Eight days til Christmas and we are now more than half way done with our Christmas Ornament Countdown. Cheri’s Teeny Tiny Places was just awesome!
My ornament for today is based on some crochet work I am doing for another Christmas present and just sort of made itself up last week. It is a simple wreath made of green cotton yarn.
I used a 3″ in diameter metal ring for the base, making a single crochet stitch around for the first row. The next row is half double crochet and the last row is half double crochet as well, but is stitched into the front leg of the first half double crochet row. This gives the wreath a nice thickness and also makes what I call a pie crust edging.
The bow is made with red cotton yarn. I pulled the yarn through the stitching at the bottom of the wreath and made a standard shoe tie bow and then used the ends of the thread to make two more bows. Nice and easy!
Cheri: Teeny tiny terrariums are pretty fascinating places. Those little spaces made with very few items can evoke a whole world by what you see when you look into it.
These little spaces are really quite easy to make and once you have your materials, you can make several at once.
I love to buy things from gumball machines, not only do I like the prizes, but I think I like the containers the prize comes in even more. They certainly lend themselves to this kind of craft.
Gumball vending machine containers
Air dry white clay
Small piece of mirror or tiny glass
Glitter
Small animals
Chenille stems
To start with make a hole in the container. To do this you need to remove the cap and hold the clear dome so you have the convex part toward you. I heated an ice pick to make the hole.
After I had the hole completed, I took a piece of wire and made a loop on one end. I threaded the end of the wire without the loop through the hole and made another loop on the outside of the dome and cut off the wire.
To make the base of the tiny space, I used the cap of the container. I glued a small bit of air dry clay into the base and squished the piece of glass, or mirror in the center. Then I took a piece of chenille (I used tinsel chenille) and cut it very small to look like a tree. I glued this into the clay.
I glued very small animals beside the chenille tree to make it look like a snow scene and let the bottom portion dry overnight. I do this to make sure that there is no shrinkage. After it dries I take a small paintbrush and brush glue over all the surfaces that I want to put snow/glitter on. Shake off the excess and glue the bottom onto the top. This makes it permanent. Make sure you use just plain old glue for this part. I used an epoxy once and melted the face off of a deer (kind of creepy).
And there you go, all done. The little ones would look great on a small tree and the one that is a little larger I made just to set on my desk. I really enjoy looking into it and feeling the mood of the season any time of year.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Two deer at the water's edge.Swan on the lake.Close-up of snow scenes.The gumball containers are teeny tiny places.Teeny tiny places in teeny tiny spaces.
I first heard about putting a spider ornament on your Christmas tree from Cheri years ago, but had never heard the story until recently. I have put a spider in my wreaths and decorations for years now.
Here is my spider for this year:
He is a simple fellow. His legs are made with black bead stringing wire and the body is the same wire in silver. He only took me about an hour to make, but will last a long time.
And in case anyone wants to read it, here is the story behind the Christmas spider.
On Christmas Eve, a gentle mother was busily cleaning the house for the most wonderful day of the year, Christmas Day, until not a speck of dust was left. Even the spiders had been banished from their cozy corners and had fled to the farthest corner of the attic. The Christmas tree was beautifully decorated. The poor spiders were frantic, for they could not see the tree, nor be present for Santa’s visit. Then the oldest and wisest spider suggested that perhaps they could wait until everyone went to bed and then get a closer look.
When the house was dark and silent, the spiders crept out of their hiding place. When they neared the Christmas tree, they were delighted with the beauty of it. The spiders crept all over the tree, up and down, over the branches and twigs and saw every one of the pretty things. The spiders loved the Christmas tree. All night long they danced in the branches, leaving them covered with spider webs.
When Santa Claus came with the gifts for the children, he saw the tree covered in spider webs, and smiled to see how happy the spiders were, but he knew the mother, who had worked so hard to make everything perfect, would not be pleased when she saw what the spiders had done. With love in his heart and a smile on his lips, Santa reached out and gently touched the spider webs. The spider webs started to sparkle and shine! They had all turned into sparkling, shimmering silver and gold. Ever since this happened, people have hung tinsel on their Christmas trees and included a spider among the decorations on the Christmas tree.
I just barely made it under the deadline for my ornament in our countdown. Cheri’s paper snowflakes were amazing!
This particular ornament is for me a sort of homage to some ornaments of my stepfather’s.They were popular in the 70’s to make. We have hung them on our Christmas tree for years and I have always loved them. Here is my version:
I have tons of styrofoam shapes from another craft project that I used to do, temari balls (more on that one later), and used a 6″ egg as my base. I wrapped it in yards and yards of red thread and stitched the thread under other threads to end it. I then followed the steps for marking temari balls. The process is here, under How To, and then Dividing Hints and Help.and is a very easy process to do. This ensures that your pins are all the same distance apart from north to south.
