Usually we put store bought stuff on our tree, but Peanut and I decided that this year we were only going to put only home made ornaments on the tree. The lights, wooden bead garland, and tinsel garland were all bought, but we didn't have time to string popcorn or anything. That, and the cats would have probably eaten any garlands I thought of to put up anyway.
What did we make? Take a look!
We even added some embellishments to a plain, inexpensive tree skirt that I got on an after Christmas clearance one year. I plan on adding a few more, but the fake tree's legs were so ugly to look at I had to put an incomplete project out to cover them up. I may add something fancy around the edges too if I find something interesting in my craft stash.
Felt is an inexpensive medium to work with. We like to buy the 20 cent per sheet rainbow felt. Many of the pieces I have were also purchased on a clearance sale. You can get quite a few decent sized ornamnets from one sheet. It is also very versatile. I have used glitter glue, fabric paint, beads, sequins, rick rack, bows, and felt cut outs to decorate it.
I made some of these felt ornaments for kids I was teaching in past years. I made the reindeer and the felt tree for my toddlers (those were the years my kids were in my toddler room). The yellow stars were gifts to my Sunday School class when my son was in first grade. I had a few extras because some of the children never showed up for Sunday School, but I didn't want to run out of them so I made one for each child on my list.
Peanut and I really enjoy this activity and we make several ornaments every year. My son makes at least one usually. Other ornaments we have made were made include those that we made with beads and pipe cleaners, white foam colored with magic markers which was hot glued to string, loose poinsettas (which I purchased for next to nothing) that I hot glued to ornament hooks, wooden clothespins that make a reindeer (or angels), empty glass balls that we filled with loose flower parts which were sold to me along with the poinsetta heads, and hand painted ceramic ornaments.
The kids used to paint an ornament for each of their grandparents every year until we couldn't find them at the store anymore. They cost 33 cents each and our parents just loved them. One year I stocked up on a bunch of my favorites to give as gifts. I was going to give the trees I painted to my sister for a Christmas gift one year, but she complained about the gifts I gave her every year. She told me that she didn't want any of my homemade junk, so I kept them for us instead. Don't they look wonderful on my tree? We have a dozen of them.
What do you make for Christmas?
Thank you for stopping by. Please leave me a message and a backlink. I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Cindy
16 comments:
Beautiful Cinj! Last year we did entirely homemade decorations and it was so much fun. The kids made paper garlands, and some salt dough decorations were made at their grandparent's house. We made the little paper doll ornaments I posted about today, and some felt ones too, and also paper snowflakes.
This year I'm not sure we'll put up the full sized tree. It's a bit too big for our house already and is going to be a real challenge with me hobbling about on crutches - my knee surgery is two weeks from today!
It is really pretty! I used to make bread dough ornaments and other crafts, but not anymore.
Cinj,
Your tree is beautiful! You and Peanut did a great job. I love the homemade ornaments that my son has made and love to bring them out each year.
Take care.
Gail
Lovely tree Cinj - love the reindeer
K
That is beautiful. I made little boxes this year and painted them gold.
Your tree will have a lot of meaning this year with all the handmade ornaments. Great job. We used to make the cinnamon ornaments that do double duty because they make the room smell so nice too. I haven't made any for the past several years tho. Maybe this will be the year??
Amy- I thought about braiding a garland with yarn, but that would take forever. I always like the paper ones too. I especially like the loop ones that we write what we are thankful for (or some other meaningful thing), also strung cereal but cats would probably eat that. A few strings of paper snowflakes would be cute too. I'd love to be able to crochet a garland, but when I look at the bookmI get hung up on terminology. Home made trees are fun. I'll have to stop by and check out your ornaments, I've been working hard on ancestry research the last couple of days and Christmas cards.
Tina- Funny you should mention that, we were thinking about making some of them this weekend.
Gail- Thanks. We do put our favorites up every year but nothing like this. It's fun thinking back to when they were made, isn't it?
Karen- It is one of my favorites that I made.
Anna- Are you showing us? They sound elegant.
Kathleen- Hmm, scented ornaments? They sound delish. I never thought of that. I used to buy pine scented plugins but I haven't seen any of those for the last few years.
I love your tree. I think homemade ornaments are the best. The majority of the ornaments I use are either homemade or have special memories from traveling or from being gifts. This post is motivating me to get my cleaning finished so I can get my tree up and see all my beloved ornaments again!
Your tree looks fabulous, Cinj! Homemade ornaments are so meaningful. What was your sister thinking?! I'd be so proud to have handmade ornaments from my family to put on my tree! (Of course, I'm a sentimentalist and still hang my Christmas stocking from my first Christmas, when I was 2 months old.) Good for you!!!!
Ben- Thanks! I like it too. The bottom is starting to look a little sparse as I have moved breakable ornaments to higher ground leaving the bottom branches pretty empty. The silly cats seem to think anything breakable is a toy for them to play with or something. After they knocked 3 ornaments off the tree the ornaments set out in mass migration. Now I need to make more non-breakable ornaments to put on the bottom of the tree.
I don't know if she knew they were ornaments, but she thought I was being cheap and didn't want anything to do with it. Whatever. Her loss is my gain, right? She did actually allow me to give her kids each a home made fleece blanket each a couple of years ago though. I am sentimental too. I will never give up some of the rattiest looking ornaments even when Cheesehead thinks they're worn out. They're full of wonderful memories!
Hi Cinj, I think the home made ornaments and decoration are always the best. Felt is such a great material, non breakable, cheap and colorful! There are so many things that can be used too, a bag of unshelled walnuts can become angels with some white, silver or gold paint and pipe cleaners for halos, just paint the faces with eyes closed and a cotton ball for the neck fluff.
Frances
I love homemade ornaments, too. Especially the cinnamon ones, but also the dough ones. I used to have a bunch of pink flamingo dough ornaments I made one year.
I love your homemade ornaments Cinj! Your tree looks great and I'm sure your kids really enjoyed helping with the decorating and crafting this year.
Hi Cinj, Love this post! I find so much fun in making ornaments, I do it all year long. Thanks for visiting me, I'll be back!
Cindy- Geez, I don't know how you snuck in there without me noticing and commenting back. Thanks. I'm pretty sure I commented about it on your blog though.
Frances- I agree, felt is the best. We'll be making some more felt things for the bottom of the tree, the rest have had to migrate upwards. I like the walnut idea, but they're too yummy for me to sacrifice as an ornament.
Nola- Pink flamingos sound cute. I saw a cinnamon ornament on the tree in my daughter's room today. I may have to make some of those.
Raquel- Thanks! You should see the new ornaments we will be adding. I think I will have them make their teachers an ornament too, I know I loved getting them from my students.
Dawn- Thank you. I'm glad you stopped by. Christmas ornaments are some of my favorite things to make. We made some more that haven't been added to the tree yet too and we'll make some more this weekend.
I don't seem to have time to craft in the summer with all of the gardening that I do though.
What a beautiful Christmas tree you have, the ornaments are precious and wonderful. Thank you for sharing it's beauty.
Blessings,
Kathi :)
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