For the next few posts, I will be featuring ornaments from my Christmas tree. This is one way I can savor these decorations that only come out once a year. Each post will feature a group of ornaments related by a common theme.
The Ornament Parade--Handmade
Today I'm showing you some of our ornaments that were made for us by family and friends. If you're into crafting, you may find an idea or two that you might want to try.
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| This is a dried orange slice that I made. I made another set that I gave away that had red beads glued in the middle. |
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| This wreath was made from buttons from my grandmother's and mother's button cans. One afternoon, I sat down with my sisters and we all made ornaments of various kinds from the buttons. We had fun reminiscing about the clothes the buttons had been taken from. |
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| This powder puff lamb was made by a friend. Notice the clove sticks for legs. |
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| Remember the preview of this mailbox made by my aunt? It has two letters and a package inside. |
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| This angel, made by a friend, is crafted from two doilies. |
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| Another friend knit the cover to this ball. I've been meaning to try this myself, but it remains on my To Do list at this point. |
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| This painted ornament was made by the same local artist mentioned in an earlier post. It was a coincidence, but the picture of the house looks just like my grandparents' house where my father grew up. That makes it extra special for me. |
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| This was made by my best friend in grad school. At that point in time, school took up every waking minute, so I don't know how she had time to make it, but she did. That made me appreciate it even more. |
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| My aunt made this Queen Anne's Lace flower ornament. It is a pressed flower encased in epoxy. |
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| She also made this Christmas stocking. |
All of these ornaments were made by adults. Tomorrow, we'll see the ones made by kids.
So creative! I love the idea of the dried up orange slice, how do you do it? Did you do it this year? If not, how to do store it? I"m afraid that the humidity here would ruin it. Does it smell like oranges?
ReplyDeleteI like them all but if I had to pick a favorite, I might choose the lamb because I like its expression! The only handmade ornaments that I have are the ones the kids made at preschool/kindergarten, I think.
If you follow the link in the caption, you'll see what I did. Basically, it's a dehydrated orange slice coated with some kind of sealer. Can't remember right now exactly what I used. Even with the coating, they do smell like oranges although less and less every year. I store them in a metal tin that is sealed pretty well. You might be able to add some silicon moisture absorbers to help with the humidity.
DeleteAh sorry, I didn't see the link. Thanks! Great idea to use some silicon moisture packets in a tin, I'll need to make sure to keep whichever come in our Xmas presents if any. I just harvested our few oranges so I might just try turning one or two of them into ornaments!
DeleteThat would be really cool to have ornaments from oranges you actually grew.
DeleteMy internet service was having problems when I typed this before--let's hope this goes better this time! :) I have made the doily angels before--they are fun and easy to create. I especially like your Queen Anne's lace ornament--so unusual--but they are all nice. I love handmade ornaments. They show so much of the maker's personality in them.
ReplyDeleteI think I would like to try some pressed flowers in epoxy like that. I hope I remember by the time I have flowers to work with again.
DeleteWait... so you made the dried orange slice 5 years ago and it's still good? I mean, not good to eat, of course, but I would have imagined that it would have rotted away to nothing by now. Go figure!
ReplyDeleteI dehydrated them pretty well and coated them with a sealer. I guess that did the trick because they are still good.
DeleteI love handmade ornaments! I think the pressed flower in epoxy is my favorite. I'd like to try making the dried orange slices, when my oranges get ripe. Right now, I have a bowl of dried pomegranates from my tree - I am thinking of painting them with gold paint and gluing them to a wreath, or maybe I'll turn them into ornaments to hang from the tree (if we ever put up the tree, this year!)
ReplyDeleteYou have just reminded me that we used to have sweet gum balls spray-painted gold that we used as ornaments. I wonder what happened to them.
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