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Christmas Traditions: Making Ornaments

Christmas Traditions: Making Ornaments
When I was a kid, I always wanted a themed Christmas tree like you see in stores or in the movies. We had the kind of tree with mismatched ornaments that had been handed down or picked up secondhand. No one can really afford to have all their ornaments match, right?

When my oldest daughter was 2, I noticed all the fun projects she would bring home from daycare. I didn't want her to do all the fun stuff with other people. I decided that we would make good memories at home too. We started making ornaments. We pick a new color or theme every year.

The first, year our colors were red and white. She made very simple pipe cleaner crafts like candy canes and I made ornaments with red ribbon and scraps of lace. The second year, we made white snowflakes with cornstarch dough and decorated them with beads and glitter. We've put starched string around small inflated water balloons, popped them when they were dry and then glittered them. This year, we got pretty ambitious. We are making butterflies and dragonflies with wire and pantyhose, then decorating them.

We never spend much money on supplies, we usually just use stuff we have already in the house. We keep a few ornaments to remind us of what we've done and either donate or toss the rest of them. We also make extras for teacher gifts, again saving money. We have a beautiful tree every year and the time we spend together gives us the best Christmas memories!

By Lisa from Lena, WI

Feedback About This Post:

RE: Christmas Traditions: Making Ornaments

I always use dental floss. It doesn't break and you can work with it easily.

Post by Virginia Pride

RE: Christmas Traditions: Making Ornaments

jenntaker -We tried some stiffening stuff by Aileen's but ended up using just plain white glue diluted with a little water :)

Post By Lisa from Lena (Guest Post)

RE: Christmas Traditions: Making Ornaments

I don't remember which video it was on this link
http://my.bhgscrapbooksetc.com/bett ... 67091?sssdmh=dm17.286962&esrc=sblsdr but the scanner was used to scan kids artwork from school & it was sized down (because fingerpaint art is usually really big) to fit a scrapbook page - or it could be used as a bookcover - it would last longer if it were covered with a clear paper or contact paper.
When it was sized down the image was saved to file then printed & used on the page -- in one instance a little coat was scanned because the mom realized that she wouldn't be able to keep it forever in the closet & the detail showed up really well so it was used on another scrapbook page !
Genius !
It would be really cute (too) if a picture of the little girl wearing the coat was placed on the page along with the scanned version of the coat!
I know this has very little to do with Christmas ornaments & I apologize so to get back to that - how about making something along the same lines as memory quilts , "memory ornaments" ? Old clothing made into cute oraments with maybe even a picture of the person the item was worn by added onto it & the year !

Post by melody_yesterday

RE: Christmas Traditions: Making Ornaments

When you made the string ornaments, what did you use on the string? I remember making these years ago, and I'd like to try them this year.

Post by jenntaker

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