Friday, November 19, 2010

Handmade Holiday: Ornaments

I love Christmas tree ornaments. I love taking them out of storage and examining each of them, placing them on the tree one by one, gifting them, making them, and collecting them.
They are such a huge part of the holidays - for me anyway.

Every year on Christmas Eve my brothers and I would open up a single gift which was always a pair of pajamas topped with a dated ornament. When each of us was married and moving into our own family home, we were given our ornaments collected through the years. It certainly was a nice little start for us, and decorating our tree is filled with precious memories from our childhood.
This tradition is definitely one to be carried on. I can't quite remember Levi's ornament last year, but this year I have sewn him a rocking horse from a 1983 Creative Circle pattern that was my mom's. My mom has made several from the patterns in this package.



Almost done! A few more stitches, attaching the reigns, and of course a ribbon for hanging.

Tree decorations are such a simple (usually), and fun project to add that little something something to the top of a present, or they make a great gift on their own. I generally love to top as many gifts as I can with one.

Sometimes I'll buy existing ceramic or wood cut-out decorations and paint them. It is one of the easiest things and you can often pick the ornaments up on a crazy post-holiday sale.



My next ornament I am planning on making is a holly hobby style one that has always hung on the Christmas tree at my mom's house. I took a photo of it which is floating around somewhere and I also drew a little picture of it so I have the general idea. It is a basic ornament so it shouldn't take too long, and yet it's these mini-projects we embark on -because we think they will be quick and easy- that tend to soak up a great deal of time.

One year I went mental on the origami paper for everything, and decoupaged these using existing papier mache type ornaments I grabbed on the extreme cheap.



Here are a couple I made just this past week. A quilt block which took surprisingly long, and a small felt one to be gifted.



A small accomplishment on my list of handmade items for this holiday.
xo

2 comments:

  1. Looks like you have been busy. Good job! I think the rocking horse looks better than the old one. Love the quilted one and the felt tree.

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  2. We put up our Christmas tree this week, with at least two beautiful "Janie-created" ornaments adorning the branches!

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