Topic: Homemade Ornaments

[Triss]

I went thinner than 1/4"  probably more like 1/8".  Will go 1/4 on the next set.

[duh]

I like the egg ornaments.  Take an egg make a hole in the top and the bottom and then blow out the egg.  Then you can decorate the egg with sparkles, ribbons, bows or anything else you want.  Then insert a hook in the top and hang it on the tree.  These are great.

You can also make star ornaments using strips of paper and interweaving them into a star pattern.  These are great sprinkled with sparkles.

And if you can find the old clothespins that are wooden one piece ones they make fantastic angels or red riding hoods (green too lol).

And of course there are all the crocheted snowflakes, angels, and other decorations that can be done and then hardened with glue or starch.

And the sun catchers are good too.  Or the stained glass cookies make great ornaments also.

And you can make colored hard rock candy ice-cicles.

And lets not forget the cranberry or popcorn ropes for around the tree.

And although I wouldn't light them candle tapers can look really nice too.

also the styrofoam balls with pictures decopaged on them are great ornaments/momentos.

[duh]

And if we don't limit the topic to tree ornaments but add garlands, wreaths, window decorations, and all the rest the list is endless as to what can be used. 

[Patty S]

We've made egg ornaments for years, & some of them have been blue, so I used them in my blue & silver theme this year... even though some are sorta "out of place", cuz they have gold on them. BG has been working on this year's theme ornaments, off & on, since early summer.

     
Starting at the top left, is a Devil's Claw pod, then one with all blue glitter. Next, is a "Golden Snitch" on a sky-blue egg (from the "Quidditch" game, played in the Harry Potter stories), then an egg drum (with beer bottle caps for the top & bottom), followed by a blue & silver (sponge painted) egg, & a clear glass ball ornament that we stuffed metalic garland strings into.

The hard rock candy icicles sound like something that would fit in nicely with my theme this year, Duh. How are they made?

[patches]

And if you can find the old clothespins that are wooden one piece ones they make fantastic angels or red riding hoods

Duh, the wooden clothespins really make great reindeer ornaments too!     One year, I had my Girl Scouts make some and they were so cute!   

Patty, your egg ornaments are beautiful! I love the blue color on some of them.  What do you paint them with? 

[Patty S]

During the summer months, I'll let BG use latex house paints for crafts, but only outside ...especially if she has a friend over! With gloss or semigloss house paints, there's a better sheen to the finished product. Otherwise, we use tempra paints or acrylics. (I spray painted the Devil's Claw pods before hand, then BG & Diane put the glitter & ribbons on them.) For any metalic colors, I use model paints, but haven't included them in BG's craft supplies yet, as they're enamel, which means that it's nearly impossible to clean up spills & spatters.

Here's another ornament that we made a couple years ago, using a light bulb. (Keith recently got a little miffed at me for saving burned out light bulbs, but there are faces besides the Grinch that can be made with them... we just haven't gotten around to it yet!)
       
Green house paint, red & white acrylic paint & a black Sharpie marker were used on this one, with packaged fake snow for the rim of his hat, a white, sparkly pom pom for the top of the hat, & a section of an empty TP (or paper towel) roll, for his neck. Floral wire was used for the hook, which was wrapped around the threads of the bulb before painting.

[patches]

Patty, those are so neat and clever!  Geesh, now I guess I know which "twin" got all the talent,  and why I got shortchanged.   

[duh]

heat water until you can dissolve sugar in it.  Then pour it into a tall container add the colors you want and flavored oil.  Not extract.  Then take a piece of kitchen twine double it over and roll the cut ends in corn starch and then raw sugar or granulated depending on which you have.  Put a wooden spoon handle or something else around the same size over the container and drape the string over it extending the string as far into the water as possible.  Over the next week or so the sugar will crystalize on the string, drawn their by the sugar that is already present.  It makes a cool icicle. 

Or you can use this recipe and technique if your in a hurry.

OLD-FASHIONED HARD CANDY

2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
2/3 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon oil flavoring*
Food coloring as desired
Confectioners' sugar

* Oil flavoring can be purchased at drugstore or baking supply shop or online.

Prepare cookie sheet sheets with crumpled aluminum foil where you have made ditches the lenth of the icicles you want to make.  Coat the foil with powdered sugar, be generous.  Place a loop of kitchen twine (if your going to eat the icicles) or other type of hook with the tail inside the ditches. 

