The Rocking Rollers 6-pc. assortment: Santa, Rudolf, snowman, elf, bird and soldier have weighted bottoms that make them bounce upright when pushed or rolled, from 1965.
Index Pages
- Home
- My Blog
- Christmas Clip Art
- Traditional Ornament Crafts
- Puzzles and Games
- Just Putzen Around...
- Santa's Workshop
- Just For Kids!
- Country Folks
- Christmas Carols
- Christmas Stories & Memories
- Around The Globe
- Feather Tree Ornaments
- Clay Ornament Crafts
- Wooden Ornament Crafts
- Chrismon Crafts
- Nut, Seed and Pod Ornament Crafts
- Offering Day or Boxing Day
- Cards and Letters
- Links To Christmas
- "Oh Christmas Tree"
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Christmas Vinyl by Ideal from 1965
Sunday, November 23, 2025
Crafting Ornaments with Cinnamon Salt Dough
To make cinnamon salt dough you will need to kneed together 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of ordinary salt, 1/4 cup of cinnamon or more and 1 cup of cool water. Sift together the dry ingredients first and then slowly add the water. Add flour to a wooden cutting board and kneed the dough on top of it. Put it into a refrigerator to rest for a couple of hours. Then roll out the dough approximately 1/2 inch and cut with cookie cutters. Put these cut-outs on a cookie sheet and let them dry out in a low temperature oven for about 3 hours. You can prick the surface as these salt dough ornaments dry to prevent air bubbles if you like and you can make a hole through the top of each ornament to have a place for a hook or ribbon to hang them on a tree. I also used cookie molds to craft some of my own cinnamon salt dough ornaments shown here.
![]() |
| Left, the gingerbread salt dough cooling down on a cookie rack. Some of them puffed up too much so these were tossed. Right, some wooden cookie molds were also used in this project. |
![]() |
| Left, a mouse then a little man next, a Christmas chocolate and candy cane hang on our tree. |
![]() |
| Above are three gingerbread children holding hands. |
More Delightful Gingerbread:
Friday, December 8, 2023
Craft Vintage Inspired Cone Figures
![]() |
| Finished vintage inspired, cone angel figures. |
- Roll heads from cotton batting and white glue.
- Cut out skirts from patterned Christmas papers.
- Shape and paste the paper skirts into cones.
- Glue the head on top.
- Stuff the cone shaped skirts with acrylic batting.
- Glue a cardboard disk to the bottom of the cones.
- Glue the pom pom features to the top of the head(s), one or two.
- Wrap the string around the pom poms and above the forehead areas to make the hair design.
- Cut the wings from decorative papers and glue these on.
- Wrap cotton batting around thin wire and let dry.
- Cut small pieces of that wire for arms and attach these with hot glue.
- Hot glue tiny gifts for angels to carry: holly and berries, bows for presents, snowflakes, bottle brush trees etc...
- Smear on touches of white glue and sprinkle angle wings with glitter.
![]() |
| Left, tiny cone angels hold: holly, bow and snowflake. Center several have bottle brush trees. Right, one has wings cut from a doily... and many have transparent glitter stuck to their wings. |
![]() |
| Left, are miniature angels with tulle skirts playing harps. Right the very same hold lights, seen in catalogue. |
![]() |
| Pattern for making a cone angel and one version of wings. Go here to see a craft of a praying angel wreath for older students. |
More Examples of Vintage Figures from The 1960s:
Monday, August 8, 2022
Retro Hollow Egg Ornament Craft
| The original vintage, diorama egg ornament from the 1970s. |
- Styro Foam egg
- gold twine
- straight pins (short)
- wooden figure
- acrylic paints: pinks, blues, whites, gold and flesh color
- white fur
- tiny white silk flowers
- white school glue
- wax paper
- hot glue and hot glue gun
- Hollow out your styrofoam egg just enough to give it room for the wooden figure. Try to keep the walls thick; use a metal spoon to carefully remove the unnecessary foam.
- Now carefully pin the gold twine about the backside of the egg.
