Tag Archives: homemade christmas ornament

finished rhinestone covered ornament

Christmas Advent 2015 – Rhinestone Ornament

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I previously bought a box of plastic rhinestones with pointed backs for a project that did not work out, so I have re-purposed them as a wonderful Christmas ornament.

Materials:

  • Styrofoam ball (3″)
  • Pointed back rhinestones
  • Superglue
  • Small piece of wire

finished rhinestone covered ornament

To start this project, I made a loop with the small piece of wire and pressed it into the Styrofoam ball and super glued it to provide a place to put the tree hook.

Next, I started pressing in the pointed backs of the rhinestones to form small depressions in the Styrofoam ball. I then placed a drop or two of super glue in the depression and added a rhinestone. I kept working circles around the foam ball to the bottom and I was done.

start of gluing rhinestones to foam ball almost done gluing rhinestones to foam ball

This will look absolutely fabulous on our Christmas tree. The lights will just make it glitter and glow!

Happy Crafting!

Kristin

finished pinecones

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 11 Chenille Pinecones

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Day 11! Today I made some pine cones out of chenille pipe cleaners. Specifically, I made them out of chenille bump stems in a lovely light brown color.

Materials:

  • Chenille bump stems (brown)
  • Large wooden beads
  • Felt (brown)
  • Scissors
  • Tacky Glue
  • Superglue

individual layers of pine cone scales

First, I made leaflets with the chenille stems as shown above to create layers of pine cone scales. Next, I glued a bead on the underside of one layer and glued another layer to the bead, as show below, using tacky glue. This can take a little bit of time as you want to let the tacky glue dry really well before you add another layer of leaflets.

how I glued the layers together with a wooden bead

I was working on three at once, so I kept them all in a neat pile with their corresponding beads.

layers glued together and beads I used

I will say that the wooden beads in the middle of the picture worked the best. Made a nice sturdy and pretty pine cone.

felt pieces cut and pasted for top layer of scales

Then, I cut individual scales from the felt to make the tops of the pine cones. I glued these with the tacky glue into sets of three. I put 6-7 of these trios on each pine cone. I put  I also cut 1/4″ x 3/4″ strips of felt in the same color and glued them into rolls to make the stems of the pine cones.

finished pine cones stacked on top of each other

You can see above where I glued the stems to the top of the pine cones and then added the felt leaflets around the stem.

Once everything had dried, I them touched up all the connecting points with super glue to make sure that everything would stay together and form a strong bond. At this point, you could easily add a tree hook to the top and hang them from the tree. That would look really nice. I have another purpose for these that you will see in about a week.

Happy Crafting!

Kristin

paper circle ornamnet

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 10 Paper Circle Ornament

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Day 10 and I am neck deep in crafting supplies. My house is truly a disaster. Maybe my final advent  picture should be of the absolute mess I have made.

Today is a very simple and easy ornament you can do with your kids.

Materials:

  • Scrapbook paper
  • Paper cutter (scissors work just fine too)
  • Tacky glue
  • Ribbon

paper circle ornamnet

I cut strips of paper in varying lengths between 4″ and 7″ long and 1/2″ and 1″ wide and in varying colors, then formed circles and glued the edges together. Then I selected the circles I thought looked best together and glued these together making sure the glued edges where on top of each other. Once they were dry, I tied a ribbon to the top, dabbed a bit of glue on the ribbon knot so that it did not come undone and attached a tree hook.

All done!

This one is so easy I felt I needed to pay a cat tax.

kitty picture

My dopey cat wondering why I will not sit still.

Happy Crafting!

Kristin

confetti in glass ball

Christmas Advent – Day 8 Confetti Ball

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Day 8 and I went for an easier project today as I am working on two of the future advent projects already. The snowflake confetti I bought has come is so handy throughout this year’s advent and even a small bag of it was a LOT of confetti. I am just now halfway through with the bag.

confetti in glass ball

Materials:

  • Clear glass ornament ball
  • Snowflake confetti
  • Glitter
  • Ribbon
  • Thin wire
  • Jump ring
  • Pliers

I pulled the top off the ornament and filled it full of snowflake confetti and glitter, then put the top back on the ball. I did fold up the arms of the snowflake confetti before I stuffed it inside. I then took the thin wire and made a loop then threaded some pieces of ribbon on it. I then used a jump ring to connect it to the ball. Done!

confetti in glass ball

Placemats and another awesome wreath are in the works. You should see them soon!

Happy Crafting,

Kristin

confetti ornament

Christmas Advent 2015 – Day 6 Confetti Ornament

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It has been a nice, quiet Sunday around here today. A positively beautiful day that my dogs are thoroughly enjoying.

We are now at day six and I have a really awesome ornament for you today. I have this bag of plastic snowflake confetti that I have been using for various projects and I made up this confetti ornament last night.

confetti ornament

Materials:

  • 3″ Styrofoam ball
  • Confetti snowflakes
  • Sequin pins
  • Small piece of wire
  • Super glue
  • Ribbon
  • Nail set (not necessary, but I found this very helpful)

I took my small piece of wire and made a loop that I stuck into the top of the ball and super glued. This gave me my loop for the tree hook. This appears to to be the start of all my Styrofoam ornaments.

I bent up the snowflake arms of the confetti to give my ball a 3-D appearance. Next, I started pinning the bent snowflakes to the foam ball with the sequin pins. I pinned these in circles around the ball. I snugged them all together so they the bent snowflake arms are all intertwined and there is very little of the foam ball showing.

start of confetti ball

I used the 1/32″ Nail Set to push the pins in all the way so I would not bend up the confetti snowflakes. The nail set is a simple tool from the hardware store, used to inset nails in trim and such. You can see it in the photos below. It worked great for this project. It even had a small cup on the end so the pin doesn’t slide around as you push the pin into the ball.

materials used for confetti ball

AlmostDone

After starting this ornament, I thought that it might be very pretty to have painted the ball before adding the snowflakes. I wanted a very white ornament to contrast to the green tree, so I left mine white. I made a small ribbon bow and attached it to the top of the ball with the tree hook.

I do not recommend dropping this ball on the floor if you have carpet and pets. I have a lot of dog fur on my floor no matter how many times I sweep and I was terrified that I would drop the ball and end up with it covered in fur. The bent arms of the confetti snowflakes make them almost velcro-like in its ability to pick up lint and fur. I didn’t drop it, but I just wanted to forewarn anyone else who made this.

Happy Crafting,

Kristin