# Let's share ideas



## CraftyDiva (Aug 26, 2003)

Don't know if anyone else makes thier own ornaments for the Christmas tree or not. But, if you do, how about filling in the rest of us on what your doing or have done.

Mine, this year I'm taking old globe/ball ornies and doctoring them up a bit. So far I've taken plain globes and added glitter dots. Just apply a dot of glue in a pattern and then add your glitter to them. I used micro glitter, it seems to have more sparkle then the regular, and really catches the light.

Also, took some fabric paints (puffy) in metalics (gold, silver, copper) did squiggly lines all over and then added plastic jewels here and there.

Right now I'm looking at some really old satin balls that have seen better days and trying to figure out what I can do. Glueing different ribbons in mixed colors is all I've got so far. 

So........ anyone playing with Christmas ornaments ?

Let's hear what you got going on.  


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

CraftyD, If you come upwith something for the satin balls, PLEASE post. I've got some really pathetic looking ones that have "waste basket" written all over them.

Going to have to dig out the ornaments soon, so I'll put up a couple of pictures of some.

old glass ornaments get sand in them and swirled until the silver inside is gone, and then they're a nice transparent color. sometimes I put that fluffly opalescent snow stuff in them. sometimes I paint them

I've purchased the plain glass balls and painted with glass paints or acrylics. Wreaths, trees, scenes, santas, stars. 

gingerbread men/women/whatever cookies as ornaments on tree and garlands. that's always cool. can't keep them for next year tho. (besides, they get eaten off the tree!)

Stained glass angels and simple shapes as ornaments. 

origami shapes. both the simple forms, and those you fold multiple forms together to make a ball or octagon or box shape...metallic and colored paper.

you know....I just thought...after taking the silver out of the ornament, you could put tiny scenes in them maybe. .... boy. would that take patience. okay. scratch that idea.  How about just filling with colorful jelly beans! or those small pom poms? I think I might try that!

anyone ever used old ornaments around lights? I'm thinking of trying that, but not sure they can handle the heat generated...and how do you attach them?


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## Simpler Times (Nov 4, 2002)

If the satin ones are on styrofoam balls how about felting nicely colored wool on the outsides and covering up the silk entirely. You could also use them as body components in angels, animals, etc. Just pin the balls together and cover the new "sculpture" with felting or whatever. Another idea is to slice the balls into sections, spread them out and pin together to make a star. No sense wasting all those balls!


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## CraftyDiva (Aug 26, 2003)

Well I tried a few different ideas with the satin balls. First, glued ribbon all around, then took the curling ribbon and made some curly clumps and glued those to the top and let the curls hang down (bad idea).

Then I tried gluing yarn, starting at the top and working around to the bottom, okay if your really trying to save these. But not for me.

Next, I took stick pins and some cheap plastic beads and tried stickig those into the ball. Now this I can handle, it started to look pretty good, then my fingers gave out (ouch, pushing those pins in). Might look into using hot glue instead, should go faster. Might try some pearls I have from old jewelry (garage sale items)

My next idea is to just cover the balls in glitter and call it a day.  Will see how this turns out. 

If your looking for a homey decoration, glue small squares of fabric and make them into quilt ornies. Everyone has scraps laying around.

If you want to remove the mirror paint from old scratched ornies, soak them in some bleach water for about an hour. Paint comes right off and you have clear balls to play with (does that sound right, where's the blushing icon?)

You can add family pictures inside the clear ornies (much better) and have a "family tree".

That's about it for now, still wearing my thinking cap, so you never know.  
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## ovsfarm (Jan 14, 2003)

For the satin ornaments, what about this? My Mom has a wooden trencher full of ball shapes that have frayed-edged homespun fabric wrapped around them to cover the ball. It is a very primitive look, but might be yet another way to recycle those old silkies.

I am busy hand felting small trees, stockings, Santa hats, stars, and snowmen for a small, local craft show in December. I will sew or glue on various little embellishments and sell them for around $3 each (I sincerely hope!)

My 9yo dd has made some cute little poinsettias with those plastic Perler beads that you have to iron to melt together. You can also do those as hollow shapes and use them as mini picture frames-cut ornaments or package tags.

I'm off to buy the Thanksgiving meal basics. Wish me luck!


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## CraftyDiva (Aug 26, 2003)

Satin ball become snowballs. Take some white paint, mix in some Borax (enough to make it a rough textured paint), Maybe sand would work too. Paint the satin balls, they are now snowballs. Dust with glitter to give them that snow in the moonlight look. A little red bow at the top to hang and that's all she wrote. Done. 


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## Billie in MO (Jun 9, 2002)

I make cross stitch ornaments for the family. I add their name on it and the year, a piece of ribbon for the hanger and back it with same thread count material and put a little stuffing in it. Have tried to discontinue the practice but the family rebels. They look forward to their "name tag" on their gift.