- You may add small amounts of white glue to help hold the twine in place. Let this dry thoroughly on top of wax paper.
- Paint the wooden angel figure as you like.
- Glue gold braid onto the angel's head.
- With hot glue line the interior of the egg with scrap white fur.
- Hot glue the angel figure inside and the tiny white silk flowers.
- Pin on a wire hanger to the top of the diorama egg ornament and decorate the tree.
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Print and Draw Candy Cones and Santa Claus
![]() |
| Vintage Christmas cut-outs by Barbara Hale. |
Kids can print and cut-out cute Vintage paper ornaments and paper cones to hold candy by Babara Hale.
I sniffed a jolly woodsy smell
As I came in today.
It was a great big Christmas tree,
I'll trim it right away.
Directions for Christmas Cut-outs:
- Click directly on the printable to download the largest possible size and print on a home computer.
- Paste the entire printable sheet on a piece of green or red paper.
- Cut out Santa Claus.
- Punch a hole in his cap where the white dot is.
- Tie a piece of red ribbon or string through the hole and hang on your Christmas tree.
- Cut out the flat designs.
- Paste the edge A-B along the dotted line on the tab B-C.
- Paste the edge E-F on E-D.
- Past G-H on H-I.
- Tie a string through holes punched in the candy cones and fill with popcorn or candy.
Now that you've cut and pasted things for Christmas, try drawing this funny little Santa Claus as he walks across our page...
![]() |
| 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 - draw a series of circles to lighten his steps and dress him as he goes! |
Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.
Friday, December 3, 2021
How to make a trimmed vintage pod ornament
![]() |
| Left, the backside of the pod decorated with gold glitter. Right, the front side with gold braid, red velvet and a tiny plastic, trumpeting angel. |
Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Craft Your Own Reproduction Retro Elf Drummer
![]() |
| This little retro drummer was made in 1967. |
![]() |
| Pattern pieces for the elf's hat and collar. |
- Paper tube, such as a toilet paper tube
- scissors
- decorative paper
- narrow decorative ribbon
- holy leaf and berry sequins
- 1 inch Styrofoam ball
- a bit of grey felt or any color you like for the hat and sleeves
- a small piece of white felt for the collar
- yarn for hair
- nylon stocking, any flesh color
- permanent black and red ink marker (felt tip)
- one chenille stem (matched to nylon stocking in color)
- white tacky glue
- light weight cardboard
- pencil
- a razor or craft knife
- metallic string for the hanger
- pink soft pastel or blush from your makeup kit
- needle with a large eye
- Cut 1 1/2 inch section from the paper tube.
- Hold this paper tube against the light weight cardboard and draw around it's circumference. Repeat and cut two of these cardboard circles.
- Use a bit of glue to attach the cardboard circle cut-outs to the bottom and top of the paper drum.
- Cut from the decorative sheet of paper a 1 1/2 strip of paper approximately six inches long if you are using a standard size toilet paper roll. This should cover the paper drum neatly. Apply the tacky glue to secure the paper to the paper roll.
- Cut out matching paper circles to cover the top and bottom of the drum.
- Paste down a decorative ribbon along the top and bottom edges of the drum.
- Tack on the sequin holly leaves and berries.
- Cut two inches from your chenille stem for the drummer's arms.
- Wrap the chenille stem with a bit of grey felt to create sleeves. Tack this felt down with tacky glue.
- Bend the chenille stem to form two arms and glue this piece to the top of the drum.
- Cut the 1 inch Styrofoam ball in half with a razor or craft knife.
- Wrap and pin a small piece of nylon around one of the Styrofoam balls and pin it down at the back flat side of the Styrofoam head.
- Glue a small piece of yarn at the brow of the elf.
- Wrap the felt hat piece about the top of the head with some tacky glue. Let it dry
- Cut another two inches of felt. Stab the chenille stem through the bottom of the elf's head to act as a neck.
- Cut the collar from the white felt.
- Stick the other end of the stem through the round collar and cardboard drum top between the arms with a little tacky white glue.
- Draw eyebrows, eye lashes on with the black permanent marker.
