Wood Shape Ornaments..so many ways to decorate them!

 Wood cutouts in holiday themed shapes can be found at your local craft stores at very reasonable prices....like maybe $.99 each when they're full price.    I went to a mall today and looked at the beautiful holiday tree displays the department stores had with ornaments in varying themes.  There seemed to be many ornaments they were selling that were made to look handmade but obviously mass produced.    

You can make your own themed holiday ornaments to fill your tree for hundreds of dollars less than what a department store would cost.   These are some I've made for my handmade tree using wood cutouts and various supplies to decorate them.  The gingerbread man is covered in felt and edged in tinsel pipe cleaners.  You can also see glitter in various forms, including glitter mod podge on the stocking (who knew?), fine glitter on the star and coarse large glitter on the tree.  I've also pulled out some buttons and ribbon to embellish them.  

I actually saw a gold glittery word ornament at a department store today for $12.  This one cost me about $1.20!   I bought the unfinished wood cutout at JoAnn's and then painted it with gold glitter paint and tied a piece of twine to it to hang.  

What other supplies have you used to embellish wood cutouts? 

Finishing Touch on my Mantel

 I found this wreath at Target for $20 and the burlap ribbon at Pottery Barn.  Yay, it's done!  

 Have a great weekend!

Handmade Gift Ideas from Lucky Star Lane

Decoupaged personalized hangers

 

I went back through my blog pictures to find handmade gift ideas so I thought I would share my finds with you.   I'm trying to think of some new ones for teachers so hopefully this will help me get inspired.  Enjoy! 

Handmade Accessories from Recycled fabrics

 Candy Cane Vase

 Recycled Sweater Mittens

 Blanket Stitch Appliqued T Shirts

 Fabric Yo-Yo Embellished Accessories

 Crayon Bags

 Personalized Containers

 Recycled Denim Pocket Journal

 Bottlecap Necklaces

 Giant Paper Clip Bookmarks

 Hair Accessories Made with Scrapbook Brads



Kicking off the Holiday Season with Some Anthro Inspired Decor!

 I have a few pictures of some holiday decor I've done in my home for you.  I  tried to do some Anthro inspired displays after looking at some of their awesome window display pictures on Facebook.  If you haven't "Liked" them on facebook yet, you should take a look! 

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you enjoy all the wonderful people and beautiful things in your lives:)

Ribbon Spool Ornament

 Do you use a lot of ribbon?  I do!  I end up trying to save the cardboard ribbon spools because I always think I'll use them to organize other ribbon.   I recently went to a new ribbon organizing system where I take the ribbon off the spool and put it in small plastic bags and then put it in larger clear tubs by color.  Colorizing it has really helped. 

The empty ribbon spools make a great base for a scrappy ornament.   This one I painted with red acrylic craft paint, let it dry then applied some glue around the edges and glittered with iridescent glitter.  I cut  two circles slightly smaller than the spool, embellished the front one with a mini clothespin, ribbon, rhinestones, and a stamped greeting.  The back I left plain and hot glued the circles to the front and back.  It was very easy and not very time consuming except for the painting.  It took around 3-4 coats. 

   

 I'm making ornaments this week so I'll have more for you soon......

Simple Circle Punch Tree

This is a quick scrappy project if you're pressed for time.  You will need:  a 13.5" tall paper mache cone (this one is from Michael's), a 2 inch circle punch or die cutting machine that cuts circles, 6 or 7  12" x 12"papers of your choice, glue, and a 5" flower pot (you can paint it if you want).

 The hardest part of this project is choosing the paper.  My house has a lot of black and I like to decorate at Christmas with gold and red.   The cone fits sunggly on top of the flower pot.  You could glue it for stability but I didn't need to. 

Vellum greeting from Anna Griffin and red paper from My Mind's Eye

 

What other things could be glued to a paper mache cone to make a tree? Do you remember my macaroni tree from last year?



Holiday Ornament Contest at BHG

Lately I've been visiting the Better Homes and Gardens website for holiday decoration ideas.  I noticed they do a lot of photo contests so I submitted a few pictures of the ornaments I made last year.  I was excited to get an email today that my red winged blackbird was chosen as a finalist this week.   Will you vote for my bird so she'll be entered to win the grand prize to be featured in BHG Magazine?  
All of you talented bloggers should check out these photo contests!  Better Homes and Gardens could find some true gems if they started tapping into blogland..especially all the ladies who come to our link parties.   We could start our own magazine!!

Have a Great Day!