Hi everyone! I hope you are all enjoying this time leading up to Christmas. I know my family has been in full holiday swing. In fact, we spent several hours this weekend creating new Christmas ornaments — several for our own home and a few to give as gifts. I thought it would be fun to share our creations with you today. I hope you enjoy seeing what we made and maybe even feel inspired to do a little crafting of your own.
Each of the ornaments below was created using clear plastic ornaments, acrylic paints, and various other additions as noted.
This first trio was painted by me. Every year we create or purchase one new ornament per family member. We write the date somewhere discrete and add it to our tree. The two landscape scenes will be the ornaments added for myself and my husband this year. The snowman will be hung from white paper chains which we drape around our great room.
These snowmen were all created by my children. They also stuffed the “snowballs” in the back. Stuffing materials vary from clear tinsel to “tiny fake snowballs” to that clear plastic confetti they sell as “fake snow.” The tiny fake snowballs were found at our local Dollar Tree and were the easiest to stuff into the ornaments, but the other two stuffing items were my personal favorites (despite their staticky resistance to being crammed into a small hole) due to their reflective qualities which gave them an ice-like appearance. All of these ornaments will be hung from the white paper chains in our great room this year and will be brought out for similar purposes year after year from now on. I’ve added their names and the year to the bottom of each.
My children chose the faces from a photo I found on Pinterest and they chose the sock hats from an assortment I picked up at our local Dollar Tree. The rest I did myself. These four will be their contributions to our tree for this year.
These three snowmen (shown before and after candy stuffing) were painted by me and will be given away at a children’s gift exchange.
Lest the previous pictures have you thinking I some sort of crafting genius, let me assure you, I am not! Exhibit A: My complete failure to create what so many have touted as the world’s easiest DIY ornament – inside-out espsom salt ornaments. I used Mod Podge and epsom salts inside these 8 ornaments hoping for beautiful snowball-like results and wound up with snowballs that looked like we’d made them from that snow parents warn their kids not to eat. (They look even more yellow in person.) I made myself feel better about this by sticking digital stickers all over them to express my feelings on the matter. LOL Eventually I am thinking to salvage them with a combination of white paint and clear glitter on the exterior, but I have yet to work up the nerve energy. We’ll see.
If you’re looking for snowman face inspiration, you can try this photo and this photo.
If you want more details on how to make the sock-hatted snowmen (& other fun ornaments), this is a good video to watch.
Pro tip: Make sure to use paints specially designed for plastic and consider adding a clear coat on top to protect your artwork.
I hope you enjoyed this little peek into our holiday preparations. Being creative always reminds me of our Creator and how He has blessed us with the fruits of His creation. Spending the time listening to Christmas music and crafting with my children is a blessing I cherish.
To see more of my holiday craftivities, follow me on Instagram @KathleenDenly!
If you’re not already subscribed to this blog and want to be, CLICK HERE.
Also, don’t forget I’ll be releasing a free short story exclusively for my KRC Members this week! So if you’re not already a member, sign up today!
