Make your Own Feather Ornament!

While I was perusing the aisles of the ornaments this year I noticed in the white section these beautiful feather ornaments.   I also saw  They were about $6 which isn't bad for an individual ornament, but after making my feather tree last year, I knew I had the supplies left over to make it myself.  I wish I had the time to make more than one this year, but I thought I'd share how to make them in case you did! 

 

Here are the supplies you'll need:

medium Styrofoam ball

string or ribbon for hanging

white feathers of assorted lengths

white craft glue

hot glue and gun

a champagne flute (or something you can stand your ball on while you glue on feathers)

 

Begin by gluing the string or ribbon to the top of the Styrofoam ball.  My ball had a little divot in the top making it a perfect place for the string to sit in - this is where you'll want to use hot glue.  

 

 

Then get out your champagne flue (or something small that the ball can easily balance on) and sit your ball on top with the string facing straight up.  Though this is not exact, it does look nicer if the feathers are uniform.  Begin gluing the longest feathers to the bottom half of the ornament.  Look for feathers that naturally curve in.  They should be covering the whole bottom of the ball.

 

 

Once the entire boom circumference is covered, begin gluing another row of medium sized feathers above the others.  Continue in this way until the entire ball is covered.  Save the very smallest feathers for the top and glue them on neatly around the string.

 

 

 

Make ornaments of all different sizes and hang them all over your tree! 

Sugar Ornaments

As we countdown to Christmas one of the nights was to make an ornament.  I found a really cute post for sugar ornaments here, but to be honest they didn't turn out.  We made them and waited and they just crumbled when we tried to remove them from the cookie cutters.  So I reworked the method and wanted to share with you how we made them today!

What you'll need: 

 

1/2 c sugar

1 T glitter (I used mica snow)

2 t water

cookie cutters

parchment paper

rolling pin
string or ribbon

 

 

1.  Mix the water, glitter, and sugar together in a bowl until it is combines and sticks together when you pinch it with your fingers.

 

 

2.  Dump the mixture onto a piece of parchment paper and begin to press it down until you have a flat surface of the mixture.  I rolled it a bit with a rolling pin at this point to get it really level.

 

3.  Then I picked my favorite Christmas cookie cutters that I just recently found at the thrift store.  An owl, a tree, a reindeer and a mini ice skate and cut them out of the mixture.

 

 

4.  Using a toothpick make a small hole in the top for the ribbon to go through.

 

5.  Move them to somewhere safe to dry overnight.

 

 

 

6.  Once they are dry tie a ribbon or some silver string through the hole. 

Hang on your tree and enjoy!

 

 

Fortune Cookie Countdown

This year we are going to celebrate the countdown to Christmas with fun activities and events that we can do together as a family.  Fender and I put together a list of all of the things "Christmasy" we could do and I've added in a few bigger surprises for our family days off together. 

After I printed out the list (with specific numbers so that we weren't out late on a school night) I cut each of the activities into strips.  Then I whipped up a batch of fortune cookies and used these as the surprise inside.  I used this recipe here.

I left the number hanging out so that it would be easy for the kids to grab the correct one.  There are a few nights in there that I am very excited for (like ice skating and a movie at the drive in!) and can't wait to see their faces when they open them up!

 

 

Recycling your Christmas Tree

Every year when we recycle our Christmas tree I always wish there was something more I could do than just toss it to the curb!  So this year, with the help of my hubby dC, we cut it up and put most of it to a new use!

First thing we did was strip the top branches of the tree off to see what it looked like.  Well, I instantly thought bird feeder since there are so many small branches that could be used as perches!  So I made some bird seed paste out of Crisco, peanut butter, corn meal, and bird seed. 






 I tied some twine around the top of the branch after it was all trimmed and cleaned up and Fender helped me slap the paste on every little perch.

Then we hung it from our shed!

Not before Fender tried a little...

Now we'll have a little piece of the Holidays around all year!

Snow Globe Soap

When I saw these on pinterest I knew it would be something Fender, mC and I could do together.  I already had glycerin soap on hand it was just a matter of finding small animals to fit in the ice cube trays.  While in Seaside visiting my parents, it was my lucky day when I came across tiny arctic animals (and a few elephants for mC) perfect for this craft!

It's as simple as melting glycerin soap, pouring it into ice cube trays, adding the figurine and topping with shaved white soap (for the snowy ground when they pop out!)  We used sand colored soap for the elephants which turned out the best.  The trick is to wait until the soap sets a bit (30 seconds or so) before adding the animal.  Otherwise they'll sink to the bottom (and look like they're floating to the top).

Like this polar bear that we say is "swimming"

Fender loves washing his hands because it gets him closer to the toy!





Fender's Name Plate

While at Ruffles and Rust we came upon a bin of old alphabet blocks and I decided to make a name plate for Fender.  Jessica and I dug and dug until we found all of the letters for his name.  We even had the man running the booth in on it!  Then after a few minutes we noticed that we had mainly red letters and I got the obsessive thought that they should all be red, so the hunt continued!  We finally found them - all red, but different sizes and styles. 

 I made a snowman, painted him and glued him on top.  I cut out a tree from an old Christmas Decoration, covered it in snow and topped it with a star anise (dC's genius idea!)  Now to find a place to put it!

Christmas in a Vase

I've been seeing these EVERYWHERE!  From pinterest to "enter your favorite blog here."  So while I was at my mom and dad's house in Oregon, I noticed they had a ton of unused vases, which they donated to my cause.  And though they are not vintage apothecary jars, I thought it would be fun to create my own winter scenes for our dining room table!

I used a few of Fender's pine cones from his collection, a piece of wood, dollar store animals, old Christmas decorations, and $2 ornaments to create my scenes.  If the object wasn't glitzy enough I just spray painted it white (or shall I say dC did the painting) and then covered it in glitter!

I think they turned out great and can see myself looking all year long for random little things that will fit inside them for next year. 

Christmas Countdown

  I wanted to make an Advent Calendar this year, but once I was finished with my idea, it looked more like a countdown than a treat filled calendar.

Fender, mC and I were making ornaments using this great homemade clay recipe and the idea came to me that I wanted to make 24 snowflakes and hang them up somewhere in the house.

Once the clay was cooked and cooled, I simply rolled out the dough and used cookie cutters for the shapes.  But before they dried I stamped in numbers and skewered a hole in the top for hanging.  Then I let them dry for 24 hours or so.  DO NOT bake these.  The recipe said you could, and they reacted more like cookies - browning, bubbling and warping!  You can easily get 40 medium sized ornaments out of this dough and it can be painted and sealed!  It costs less than $2 to make a batch!

Fender's race car.  He's really good at rolling out clay!

Christmas Tree Hunting

Nothing makes me feel more in the Christmas spirit than decorating a tree.  We went to a new tree farm to cut one down had a really fun time.  Lochsloy Acres in Lake Stevens is a cute tree farm all decked out for the holidays.  They give you a toboggan, a saw and as much hot chocolate as you can drink while hunting for the perfect pine (or fir in our instance) for the living room!

The boys with their tools

This one was more their size.

We're going for a white fir this year!





A slightly blurry thumbs up from Fender!

 



Time to head home and decorate!