12 Ornaments of Christmas | Bead Happily Ever After

12 Ornaments of Christmas – Part 7

Posted on November 18, 2009 by crystal

I have a riddle for you! 🙂

What do you get when you take this . . .

And add it to this?

Answer: A unique handmade Christmas ornament! 😉

The 7th ornament in this series is a little wooden sled that I’ve decorated with a small piece of cross stitch – but you could choose any number of other ways to embellish it including a crocheted motif, or embroidery, sewing, pieced felt, papercrafts, or even decorative painting. The idea is to use a winter or holiday item, like the sled, and decorate it in an unusual way to create a very special ornament!

Supplies:

small wooden sled (available at craft stores)
tiny cross stitched design of your choice
scrap of felt for hat
small beads (seed beads for hat, 4mm bead for pom pom)
glittered ribbon cord for hanger and bow
small piece of decorative braid or trim
tacky glue

Directions:

You’ll notice my sled has been stained and painted – which is NOT necessary. Leaving it natural is perfectly fine, or you may decide to paint your sled a bright color.

Stitch the design of your choice in cross stitch.

Lay the finished stitching on the table face-up. Place the sled (seat side down) on top of the stitching. Be sure it is centered and trace around the sled (directly onto the fabric) so that you will have the traced outline as a cutting guide.

Cut on the line and after placing a thin layer of tacky glue on the top of the sled, attach the stitching to it. Press firmly and allow to dry.

Use a piece of cord to make a “pulling rope” for the sled.

Optional:

I made a hat for the penguin by cutting a small triangle of felt and sewing it in place. I folded the top corner over and attached a crystal pom pom and a few seed beads for sparkle!

I decided that the cross stitch design could use a border of some kind. Since I didn’t have any suitable decorative trim on hand, I took a piece of the glittered ribbon cord and crocheted a “chain” to glue around the edges of the sled. A small bow in the lower left corner was the finishing touch.

You’ll have lots of your own ideas, of course, but I hope this will inspire you to look around for something you have there right now, that could be used to make a unique ornament. 😀

12 Ornaments of Christmas – Part 6

Posted on November 6, 2009 by crystal

Part 6 in this series is technically not an ornament but an ornament hanger! Actually, they’re so pretty; they could almost stand alone as ornaments if you wish. 🙂

But imagine how dazzling your tree would look if you used a bunch of these little sparklers to hang your ornaments!

And talk about quick and easy! I made them in just a few minutes.

Supplies Needed:

1. A few pretty beads!

2. Medium gauge wire

3. Pliers

4. Wire cutters.

Directions:

1. Use wire cutters to cut a 5″ piece of wire. (You may decide you want your finished piece to be smaller. In that case, experiment with shorter lengths of wire until you arrive at the size you like best.)

2. With pliers, make a flat spiral shape on one end of the wire. (See photo for guidance.)

3. Next, thread your beads onto the wire in a pleasing arrangement.

4. Finally, bend the top of the wire to form a small loop, and then wrap the rest of the wire around a pen to form a “hook” shape. (Again, refer to the photo.)

That’s it – all ready for the tree!

Perfect for gifts, too!!! If you’re giving a fancy glass ornament – make a lovely hanger to accompany it, or make a set of them for a teacher, hostess, or that “hard to buy for person” on your list. 🙂

12 Ornaments of Christmas – Part 5

Posted on October 30, 2009 by crystal

For Part 5 in my series of quick and easy ornaments, I have a little fabric pinwheel for you. This is a great way to use up any remnants of Christmas fabric in your stash. But even if you have to buy the material, it won’t cost very much because so little is needed. 🙂

Christmas Pinwheel

Supplies:

Fabric Remnants – Two Coordinating Christmas Prints (a 9″ by 9″ piece of each print will be easiest to work with and will make 4 ornaments.)

Fusible webbing (a piece that measures just under 9″ square)

Christmas buttons or decorative buttons – 5/8″ in diameter

Wooden dowel – about the thickness of a lollipop stick – available at most craft stores

Thread, needle, pinking shears, and regular scissors

Gold Cord or fishing line for hanger

Gather your supplies . . .

I found some cute Christmas buttons!

Directions:

Cut a square of fusible webbing (a little less than 9″ by 9″) and sandwich it between your two Christmas prints. Both prints should be wrong sides together with the webbing in between.

Using an iron, press your “sandwich” of fabrics and webbing together, following directions which come with the webbing.

Lightly trace a 4″ square in one corner of your “sandwich”, and cut it out with pinking shears.