Have done small clear glass balls for myself with sand from three different beaches I went to in Hawaii. Did those for my mom(we used to live in Hawaii before it was a state!!) and one of Bill's neice's.

My own tree (which hasn't been up in 7 years and sadly, won't be again this year) is decorated with mostly southwest/Indian/western items. I look for small ornaments as ours is a pencil tree. Whenever we travel I look for out of the ordinary items to use. It was pretty well full last time it was up and I think I've only gotten maybe 3-4 new ornaments that haven't been on it yet.


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## cc (Jun 4, 2006)

I am making some felt stars with sequins sewn on them. I am packing to move the middle of December (or before) so I just wanted something that I could do at night and that I could put in a small box or basket to take with me. I was going to make some cinnamon dough ornaments but that isn't a "take along" kinda thing.


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## dale anne (Apr 28, 2004)

Howdy as far as satin balls go I have used the old one with the stryafoam in them and beaded them after cutting off the strays i took water down kids school glue and painted it on to keep anymore from getting frizzled...and then took i think was 2 inch flat head straight pins...sequin color of choice....a bead of your color choice[cheap plastic] and ribbon.....ran the ribbon from top to bottom glued....then ran the ribbon again from top to bottom...making 4 ALMOST.... perfect sections[i am not perfect ya know]....put a bead on the pin first then the sequin so that the sequin is on the bottom.....i beaded between all the ribbon...in sections.....they came out really nice...then on some i took a longer 4 inch straight pin...some facy larger beads and pushed it thru the bottom of the ball to make a sort of finial...PS will have to use the shorter pin to hold ribbons on where they cross in middle as you work on them...Pull out the hanger[lil plastic thing on top........replace afterwards trimming the ribbon so you can replace it and use lots of glue as some of the balls can get heavy after beading......hope this helps...dale anne


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## dale anne (Apr 28, 2004)

My homemade tree for next year will be made of paper dolls and paper doll items such as clothing...lil toys and stuff...This year i am doing 4 trees...but the fun one will be in grandsons room...I bought tons of cars and trucks like the hotwheels all year long and I am wrapping up each one and placing them on the tree like you would ornaments...the tree will be tied and fastened to the wall so that he can undecorate his tree on Christmas......next years grandchils tree like I said will have the paper dolls....I printed free paper dolls from the web...cut them out...well most anyways......i am going to use them round circle paper supports ya use for loose leaf paper in school and punch a hole near top of doll or paper doll toy so on.....put the paper support over it on both sides so it doesnt rip...I am using good card stock paper for the dolls.....I will mark the back of doll with a acid free pen with the name and a number...i will also mark the outfits that go along with her with the same number.....I am also leaving some of these uncut so that when my grandgal gets old enough we can sit down christmas night and cut out and play with some of these....The lil things that come with the paper dolls such as teddy bears...bikes.....toys [the minis] I am going to pierce with a sewing needle and string with fishing line after i spray them with that plastic coat stuff...between the minis will be them cheap little plastic red beads..this i will use as garland for the tree....I also plan to make a book so that i can store each doll[uncut] and pictures for every year we use the paper doll tree..I think it will be great for grandgal to look at when she is a mother herself and Me-Maw is long gone.....I also hope that these dolls will last so that she may put them on her tree some day.......dale anne...


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## shepmom (May 29, 2003)

I'm adding amigurumi ornaments, elves, penguin,snowman/woman,jolly red suited man(santa, grin) and may add some felted balls. I have an eclectic tree of ornaments. Still love my critters from CJ. (ducks,hair sheep,pig,etc)
Diana


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## AR Transplant (Mar 20, 2004)

I did this for my son's wedding and they were a hit. I took clear glass balls and shredded paper the color of the wedding into strips about 1/4th an inch wide and 6 inches long. On my printer I printed their names and the date of their wedding . I cut those printed pieces into one long strip and stuck it inside the clear glass ball, then I filled it up with the colored paper making sure you could still read the names and date of the wedding. I put the top back on the ball and put a tiny fringe around it in matching colors. Every one loved the idea of having a Christmas ornament to put on their tree to remember the wedding.
After that I did an ornament for my daughter in her wedding colors also.

I also bought a huge ball and hung it at a baby shower with blank strips beside it. Guests wrote a blessing for the baby on the strip and signed it. At the end of the shower I put them all in the ball and the mother hung it in her nursery. I used the colors to coordinate with her baby's room. 

I think you could do this for graduations, or anniversarys, or just about anything. They were a great and pretty inexpensive gift to hand out at my son's rehersal dinner.


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## CraftyDiva (Aug 26, 2003)

These are ornament covers made on a sewing machine, but if you crochet I can't see why you couldn't adapt the idea. Or just buy some inexpensive lace and work with that.











How to on machine..........................

http://www.emblibrary.com/EL/elproj...tID=PR1203&CS_Category=&CS_Catalog=Elprojects


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

dang those are pretty. would look great on a Victorian theme tree. I have a TON of old lace....I wonder if I can cut and piece together to make covers. 

thanks for the post!