- Draw the lips with a red permanent marker.
- Add a bit of blush to his checks with a soft pink pastel or makeup.
- Cut the metallic string and thread it through a needle. Sew on the hanger.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Wrap a Rainbow Colored Wreath for Your Tree
![]() |
| A rainbow colored wreath made from an old-fashioned curtain ring, a turned wooden ornament and yarn. |
| wooden curtain ring |
- old wooden curtain ring
- some variegated rainbow yarn
- white glue
- hot glue (adult use only)
- colorful ribbon
- scissors
- a tiny wooden figure
- Spread white glue over small portions of the ring's surface as you wrap the variegated yarn around and through the wooden curtain ring. Cover the surface completely. Let the project dry.
- An adult can hot glue the figure at the top and/or bottom of the inside of your yarn covered wreath.
- Tie a bright bow and how glue this to the top of the curtain ring near the metal hook.
- I also added a bit of white glue to the edges of my bow to prevent it from further unraveling over time.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Wrap a Pipe-Cleaner Wreath Ornament
![]() |
| My finished pipe-cleaner wreath ornament. |
- tiny red pom poms
- Green chenille stems (pipe cleaners)
- a hexagonal pattern
- cardboard
- scratch paper
- pencil
- scissors
- white glue
- green ribbon
- Cut a hexagon from a then piece of sturdy cardboard. Use a pencil to draw a smaller hexagon on the inside of the shape in the exact center of the cardboard.
- Cut out the smaller interior hexagon carefully.
- Now carefully wrap green chenille stems around the cardboard shaped wreath. You may choose to use a little white glue to help the chenille adhere to the cardboard surface as you work.
- Let the wreath dry.
- Glue on tiny red pom poms to both sides.
- Tie on a lovely green silk ribbon to hang your ornament on the tree.
| Hexagonal shaped wreath ornament. Left, paper template. Center, cardboard cut-out. Right, shape wrapped in chenille stems. |
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Pin a Sequin Drum for Your Vintage Inspired Tree
- 2 inch diameter and 1 1/2 inch tall Polystyrene shaped drums or Drum-shaped Styrofoam pieces
- 8mm diameter cup sequins: red, green and white
- red, green and white seed beads
- star sequins
- flat head pins
- tacky white glue
- white pipe cleaner or chenille stem
- gold beads
- 1/2 yard of gold ribbon for trim
- thin gold twine
- Before pinning your drum, you will need to mark diagonal lines with a soft pencil on the side of your Styrofoam drum. Also leave a strip of space at both the top and the bottom of the side edges unpinned. The width of these strips should be the same as the gold ribbon you will be using to trim the edges of your drum.
- Thread one seed bead onto your pin and then also a sequin of the same color. Touch the tip of each pin with a bit of white glue as you pin to hold your work in place after the glue dries.
- Next pin four rows of red sequins following the diagonal pencil marks. Follow these four rows with four rows of white, then green sequins.
- Use a bit of tacky glue to adhere the gold ribbon around the top and bottom edges of the drum's sides.
- Pin gold beads through the gold trim allowing approximately 1/2 inch between each bead.
- Twist the gold twine gently around each gold bead, there should be ten of these at the top and ten at the bottom. Look at the photos above and below to visualize this chris-cross pattern made by the twine.
- Cut and pin a little loop for one end of the drum to hang a hook from.
- Bend a white pipe cleaner 2 1/2 inches long in half and pin this down on top of the drum with a small piece of gold trim. Glue on a gold bead to each end of this pipe cleaner. This stem mimics the drum sticks for your sequin snare drum.
- Pin a few seed beads plus starry sequins to both the top and the bottom of your Styrofoam drum and add a wire for hanging this little vintage drum.
![]() |
| Different angles of a small sequin snare drum made in the 1950s or 1960s for the Christmas tree. |
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Craft Miniature Snow Scene Baubles
| Paper mache bauble halves are perfect supplies for this vintage bauble craft. |
| I made four snow scene baubles with three old Christmas cards. See how children can recycle Christmas cards into window views. |
- translucent white glitter
- white school glue
- paper pulp (premix)
- tacky white glue
- tiny figurines (dear, carolers etc...)