I did have a lot of fun purchasing the sequins and pins. I have never had a project that needed sequins, so now I have a selection if I ever need them in the future. The seed beads were already in my collection.
Cheri: I find that a lot of the things I create is because I can’t create something in the usual way. In my perfect world I would be able to make jewelry from silver and have a jewelry bench with a torch, a jewelers saw, and the like. Since I don’t, I have decided to do the next best thing. I create out of what I have.
These rings are similar to how they would be made if I was using a precious metal, only a whole lot easier. The bezels are created by gluing a strip of cardboard into a ring. Then glue the edges of that ring to another piece of cardboard. After it is dry I cut closely around the strip.
I then make a ring band with another strip of cardboard and glue the bezel on to it. I painted the whole piece to give it a patina like finish. After that is dry, I filled the bezel with sparkle glue and covered it with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic.
This was a really fun project and is quite easy. I have to thank Loryn for coming up with the great name of “Tiphony.” I just love the name and it really sums up the whole project.
Close-up of jeweled cardboard rings.Jeweled paper rings.Jeweled paper rings.
Wow! Cheri’s Scrapbook Paper Balls are absolutely wonderful! Our different styles and how our imaginations work make this Christmas Ornament Countdown an excellent showcase for each of our talents.
I do a lot of beading and jewelry making so it became obvious that one of my ornaments for this Countdown would be a beaded one and since blue and teal are my favorite colors, this is the inevitable outcome:
I make the mesh first and start that with a collar of beads big enough to fit around the neck of the glass ball. Then I make the first long strand about 1/2″ longer than the diameter of the ball and then start the mesh. I add the draping beads last, working at a diagonal along the mesh, which also helps to reinforce your thread. Some glue on the knots and you are good to go. It does take me about 2 days to complete one.
I learned how to make these from that wonderful magazine Bead & Button. Every December issue they have an article about making beaded ornaments with a very informative how to.
Beaded ornament top.
The ball is just a purchased one, I did not paint it, although I have done so in the past. I just liked the color of this ball and thought that it set off the AB beads (aurora borealis) quite well.
Okay, so Cheri and I have started a sort of Christmas ornament creation countdown. We are each going to post a new ornament every other day for the next 16 days, which will put us at 8 each before Christmas. We both wanted to do something a little extra as our Crafty Challenges are on hold until after the holidays.
My first one posted here was actually going to be the last one I posted, but it didn’t take me nearly as long as I had first thought to finish. It is based on the paper lucky stars that seem to be everywhere now. Here is the excellent tutorial on Youtube that taught me how to make the stars if you want to make your own: Paper Lucky Stars. They are really easy to make and I found myself watching TV and folding paper stars and suddenly I was done (okay, two and a half days later I was done).
Can you guess how many stars are in the glass bulb?
I bought a clear glass ball ornament and six different colors of scrapbook paper. I used my brand new Fiskars paper cutter and cut tons of 1/4″ by 6″ strips and began my journey into stardom and this is the wonderful result! I love the effect and the sound they make when you shake the ball.
Cheri: Well, another project come and gone. This one did not freak me out too much. I am always making little projects.
Sometimes I will see an object that I really like because it stirs up memories of being a kid. That is what happened when I bought these Christmas tree light bulbs at a garage sale a few months ago. I was drawn to the color, (pink) and I really liked the vintage feel of them too.
I knew that I would never use bulbs like these on a lighted string (who could trust them), but I still liked the look of them. They were the kind of lights we had on our tree when I was a kid. I don’t even know if these are sold anymore. They do have a tendency to get hot and really the newer, small lights are brighter.
When I saw them for 50 cents, I couldn’t think of anything to do with them at the time so I tucked them away for when an idea came. When this project was discussed, I felt that I could possibly use the light bulbs for something. I was pretty sure what I wanted to do and I was also sure that the idea would work pretty well. All I really needed was hot glue, ( I am the Queen of hot glue).
For the 14 point star ornament, I started out with glue on the metal tips and then I put one light bulb in the center on each side. I tried to do this mathematically but as I am math challenged, I decided to go by sight. It came out pretty well the first time and I knew that I really didn’t want to press my luck so I decided it looked pretty symmetrical.
For the eight point stars, I just glued 4 together and glued 4 more together and attached them. I hot-glued buttons onto them to cover the glue in the center.
I then decided I needed a hanger that was not very noticeable. In the box were 2 bulb clips, so I took one bulb off the star, attached the clip and then glued the bulb back on. This way I can attach a hook to it.
All in all I was quite pleased with the outcome and I think it will look terrific on a tree. The best thing is it was really simple and cheap. I just love it when a plan comes together.
14 point Christmas tree lightbulb star ornament.
