Looking for christmas ornament craft ideas :)

[abigailamy]

Hello!

With October 1st only two days away its hard to think about Christmas...but I'd really like to make christmas ornaments to give to people. Does anyone have any favorite ornament craft projects to suggest? I love to decoupage and I like paper crafts, but I also want to make an ornament that will be around for next year, something that has some permanence to it. Any ideas? :)

:) Abigail
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[udandi]

I was inspired by the stamped dominos thread to try it and I wrapped ribbon around it and left enough to tie a loop at the top so they could be ornaments.

They photo is in my album and on my blog.
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[jnaos]

I have a friend at work that has a little tree in her office. The little tree has little snowmen peanuts on it. The peanuts (real ones) are painted in a glittery white. If I had to guess I would say whitewash white and then layered with an iridescent glitter glue. The end of a toothpick was snipped off, painted orange for the nose (glued on) and a scrap piece of fabric was used for the scarf. Of couse dots of black paint for the eyes and mouth. Then a thin piece of wire was used for the hanger. It went inbetween the shells...these are VERY cute!

My sister likes to take the clear ornaments and do the paint inside of them. Those are fun to make too.

[ada]

Don't know if you can knit - or, more to the point, if you are happy with knitting on 3+ needles (I'm not... still have to overcome that mental barrier), but if you can I think these knitted snowflake stars are lovely:

http://65.254.41.66/SnowStar.htm

When I was young, I used to make eggshell ornaments - a bit time consuming, but fun. Basically, it's a shrine / diorama inside an empty eggshell.

First you need to blow out the egg (carefully!). Then snip a 'window' in the side of the egg (nailscissors are good). This is fiddly, to try get the edges not too rough - best to start smaller than you want it, and then tidy up the edges, which will make it larger. Then, put things inside - you could stick things on the 'wall' of the egg, or (what I used to do) make a 'floor' you can stick things into (I used to make this out of a thick paste of washing powder and glue and water... I'm sure there are less messy and smelly ways of doing this, though). Then you set things into the floor or glue them on - things like little figurines. The edge of the 'window' is invariably still rough - you can cover this up by gluing some kind of fabric edging over it - bits of lace, for example. Then run a string through the hole in the top of the egg to hang it up. Obviously you can't make the things inside the egg too heavy, else the hole in the top will give way. Still, eggs are strong.

Hmm, what else. Origami stars (or other shapes) are an obvious one. I've seen lovely handmade ornaments that are felt shapes stuffed slightly and embroidered. Erm. Go brain go! No, I think that's all I can think of for now.

[Miss M]

something with beads and wire to make a snowflake-type ornament? I know these can't be too difficult, but I have never actually gotten around to trying it.
Beaders - any tips, instructions or even better, photos?
BTW, the eggs sound v. interesting and amazing too I LOVE the idea!
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[teeny17]

hi! last year my mom made these cute ceramic stars at work (she's an art teachre at a detention centre, haha) all small, medium, and slightly larger, all with little hole at the top and bottom. She took them home and we painted some gold, some silver, and some copper. Most of you probably havea huge box of beads or something, and then you need wire, and pliars. You can get very creative with this and you'll find other variations to do this than what i can explain to you, and hopefully i can get a picture too. Ok well you take your wire and cut it to whatever length you like but keeping it fairly long because you'll be twisted the wire into vaious shapes and adding on the beads and stars. What I did was put the wire through the star and secure it, then add beads and twist the wire or add stars or whatever. Anyways, you probably get te idea that there is no right way to do this because you can get very creative and i'll tyr getting some pics up because they end up looking so dainty and cute on your tree!

[acebeader]

A few years ago, for my co-workers, I made some Pot-Pourri (sp?) ornaments that were cute. I just bought the clear glass balls with removable tops, and bought Christmas Pot-Pourri and stuffed it in there, with a little glitter. It was time consuming, but pretty inexpensive, and pretty.

Some beading/craft stores actually sell the metal snowflake shapes, which are very easy, because you just slide the beads on and crimp the ends. They turn out gorgeous!

[CraftinFool]

2 I made last year that were fun and simple were cinnamon glue ornaments (I added cardamon for extra scenty goodness) and also taking styrofoam balls and covering them in glue and then rolling them in dried lavender.