Mix sugar, water and syrup until sugar is dissolved. Boil on medium heat to 300 degrees F or hard ball stage.

Remove from heat.

Add flavoring and food coloring and mix well. Odor will be extremely strong at this time, so prepare in well-ventilated kitchen.

Pour in streams onto cookie sheet. 

Sift more confectioners' sugar on top of candy streams.

Yields 1 pound.
 

[duh]

BTW I love the grinch.  What other faces do you plan to do?

[Wrennie]

Funny I have some of those clear glass ornaments stuffed with blue and silver 'icicles'. I painted little fish and coral around th outside of them.
I've seen and painted, the light bulbs too. Snowmen and reindeer, make the antlers from felt or cardboard, santa penguin...
Click HERE for Google pictures of light bulb ornaments

Oh Lookey at these penguins! I want to make some!
Cute Penguin light bulb ornaments

Clothespins: I have a fridge magnet thats a cow.

I dont remember posting these here before.

I Take a small wooden embroidery hoop, 3-4-5 inches (depends on the fabric pattern) Paint the hoop a color that goes with the fabric I'm going to use. Stretch it over the fabric, framing a detail of the print. Tighten it really well. Glue trim on the back, I used very large bric-a-brac, and lace edging. Tie a piece of ribbon through the tightener gizmo for a hanger. Glue a little doo-dad to cover the tightener, I used fake holly leaves. I dont put a backing on mine because I like the tree lights to glow through them a bit. On this penguin one I glued a 1/8" pom-pom to the penguins hat.

[patches]

Oh, Wrennie, those are really pretty, but I think they would be too big for my tree.  Actually, my favorite ornaments are the ones my kids and grandkids made! They all have a special meaning and that's what always mattered to me!   

[christy]

wow triss those look great!! bet they would make nice gingerbread men ordaments too,

[christy]

wow wrennie i love that!!  cute idea with extra fabric

[Wrennie]

Oh, Wrennie, those are really pretty, but I think they would be too big for my tree. 

I used to see mini hoops, havent looked for them recently maybe 1 1/2" or so. Youd just have to find a smaller print.

[Triss]

Wrennie, I really like those ornaments you made!  Very cute.

And a yummy candy recipe Duh.

And Patty, I just love all of your ornaments.  I have to say again that your theme this year is so beautiful!

[patches]

I used to see mini hoops, havent looked for them recently maybe 1 1/2" or so. Youd just have to find a smaller print.

Actually, I always used to use the mini hoops when I was working with my miniatures, but I think the ones I used were maybe a tad bigger than 1-1/2"!  There's a lot of mini prints out there today!   

[Patty S]

Darn! I thought I'd posted my reply here, but found it over in "Show us your decorations" (General Discussion)! I'm moving some of that post here, where it belongs.

Duh, I think I'll pass on the hard rock candy icicles, cuz it sounds too much like "cooking"!
(I think that if I were to do that, I'd lace them with glitter, though. That would render them non-edible, of course, but if I'm putting time into ornament making, I wouldn't want people eating them!)

As for the light bulb craft, we've only made the grinches so far, but I would imagine that you could make just about any kind of figure you want, with a light bulb. Here's a link to a web page of light bulb art. I don't know that I'd try to build ships inside one but there are lotsa of cute ideas there. I think that I'll try making a penguin (not shown there)... in my spare time, of course!

Hey! It just occurred to me that icicles might be possible to make with a glue gun; sprinkling glitter on the dribbles before they cool off! Now I think about the potential icicles I've wasted all this time, with those pesky glue gun "leaks"! I'll try it, & let you know if it works.

[patches]

Thanks for the link, Patty!    Those are awesome, but I think I would pass on the ship in the bulb one too!  I really loved the cow, snowman, and elves.  Well, I guess this is something I could always do in my "spare" time, if I ever had any!     

[Wrennie]

Hey! It just occurred to me that icicles might be possible to make with a glue gun; sprinkling glitter on the dribbles before they cool off! Now I think about the potential icicles I've wasted all this time, with those pesky glue gun "leaks"!

I have hot glue gun glue sticks in christmas colors with the sparkles mixed right in the glue.

[Penny]

Great idea on the icicles, and very nice ornaments everyone, looks so cute and festive!!