- tiny bottle brush trees
- old Christmas cards (landscapes, city scenes)
- cotton balls
- tiny stickers
- mica chips or miniature mirrors (for ground cover)
- wire for hooks
- hallow bauble halves (plastic or paper, I used both)
- acrylic paints; white and blue
![]() |
| Here you can see the back sides of my snowball baubles. I applied glitter to three of them and cotton batting to one. |
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Decoupage Retro Papier Mâché Baubles
Supply List:
- Mod Podge
- soft brush
- white school glue
- a hexagon shaped papier-mâché bauble
- retro/vintage wrapping papers
- sheet of white typing paper
- scissors
- pencil
- Select the papers you wish to decoupage your prefabricated papier-mâché bauble with. I chose some original vintage/retro Christmas gift wrap from an old sampler book I had on hand.
- Use scratch paper, preferably white, to make a template from your six sided bauble.
- Press the paper firmly against the edges of one side of your papier-mâché bauble in order to capture a "creased" template for your ornament.
- Now use a pencil to trace a pattern where ever the creases have been made from the original papier-mâché form.
- Cut out the template and hold it up to the ornament making slight alterations to the template where ever you need them.
- Place the template on top of your fancy papers and trace around it. Cut the first three shapes slightly larger than the second set of three so that no imperfections in your template will be noticeable as you glue the shapes to cover the sides of your hexagon ornament. Decoupage three sides first leaving every other side blank. Let these sides dry.
- Decoupage the last three sides and cover the finished ornament with a final coat of Mod Podge.
- Decoupage ornaments tutorial from the Christmas Notebook
- Pottery Barn Bird Decoupage Ornament Knock-off
- Decoupaged Christmas bauble and relief paint ornaments
![]() |
| Detailed photographs of my retro papier-mâché bauble. |
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Make a Vintage 1950s Popsicle Stick Angel
![]() |
| A gold trimmed and painted Popsicle Stick Angel ornament from the 1950s. |
Supply List:
- three large Popsicle sticks
- tacky white glue
- a large wooden bead or a cotton batting bead for the head of the angel
- permanent markers (black and red)
- gold trims and braids
- gold sequin stars
- white and skin colored acrylic paint and a paint brush
- gold cord for hanger
- an Exacto knife or very sharp scissors
- hot glue and hot glue gun or tacky white glue
- Cut one of the Popsicle sticks in half using the Exacto knife or sharp scissors. Do so with a diagonal cut so that the two pieces will resemble the simply shaped wings of the angel ornament shown above.
- Paint the Three sticks white on all sides and edges. Let these dry.
- Paint the head of the angel a flesh color of any variety that pleases you.
- Draw in the facial features using the permanent markers.
- Using a hot glue gun or tacky white glue, glue the gold cord for hanging your angel ornament to the very top of her head.
- Now glue around this gold cord a gold braid trim to cover the center hanging cord and the top of the angel's head. This should mimic a cap.
- Next take each wing cut from a Popsicle stick and mount these two with glue onto one of the Popsicle sticks, see the picture above to copy.
- Now glue the third remaining stick on top of the two wings so that the angel's wings are sandwiched between the two uncut sticks.
- Decorate the finished Popsicle body with gold trims, sequins, beads etc...
- Hot glue the head to the top half of the finished body and then glue a piece of gold trim between the shoulders and head to emphasize a fancy collar for the angel.
- Read and download patterns about angel Chrismons at http:christianclipartreview.blogspot.com
- Angel Christmas Ornament video from Danielle's Place
- More angel crafts for kids from The Christian Montessori Network
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Craft a Portrait of Rudolph
| The completed portrait of Rudolph the red nosed reindeer made with brown and grey construction paper, a little paint and one very large red pom pom. See another "Hands On" Christmas Craft at Thrifty Scissors. |
![]() |
| My free vintage reindeer pattern. |




