[breewell]

We made these wine bottle cork reindeer back when I was a girl guide, and mine still hangs on my tree (it even made the trip cross country and cross border). although, if you make too many, people do start to ask questions ;-)
You use 5 corks for the body, neck, head and 2 legs, 3 chunks of cork for the ears and tail, some fabric for the saddle blanket, 2 google eyes, and a red fuzzy ball for the nose. Glue them together in the most convincingly reindeerish way, tie some fishing line around the base of the neck and voila! They're cute, yet suggestive of your culturedness (if the corks are from fancy wine of course!)
I guess I shouldn't use this for the ornament exchange now... : )
Have fun,
Bree

[kindarana]

No way, Bree, I would totally want one! Bummer I'm not in your group :(

I've been plumb out of ideas for the exchange, so please keep going - I promise not to just copy a single idea though :)

[abigailamy]

Wow! You guys can come up with such cool ideas! My head is spinning like a cartoon character! :) I think I'm thinking about looking into those beaded snowflakes - but those peanuts sound really really cute too. And that reindeer of corks.

I've done origami stars and I want to get some fancy paper this year and make some for the tree. There is a star you make with two pieces of paper, I don't know if this is the star you guys are referring to... or another one?

Bree - what ornament exchange? I hope I'm not butting into something....is this a getcrafty exchange? Has everyone signed up or are you still accepting people? :)

:) Abigail
_________________
author of GiftWrapGoddessWraps & Journal Seeds zines - both @ yahoo! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GiftWrapGoddessWraps/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/journalseeds/
"Follow your bliss" - Joseph Campbell

[Em Bee]

I've been making salt dough ornaments for the last couple of years. Found a good recipe for the dough in Rose's Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

The dough needs to rest overnight, then baked at very low temps. Items can bubble, especially if the dough was rolled thick. After baking, it usually takes a week (or two) to finish drying & hardening.

Instead of using the templates she provides (for a Nativity scene - I'll do that one day!), I use cookie cutters. Then I paint with craft acrylics and coat with a clear spray acrylic. Glitter, all kinds of stuff works on these!

In addition to paint, I've also decorated with paper - made Hawaiian shirts & mummus for bear ornaments from origami paper. One tip, I always paint the base coat onto the back of the ornament, so I can add my name & the year in pen.

[breewell]

Oops! I just remembered the ornaments I made my mother-in-law last christmas...

I bought plain glass ball ornaments from a big craft store (is it Michael's or something?)
and then poured a little sand in the bottom*, stuck in about 6-8 assorted tiny shells and I was done! I paired it with a mini fishing-net-float**. My MIL loved them because she loves the Jersey Shore and it remided her of the beach even though it was cold and blustery out.

*regular sand and shells would be more romantic, but I used the sand you buy for model railroads, and shells from the store, because I didn't want any kind of organisms crawling around in the ornament since it was the first time I gave her a gift on my own I couldn't afford any screw ups!

**a 2 inch version of the green or blue glass balls they used to attach to fishing nets to keep them afloat, the ones at the craft store even had twine woven around them, like these: http://www.cyberbeach.net/~dknetzke/collection_f
loats.htm but the ones my parents used to find floating in the ocean near Vancouver when I was a kid were at least 1 foot across

These are pretty fragile so they wouldn't ship too well.

Have fun,
Bree

[happydaisydoo]

I make a different ornament each year for my family and friends. I have been doing it for about 8 years, so I have lots of books and sets of instructions. The following are just a few ideas that I have used in the past. I'll try to put together other sets of instructions over the weekend and post them. Good luck!

Felt Ornaments
Supplies:
felt
Christmas Shape Templates
pinking shears
Embroidery Floss
Buttons
Batting (optional)

Cut front and back of Christmas shape out of felt and pink the edges. If you choose to add batting, place it between the pieces. Stitch around edges with contrasting embroidery floss. Embellish with buttons. Add hanger with ribbon or embroidery floss.

Beaded Stars
Supplies:
Assorted glass or plastic beads (anything except pony beads will do)
18 or 20 gauge wire (you will have to decide which works best)
ribbon

Cut a length of wire and loop the end. Load it up with beads leaving about 1/2" bare. (8" will make a small star) Loop bare section through looped end and secure. You should have a circle. Bend circle into star shape (or leave a circle and have a bead wreath!) The wire should be fairly easy to manipulate into the shape you like. When you are pleased with the shape, tie ribbon around the wire loops to disguise them and then loop the ribbon up to make a hanger. Hot glue sometimes helps to hide the wire.

Marble ornaments
Supplies:
craft marbles (the kind that go in the bottom of vases)
26-28 gauge wire

Cut 6 lengths of wire 6-8" long. Lay them out in a an asterik pattern with the center of each wire intersecting. Place a marble over the center and gather the wire up around it, encasing the marble in the wire. Twist the wire on top of the marble to secure. Spread the wires out and add another marble and repeat until you are happy with the design. Take the remaining wire

[happydaisydoo]

Whoops! I've clearly had one too many glasses of wine!

The last line of my instructions is:

Take the remaining wire and twist it into a loop for hanging.

Sorry!!