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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

30

Our Crafty Christmas Ornaments!

Finally!  Two weeks later I am back to share with you how we created and crafted many of the ornaments on our tree this year!  Can I get a WaHoo?!

If you recall, I shared our Christmas tree and I let y'all know that we made almost every ornament on the tree.  It was our challenge to ourselves this year, and the kids joined in on the fun, making all sorts of great memories along the way.


The goal was to create a plethora of random and vibrant ornaments, each one unique.  The other goal was to keep it simple and easy enough for anyone in the family to do.  Mission accomplished!  We all crafted the weekend away, even the hubs joined in on the fun!

If you follow me on Instagram, you may recall the pretty sight of the projecting in action:


I am here today to share some of our favorites out of the 50+ ornaments we popped onto the tree this year.


Aren't they so pretty?!


Here are some of the main items we used to get our crafting on:


All of the items were purchased from Michaels for the Dream Tree Challenge.  Here is a closer look at each one:


1 - Clear acrylic bulbs, 2 - Craft paint in a pearl finish
3 - Martha Stewart screen printing kit, 4 - Hot glue gun, 5 - Mod Podge
6 - Border paper punch, 7 - Adhesive ribbon, 8 - Paper punches
9 - Rhinestone alphabet stickers, 10 - Twine, 11 - Adhesive dots
12 - Large adhesive glitter dots, 13 - Brads, 14 - Beads
15 - Decorative foam ball vase filler, 16 - Glitter tape
17 - Confetti glitter, 18 - Adhesive pearl banding

Some of the other supplies I used were craft glue, yarn, jewelry wire, needle and thread and pretty snowflake stickers.

And here are the ornaments now with quick tutorial for each below:


  1. Fill the bulb with water and then empty it.  Pour in the confetti glitter and roll it around within the bulb.  The glitter will stick to the bulb where wet, and once the water completely dries, the confetti will stay stuck to the bulb.
  2. Thread small beads onto thin jewelry wire.  Use a small dab of hot glue at top and wind strand of beads around the ornament.  Add another dab of hot glue at the bottom to secure the strand.
  3. Stick happy sparkly snowflake stickers randomly on the bulb.
  4. Follow the directions on the silk screening package.  Use a pearly glass craft paint and the squeegee to apply the paint over the silk screen onto the bulb.  The silk screen sticks to the bulb {I had to make small slits in the screen to have it wrap around the curves of the bulb}.  Peel away the screen to reveal a pretty snowflake!
  5. Find gems in the jewelry section of the craft store and use hot glue to stick them to the bulb.
  6. Apply brightly colored adhesive dots to the bulb in a fun pattern.
  7. Stick the adhesive sparkle dots in a random pattern on the bulb.
  8. Fill the bulb with pearly craft paint, swirl and empty.  Pop a sticker snowflake to the front to finish it off!
  9. Use a paper punch to punch decorative stickers from the roll of glitter tape.  Stick randomly around the bulb.
  10. Use the rhinestone alphabet stickers to spell out holiday themed words and phrases such as "Joy" and "Peace".
  11. Cover half of the ornament in craft glue.  Wrap with yarn from top to middle.  Cover second half with craft glue and wrap with yarn from bottom to middle.
  12. Stick the adhesive sparkle dots in a zig zag pattern around the bulb.
  13. Use the paper border punch to punch a pattern out of the glitter tape and wrap it around the bulb.
  14. Use sticky ribbon to wrap around the outside of the bulb.
  15. Fill ornaments with fun objects, such as leftover glitter foam vase filler.
A few other easy peasy ornaments:


We found a small wooden letter "J" which I wrapped with twine, using small dabs of hot glue along the way to keep it secure.


Use a paper punch to create snowflakes out of brightly colored card stock.  Use small amounts of Mod Podge to attach the snowflakes around the bulb.


Use strips of adhesive pearls and rhinestones to wrap around the outside of the bulb.


To make the garland, we purchased 4 bags of foam glitter ball vase filler.  Using a needle and thread, we strung the vase filler, piece by piece.  It turned out to be our favorite part of the whole tree!

And last but not least... Mix & Match!  We did many of the same techniques on multiple bulbs, just mixing and matching colors, stickers, ribbons and punches.  

So there you have it!  Our crafty and colorful Christmas tree!

And for all of you mommies out there wondering where all of those fantastically created kid ornaments are, we have an annual tradition of letting the kids hang all of their handmade ornaments from years past, on the tree on Christmas Eve.  

Anyone else DIY all or some of their tree decor this year?  How about favorite decorating traditions you do from year to year?


