Making Yule Ornaments

[Demeter]

It's official. I can't fit my full-size tree (and its full-size collection of ornaments) in my tiny living room. Not and still have room to sit down. I will have to get a smaller tree that I can stand on the end table in the corner, temporarily sacrificing my reading lamp. Thus, I will also have to get some smaller ornaments. I've been using the same old ornaments for the past twenty years; time for something new anyway.

So off to the crafts store I went.

I now have: 24 little straw brooms. 13 grapevine wreaths, about 3" across. A bag of cinnamon sticks about 3" long. A bag of pine cones. A bag of mixed nuts. 10 picks with small fruits (apples, pears and cherries) encrusted with sparkles. Plus an assortment of narrow holiday ribbons, tiny holly leaf garland, metallic gold embroidery thread, spray on glitter, and a hot glue gun.

Out of this assembly there will eventually emerge: Sparkly fruits removed from the picks. Sparkly nuts. Sparkly pinecones. Sparkly sunwheels made with grapevine wreaths and cinnamon-stick crosses. Sparkly brooms with red, white and green ribbons. Maybe some God's Eyes made with cinnamon sticks and ribbons. Maybe some sparkly pentagrams made with cinnamon sticks. Everything on gold cord loops with little bits of holly at the tops of each item to hide the place where the cords are attached.

These are things I have been thinking about making for years. Now I have a reason and the time to do it! Wa hoo!

Quite possibly I will go back to the store to get more stuff to make sets of ornaments for everyone in my coven (put in cute little holiday baskets I saw at the drugstore today).

[Cinnamon Girl]

Oooo, Demeter ~ Your new ornament ideas sound fabulous! Please try to post some pictures, if you can. I'd love to see the end results! :)

[Lavender]

Your coven mates are lucky! Wish I was one of them! The ornaments sounds wonderful. Can you post a pic or two when you're done?

[MoonRaven]

We've got a tiny little 1' tree, only because at the moment we can't afford anything else (and everyone seems to be getting rid of Xmas trees left and right, and THEN telling us "oh, I wish I'd known you were looking"). So, because I'm sick of the cheapie decorations that are on it (like little red balls on wires that look silly) I decided to make my own decorations too. Though I'm not nearly ambitious enough to go out and buy all kinds of neat things, so I'm just using beads and polymer clay. I've been making snowflakes out of white and clear seed beads (if you've ever seen the method for making beaded pentacle earrings (http://members.tripod.com/beadnik/startut.html), it's similar but with 12 beads to start instead of 10), then pressing them into very thin polymer clay to keep their shape. The BF suggested I make a bunch and attach one to each present we'll be giving this year..... it's a thought.

[Wyrdsister]

Hey Demeter, you've inspired me! I went to the craft store yesterday and bought all sorts of craft supplies to make yule ornaments! I bought several of those gravevine wreaths, which I think will be wonderful. I also bought ribbon (various widths), sparkly pipe cleaners, a few beads and bobbles, jingle bells, and a bunch of other stuff. I also got a big evergreen garland to put on my mantle. I'll be decorating that with ribbon, ornaments and lights as well.

Yay, I feel all Yule-y! :D

Wyrdsister

[Arzhela]

Wow, Demeter, sounds gorgeous! I especially like the sunwheel idea.
I'll echo Wildchild: Pics pics pics!!!:)

[Wyrdsister]

Moonraven, did you do those snowflakes with pony beads? They look great! I might have to pull out my bead stash and give them a try! :D

And I love your web page, btw. :)

Wyrdsister

[MoonRaven]

Thanks.

Actually those are seed beads. Each snowflake is only about an inch wide.

[MammaStar]

I made some felt ornaments to sell, actually. but last nite, I went into the store and found that Rainbow liquid stuff. The paint that you can make "painted" glass with. You pour the paint onto a styerene sheet let it dry, and Viola! stained glass. I'm making ornaments for my family with it. :) As well as a few other things.

[Old Witch]

Your tree sounds beautiful..........

[Lavender]

Originally posted by MoonRaven
Thanks.

Actually those are seed beads. Each snowflake is only about an inch wide.

What a great idea! I made about a bazillion of these things (not quite so elaborate) for a friend's handfasting gown. I still have a bunch of them left over....the ones that weren't quite right. :p I can fix them up & put them on my tree at work. It's a small tree.