingham material and cut out the pattern from AllSorts. I then just hand stitched it together and embellished with ribbon and a button for the eye. Since I didn't have any stuffing I used shredded paper. Look at me doing my part to save the planet. I made several last year and they sit so cute on the branches.

My gingerbread men were cut with a cookie cutter from felt and then embroidered with different colors.

The reindeer I made this year were from an old jigsaw puzzle that the boys never put together anymore. I hot glued the pieces with antlers and then an edge piece that had a rounded part for the face. I then just spray painted the pieces white for a base, you could also use acrylic paint. Several layers may have to be applied though. I would have done a light tan if I had it but white did well. I painted the antlers various colors such as red and green and this dark brown. I glued on google eyes and added little touches like freckles and red noses for the face. You could use a paper clip for the hook but I just hot glued some embroidery thread in a loop to the back and then used a ornament hook to put it on the tree. I had a lot of fun doing these and it was pretty easy. I plan on using my extras as gift toppers.
My candy canes were made from paper. I got the tutorial from SkipToMyLou Very easy to make and I think really helped add more texture and color to the tree.
One last little close up.

Other ornaments that I've made were snowmen from light bulbs and cinnamon dough gingerbread men.
My tree skirt which is shown a little bit on the first pic is actually a Christmas table cloth. I've also used a Christmas throw blanket. I figure presents are going to be hiding most of the skirt anyway.
Check out Tip Junkie for more great Christmas tree decorating ideas.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

So sweet..! I will certainly check out that web link for great Christmas tree decorating ideas.

Cecelia---Sis---Mom said...

Beautiful tree!! The little terrier is adorable. I also love the puzzle reindeer ornament, I bet my boys would love to make these.

Cece

Jennifer Moore said...

LOVE the puzzle reindeer!! How creative!! Growing up, our family tree was always hand-made ornaments!!

Merry Christmas!!

Jerri at Simply Sweet Home said...

Great looking tree. All your ornaments are cute!

Treasures By Brenda said...

As a puzzle person, I loved your jigsaw puzzle ornament. You might enjoy a look at my jigsaw puzzle page, Looking For A Christmas Jigsaw Puzzle.

Brenda

Stats

Blog Archive