At one corner of your square (using regular scissors) snip in towards the center – but do NOT go all the way! Leave about 1/2″ uncut. Repeat this step for the other 3 corners of the square.

Snip corner

Corners can now be easily be turned over.

Using a doubled piece of thread, take a stitch through the center of the square from front to back. Bring the needle back to the front staying very close to the center of the square. Next you will be forming the pinwheel. With the square flat in front of you, pick up the right corner on one side, fold it over so that its point touches the center of the square, and stitch the point down. Turn the square, and take the right corner of the second side, and stitch it to the center on top of the previous corner that you just stitched. Repeat until all four corners are attached to the center of the square.

The pinwheel is taking shape!

Attach a button to the center to hide all your stitching. Cut the dowel to the desired length and whipstitch (or glue) to the back of the pinwheel.

Use a piece of gold cord or fishing line to make a hanger for you new ornament!

All finished 😀

12 Ornaments of Christmas – Pt. 4

Posted on October 23, 2009 by crystal

Is it Friday, already? Wow, that was fast! OK then, for this week’s Friday Favorites, we have the 4th ornament in the series: “12 Ornaments of Christmas”. 😀

As you all know, there are lots of wonderful ideas for handmade ornaments out there. Some of them are incredibly detailed and take hours to make. I love that kind, and I’ve made a bunch of beautiful but labor-intensive ornaments over the years.

Sometimes though (especially if you want to make several new ornaments this season) it’s “Cute, Quick, and Easy” that you need! My goal for this series is to give you some choices that you can squeeze into your busy schedule while you’re doing all the things you usually do!

“Ribbon Candy”

When I was a little kid, I was fascinated with ribbon candy! It was so pretty and colorful and the peppermint flavor was my favorite. This ornament takes me right back to the time when I was a wide-eyed child, mesmerized with the colorful lights, the smells, the flavors, and the wonder of Christmas.

With a few simple steps, you can make your own “Ribbon Candy” ornament. Whether you put it on the tree or dangle a few of them in different colors, and at different lengths, from the ceiling or a light fixture, I bet you’ll receive compliments!

Ribbon Candy Ornament

Supplies for one ornament:

Wired Ribbon with Stripes, 1-1/2” wide, 1 yard
Ten Faux Pearls (8mm)
Quilting thread
Tacky gel glue or “Fray Check”
Sharp Needle that will easily pass through the hole in the pearl

Directions:

Quick Note: I found it helpful to pre-shape the ribbon ahead of time in order to estimate where the soft folds would fall on the piece of candy. In that way, I had a pretty good sense of how the finished piece would shape-up before I began to actually “sew” the folds in place.

1. Using a long piece of doubled knotted thread and the photo as a guide (Click on it for a closer look.), stitch thru the center of one end of the ribbon candy and then string the first pearl. (The pearls help to keep the folds of the candy slightly separate.)

2. Next, take a stitch through the center of the first rounded loop of the candy and then thread another pearl.

3. Continue in this manner until you have 5 loops on each side and have used all ten pearls. Your thread should now be coming out of the other end of the candy. Cut away any excess ribbon at this point. This will be the top of the ornament.

4. Pull the thread with a light tension and take a couple of tiny stitches to secure, but don’t cut the thread just yet.

5. Separate the two pieces of thread and let them untwist. Once the ends have untwisted fully, tie a knot at the top – this is now your hanging loop.

6. Use a toothpick (or a pin) to apply a very thin line of glue to the very edges of the ribbon to prevent fraying.

7. Finished! Isn’t it cute?!

Maybe you’ll decide to experiment with wider or narrower ribbon, and/or substitute sparkling crystals for the pearls.

Have fun! 🙂

12 Ornaments of Christmas – Pt. 3

Posted on October 15, 2009 by crystal

The 3rd ornament in this series is a miniature winter hat! It measures just 2-1/2″ tall – so sweet!

Now please don’t worry if knitting isn’t your thing, because this will probably be the last knitted ornament that I present this year. I wanted to make it now while I still had my yarn and knitting needles handy, but next week I’ll be moving on to another craft. 🙂

Tiny Knit Hat with Tassel

So here we have another quick and easy design – only basic skills required. The pattern (found here) also includes several variations if you’d like more of a challenge. There’s an adorable Aran knit, for example.

In the interest of speed, I chose this striped style and then decided to add a tassel instead of the standard pom pom – just to shake things up a bit. 😉

A collection of these little hats would be darling on the tree, but they’d also make great package tie-ons or party favors. In the pattern photo, there’s even one “dressing-up” a gift bottle.

But then, you might have a mini bear who’d be delighted to keep snuggly warm this winter in a slightly over–sized hat!