Handmade and Homemade – Page 3 – Musings of a Musician's Wife

Yellow is my favorite color. I like yellow so much that I like to incorporate yellow in everything if I can so naturally I was hoping, at some point, to add yellow to our Christmas tree. I searched high and low for desirable yellow ornaments or garlands and it seems it is an undesirable color in the land of Christmas decor. So I resolved to making one and with a little luck I stumbled on a very “me” idea on Pinterest because it involved two of my favorite things. Two important things to know about me: one, I love things most when there is thought and a little personal touch put into them; two, I love to color and I specifically love to color with crayons.

This project involved designing Christmas ornaments with crayons and some finesse. With a little mess and some trial and error here is what we came up with 🙂

Josh #2

Kaia #1

Kaia #2

Josh #1

Supplies needed:

crayons
blow dryer
translucent glass bulb ornaments
tongs

Your steps:

remove hanging piece from ornament
pop 1/4″ to 1/2″ crayon pieces of your choosing into the bulb
grab hold of ornament with the tongs (the bulb will become scalding hot) and be sure to never point the opening down unless you have it over scrap paper or you want to make a mess
apply heat via blow dryer until crayons start to become liquid then move around as you please for the desired look
set finished bulb back in bulb tray face up to dry
when dry, stick hanging piece back in ornament and hang on your Christmas tree
repeat steps 1-7 until you have made all the Christmas ornaments your heart desires 🙂

Enjoy!

As you can tell by the title of this blog post I am already delayed in blogging about my 12 Days of Christmas creative experience. My excuse: internet failure. From here on out it shall be daily until the deed is finished on December 12 🙂

Throughout November I pondered the thought of the 12 days of Christmas. I knew I wanted to participate but I ran circles around the fact that giving Josh 12 days of presents would significantly mark down the number of gifts he could receive on Christmas. I also pondered candy and food gifts but I wasn’t stoked about that idea either. Then, while searching for wreath ideas on Pinterest the idea came… here I present to you the 12 Days of Handmade and Homemade Christmas.

DAY 1: Christmas tree garland. The idea came because I wanted to spruce up our tree by means of personal touch. My thought was to cut circles out of pretty paper and string them on yarn but I wasn’t in love with the idea so I pondered a little longer. Then it came to me when I saw these super fun Origami stars. Now I give you the first ever Origami adventure of the Origami star master 😉 Behold…

“love”

My personal favorite 🙂

Your steps:

1. Go get scrapbook paper (I got mine from Hobby Lobby in the a ‘la carte section scrapbook paper section)

2. Watch a youtube video on how to do Origami Stars

3. Cut strips of paper about 3/4″ thick. I found between 1/2″ and 3/4″ made for the easiest Origami

4. Origami a star but before you slip the tail into the mass slip your string into the crease. Then seal.

5. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until your garland is finished.

A string of three…

DAY 2: Sparkling Pine Cones

Josh and I took the dogs for a walk and lo-and-behold I set eyes on five perfect pine cones. They certainly looked like they belonged on our Christmas tree so we snatched them up and headed on our merry way. When we got home I pulled out my handy dandy powdery glittery spray can and set to dress up my pine cones. By the end of spraying, as my friend Jeremy’s said, it looked like I slapped a fairy…