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## hoggie (Feb 11, 2007)

Afraid I can't come up with any amazing original ideas - but I am REALLY enjoying sharing all of yours 

There are some great ideas here. If i EVER finish making our Christmas cards (hope to have them all made by 1st Dec) then hopefully DD and I might try some of these 

hoggie


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## CraftyDiva (Aug 26, 2003)

Not crazy about the lace covers?

Well there's always beaded covers.

How to...............
http://www.rubysbeadwork.com/RedOrnament.html

Check out her Christmas album for examples of more beaded covers. Bottom of page

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## GrannyG (Mar 26, 2005)

A clear glass ball, a beautiful white fluffy chicken feather, some sprinkles of glitter, and attach a copy of the Angel Feather Poem.

I am an angel feather,
sent from God above
To serve as a reminder to you,
of His precious love
I'm from your guardian angel
that God assigned to you
And fell out in her struggles
as she protected you.
Each time you almost stumble
each time you nearly fall
Thank god and all his angels
for answering your call.

I buy cheap old glass balls, fill them with hot water, soap, and a little Clorox, put them outside and let them sit a day or so, then rinse them out and wash them again. Beautiful clear Christmas balls to reuse. You can fill them with new paints and swirl them and let them dry or make other ornaments from them. I have dried rose petals all summer, filled them with rose petals, add some rose oil, and they make the tree and house smell so good.Tie the tops with beautiful thin red satin ribbons, too.


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## peacebaker (Dec 30, 2005)

Anybody know how to make the german ornaments made from straw?

Here's some on etsy (that I think I might order, LOL)

german ornaments 

I love this style of ornament, and others made out of natural materials--I end up getting them at the fair trade store this time of year, but it would be fun to make them too...


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## CraftyDiva (Aug 26, 2003)

peacebaker said:


> Anybody know how to make the german ornaments made from straw?
> 
> Here's some on etsy (that I think I might order, LOL)
> 
> ...


Have no idea how these are made. If your really interested in buying some, I just saw them on eBay. Box of over 50 straw ornaments with an opening bid of $18.99. no bids yet............................

http://stores.ebay.com/Heritagestuff_Other_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ1QQftidZ2QQtZkm




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## Wendy (May 10, 2002)

My 8 year old took some wooden gift tags & stamped some Christmas stamps on them & then colored them with markers. She sold quite a few at a craft show over the weekend. I'll try to get some pictures to post.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

peacebaker said:


> Anybody know how to make the german ornaments made from straw?
> 
> Here's some on etsy (that I think I might order, LOL)
> 
> ...


found a couple of sites for you. the second, in particular, has instructions for basic. it's a link from the first site.

straw guild...lots of info and links:
http://www.strawcraftsmen.co.uk/index.html 
http://www.strohsterne-dietz.de/e_index.html


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## peacebaker (Dec 30, 2005)

Wow--thanks! Those links are great!


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## Shepherd (Jan 23, 2005)

I use the glass ornaments and decorate them with colored satin ribbons, flowers and strings of tiny beads, gluing into place with a hot glue gun.

I also make victorian style ornaments from doillies (you can use paper doillies too) in a similar manner.










Cross stitched victorian ornaments are lovely, but somewhat time consuming. 










In the past, I've painted 1 inch square wooden blocks with red or green glossy paint, then decorated the edges with little black or white dots (using toothpicks) and hand painted "I {heart symbol} Daddy" (Mommy, Bailey, Larry, etc.). I used to find those miniature teddy bears and sometimes would glue those to the top of the square, hanging with satin ribbon. If I think of it, I'll take a picture when we get our ornaments out and post it.

Using poinsettas as ornaments wrapped with Christmas ribbons make a really pretty Christmas tree ornament too. They're great if you find yourself low on ornaments because they fill up a bigger space, yet make your tree look very pretty. We had this dilemna when we got a larger tree and the ornaments we had just weren't enough (caught me by surprise).

You can decorate your Christmas gifts to others with an ornament instead of a bow and the recipient will have a new decoration to add to their tree. My family members look forward to this every year because they know they'll be getting another ornament to add to their collection.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

very pretty cross stitch ornaments there! (i can't cross stitch to save my life, but I do a mean needlepoint).

Those fans are um..., fantastic. My trees usually are very Victorian oriented and that's a GREAT addition. The Pointsettias are a wonderful idea, too. I was doing the DUH thing as I read your post about that. It's something I would NEVER have thought of. but now...I can see both white and red pointsettia flowers gracing my tree..maybe with trailing gold gauze ribbons spiraling down from them.


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## Shepherd (Jan 23, 2005)

Ann, here's a pic of the tree with the poinsettas (I was in the middle of decorating the tree at the time so everything was messy).


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## Penny-Ontario (Oct 20, 2007)

What a great bunch of pictures and ideas!!


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