The back of the 14 point star ornament with hanger.Four lightbulbs glued together end to end into a four point star and then two of those flat stars glued together to form an eight point star.The back of the eight point star with a close-up of the wire hanger,
We have just finished our Crafty Challenge 4 and are ready for number 5! This one is all about the time of year. From around now until Christmas, the Crafty Sisters begin to get secretive. We tend to stop discussing our projects with each other and mutter a lot, or at least I mutter a lot.
For us, this is crunch time for Christmas gifts and we do make a lot of them. In this vein, Crafty Challenge 5 is all about Christmas Decorations. We did need to limit this somehow and due to the whole Christmas crunch time I mentioned, the best idea was an actual time limit. So, the challenge is to create a Christmas decoration in less than two hours. We even set a specific time. December 4th – 10am until 12pm is the making time and the unveiling will be at 12:30pm. We can think all we want and purchase the supplies in the meantime, we just cannot start making the decorations until 10am.
To get us in a holiday mood, I thought some examples of a few of our past Christmas decorations was in order. So, get your mind in gear and get thinking (but don’t get making yet!).
Chenille pipe cleaner door wreath made by Cheri.Garland by Kristin, Choir Bird and Winter A-Frame by Cheri.Choir bird made by Cheri.Miniature A-Frame winter scene made by Cheri.Snowman ornament made by Cheri.Ornament door wreath made by Kristin.Painted bird ornaments made by Cheri.Silver ornament and twig door decor made by Cheri.
If you have any questions about any of the above decorations or would like to know how they were made, ask us! You can email us in the Contact Us section of the blog.
These were all decorations I had in my Christmas storage and I realize that almost all of them were made by Cheri. You can definitely see who we will be comparing ourselves to. Wish us luck and you get crafting!
WooHoo! I actually managed to get this Crafty Challenge finished a little early. For me, that is monumental (at least compared to my past Crafty Challenges).
The challenge this time was to use the Coach Willis Handbag for inspiration and create something in that spirit. It could be any medium and any size. I tried several mediums, but seemed to have the best luck when I finally went to fabric. Then I had to decide what size I wanted, so I needed to find a purpose for my bag. I have a large laptop (it has a 17″ screen and the keyboard includes a separate number keypad) that I have never been able to find a bag that I liked and that would protect it, that I liked. So, with that in mind, I was going to make the Willis inspired laptop bag.
I had some really cute flannel kitties fabric and some matching pre-quilted red fabric that would be perfect for padding. After looking at my dogs, I realized that I would be better off if I put the flannel on the inside to help keep some of the hair on my new bag to a minimum. I did draw a sketch, but for the most part, I made it up on the fly. You should know though that I have seen many bags made by Loryn and Cheri, so I had some idea of how to go about this, I wasn’t completely in the dark.
I just love that hardware!
I made the handle first as I wanted to use Loryn’s quilting idea to help reinforce the handle. The body was next and man, do not use denim Singer needles on medium-weight fabric, no matter how many layers you are sewing through. I trashed three needles very quickly. Once I switched to heavy-duty, medium weight needles, I had no problems whatsoever.
I made all the parts of the bag like pillows (right sides together, sew the edges and pull right-side out) and was very good about ironing everything. I am always surprised by how much of a difference ironing makes. Suddenly your project goes to the next level of wow and looks clean and (mostly) well made. Please keep in mind I am not the best seamstress. I tend to keep to pillows and curtains which are really just squares and rectangles with no real finesse (or at least the way I make them).
I did manage to find some excellent hardware for my bag at Kleindorfers. This is the hardware store I spent so much time in for our second Crafty Challenge. It really helped that since that challenge, I really know their stock. They are so helpful and they don’t look at you funny when you giggle and cackle with glee when you find such a wonderful hardware selection, they laugh and see if there is anything else you need.
I also have to mention in here my gratefulness for cellphones, good cellphone plans and AT&T. I spent almost the entire day on the phone with Loryn yesterday. I looked it up on my phone and it came out to 6 hours and 44 minutes. It is so nice just to have someone to mutter to while working on a project. I also spent the morning cleaning and having someone to talk to while doing that always makes the job easier.
Back to the challenge, I then proceeded to put all the parts together and it went much better than expected. I added the hardware and giggled the whole while (Really, I did. Ask Loryn.) The one problem I had was with the dowel rod I had picked up for the top of the bag. It wouldn’t fit the hardware I had decided to use. When I bought the hardware, I bought more than I needed as I was not quite sure how or which pieces I would end up using for the bag. That meant another trip to Lowe’s this morning for the next size down in dowel rods. I cut it to size and painted it red to help it blend in to to the bag.I did that this morning and voila! my bag was finished. Hooray! The finished size is 22 1/2″ wide by 19″ tall. It came out a lot bigger than I intended, but I do like it. I may adjust the size eventually, but for now it is great just the way it is.
And now on to family and food. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
the crafty sisters 