[christy]

i love the light bulb snowman face with the hat! thats to cute!

wernnie your hoop ornaments gave me an idea, if ya can put a backin on it maybe gettin some old fam christmas photos on  the pitchure fabric to use in em n a fabric for the backing n a matching fabric tree skirt,     lights might not shine through,, think ill keep that idea for futchure projects

[Patty S]

I have hot glue gun glue sticks in christmas colors with the sparkles mixed right in the glue.

It seems that I've seen those in the stores. But how can you make a big mess when you use things that make crafting easier? (I'm sure BG thinks the mess is half the fun!)

Here are a couple more "trash to treasure" things that we've made for our Christmas trees in the past. My Mother taught us how to make these in Brownies/Girlscouts, when we were kids.

Pop top ornaments
     
All you need are long straight pins (craft wire will also work), beads, bits of chain, old jewelry, glitter... whatever you've got laying around. I haven't put pics on these little ornaments, but I don't see any reason why it couldnt be done. They were harder to do, back in the day when airplane glue was what people used for these things, but now we have glue guns, so it doesn't take long at all. Here's a shot of the backside. 
     
We used pieces of aluminum can for the centers of the larger ones (and you can make them as big as you want), but I don't know why cardboard wouldn't be easier. The front could also have a center piece like that, so a pic could be glued to it.  *They'd also be cute refrigerator magnets, using the stick-on magnet strips.

While I'm at it, here's another one that would be pretty hard to make these days, cuz our cameras don't have flashbulbs anymore! (Remember those?)
     
I used to make ornaments every year for the grandparents, with pics inside each side of "flash cubes" (since I have 4 kids, & flash cubes had 4 sides... plus, the "top" made a 5th side, for a pic of Keith & I). While thinning things out in her storage unit, my Mom recently offered to give me all the ornaments we've made for her over the years, & I should have remembered to get them when we were in Seattle a few weeks ago.

Keith - this is exactly why I don't throw things away unless it can rot.  There's stuff out there in the garage, just waiting to be transformed into awesome (& cheap) memorable things!

[patches]

Hey, Patty, I love the pop-top ornaments.  I used to have the Girl Scouts make all kinds of ornaments out of trash when I had my troops, and they thought it was so cool!!!   

here's another one that would be pretty hard to make these days, cuz our cameras don't have flashbulbs anymore! (Remember those?) 

Something that would be even harder than making them, would be trying to explain to the younger generation exactly what they are!   When I teach about "Flashbulb Memories" and what they are, the students are clueless and have no idea what I'm talking about.  Once when I was trying to explain about how when we were young and wanted to take a picture inside we had to use a flashbulb.  Well, I guess one student must have had a burnt out light go off in his head when he said something like, "Oh, I saw that in a movie once when they lit flash powder to take a picture."    

[Bonnie]

I like those pop top ornaments. That's a neat idea.

[patches]

Here is one of the activities I did with the Girl Scouts many years ago!  My daughter wanted it so she could do it with her kids, so I found it for her.  I thought any of you with kids or grandkids might like this for some family fun time!     Of course, with a large number of Girl Scouts,  it's certainly a lot more fun for the girls than the leader.   

Salt Dough Ornaments

Ingredients:
4 cups of flour
1 cup of salt
1 1/2 cups of hot water
Rolling pin
Cookie cutters
Ribbon or yarn
Clear, acrylic varnish
Acrylic Paints (optional)
Small brushes
Toothpick, pencil or straw for creating hole in top of ornament

Directions:
Salt Dough Ornaments

Ingredients:
4 cups of flour
1 cup of salt
1 1/2 cups of hot water
Rolling pin
Cookie cutters
Ribbon or raffia
Clear, acrylic varnish
Acrylic Paints (optional)
Small brushes
Toothpick, pencil or straw for creating hole in top of ornament

Directions:
Combine the water and salt in a bowl. Stir to dissolve some of the salt.  Add the flour, then knead to form the dough.   Roll the dough out to about ¼-inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. 

Now let the kids cut out the shapes using cookie cutters.  Then they can make a hole in the top for threading with ribbon later.

Place the ornaments on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake in a pre-heated 300 degree F oven until dry.  This will take about 50 minutes to an hour.  The thicker the ornament, the longer it will take.

Remove the ornaments from the oven and cool.  Once cool they can paint or decorate them any way they want.  If desired, you can varnish the ornament to help keep out moisture so the piece will last longer.

Then let them thread a piece of ribbon or yarn through the hole!

This will make about (70) 3-inch ornaments.