30 comments:

  1. Oh I love all these ornaments. I especially love that you used punches with decorative tape! I did a lot of DIY decorations, but not for the tree. Your tree is beautiful!

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  2. Love your tree. There is nothing better than ornaments that carry memories!

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  3. That's it! I'm making our own ornaments next year! ;) These look amazing and I know your boys had an awesome time creating them.

    http://www.domesticblissdiaries.com

    GOD BLESS!

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  4. These are lovely.
    J
    http://lifelovesand.blogspot.ie/

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  5. It's wonderful how you included your boys in on the fun! You certainly are making great memories. It all looks wonderful!

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  6. Oh I love the garland, and the idea of doing an all diy ornament tree, it is so pretty.

    Lisa

    Creative Raisins

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  7. Beautiful tree Jen - I especially love that garland! xx

    Anna (My Design Ethos)

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  8. I love the idea of one of a kind ornanments. But I wanted to ask, I assume you also have ornanments from other years as well. Whats your plan for following years, since you ahve 50 of them plus all the others and im sure you would want to make some more- thats a lot of ornanments! Guess im just curious to know...and also where do you store them all? I love your blog...keep up the awesome work!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Melissa!
      You can read all about how we store our ornaments and decor here: http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/2012/01/iheart-our-holiday-storage.html?m=1

      Since majority of the new DIY ornaments are plastic, we may just pop them in a bin, but I will keep previous ones as well since we change up our decor from year to year. Plus, ornaments make great vase fillers, garland and wreaths! :)

      xo,
      Jen

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  9. The tree looks so pretty and the ornaments came out beautiful! What a wonderful job you all did.. Memories for years to come :)
    Robyn

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  10. Fabulous! Well done beautiful family project!

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  11. I was curious, actually, how much all the clear ornaments + the craft accessories cost you? I know all that stuff isn't cheap, as fun as it may be to create.

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    1. The acrylic ornaments were .50 each, and the craft supplies are ones I typically have on hand or only run a few dollars each. We figure it was far less to create our own with different ideas vs purchasing the pretty ones at the store. Plus, it created family memories and allowed us to customize the decor to our taste. Win win! :)

      xo,
      Jen

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  12. Jen, your tree is fantastic. I love that all the ornaments are different and handmade. What a wonderful family bonding experience this must have been:)

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  13. I wish I had seen this before I made my hour long drive to Michael's today. :( What fun you must have had with your boys. They must be very proud....every ornament is beautiful! Did you find those neat little ornament hangars at Michael's too? Looks like it would be difficult for the ornaments to fall from the tree.

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  14. So clever! It looks wonderful & I bet the kids were very proud of themselves. Well done!

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  15. Gorgeous tree! We made a few of our ornaments this year ourselves. Bought clay at Hobby Lobby and we shapped our own Santas, Christmas Trees, Footballs, Owls, etc. Once cured we had a ball painting them all! Looking forward to pulling them out in the future and remembering our special time!

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  16. Did you make the lovely wrapped Christmas trees at the base of your real tree too?! Those are SO sweet and simple and pretty! (Btw, I would have milked this for all it was worth and written about each ornament separately... each one is it's own amazing craft project!!!) Thanks for the ideas!
    Charlotte
    www.ciburbanity.com

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  17. Love all of your handmade ornaments. We are going to try to make some of these.

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  18. Love them all!!! We made a bunch this year too, and it was so much fun. It's hard to not get carried away...and yikes is it messy!!!

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  19. Oh my, I love this tree! Those ornaments are absolutely GORGEOUS. Love the colors and the fact that your boys were so into it!!

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  20. Love these ideas! Although there is no budget this year for tree decor, I will file away for next year. And I love the idea of hanging all the kid handmade ornaments on Christmas Eve. Great idea!

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  21. My favorite part has got to be the garland! It is so gorgeous!!! Seriously, great ideas!

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  22. These ornaments are absolutely AMAZING!!! I love them. Your tree looks fabulous!! Thanks so much for sharing how you created some these great decorations.

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  23. Beautiful tree! I love the glittery foam balls--they are cute. I'm going to have to run to Michael's and find some! Making homemade ornaments is such a great way to create lasting family memories--great post!

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  24. What wonderful memories of togetherness for your family, Jen.

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  25. Last Christmas my best friend gave me a really nice wooden Christmas ornament. It had my name and a picture of a reindeer engraved on it. It was super cool and I found out that a firm out in Colorado called Unique Custom Products made it. I am considering ordering from them this year...check them out if you like wooden items www.uniquecustomproducts.com

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