Decoupage Retro Papier Mâché Baubles

      I found this uniquely shaped, six sided ornament at a hobby shop on an after Christmas sale one year. I decided to use pages from an old sampler gift wrap book to decoupage each side of my ornament. You can also cover papier-mâché baubles such as this one with recycled Christmas cards, wallpapers, scrapbook papers or even photographs if you would prefer these to my own idea.

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 

7 Easy Step-by-Step Directions:

1. 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.
2. Use scratch paper, preferably white, to make a template from your six sided bauble.
3. 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.
4. Now use a pencil to trace a pattern where ever the creases have been made from the original papier-mâché form.
5. Cut out the template and hold it up to the ornament making slight alterations to the template where ever you need them. 
6. 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.
7. Decoupage the last three sides and cover the finished ornament with a final coat of Mod Podge.

More Decoupage Christmas Ornaments:

• 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.

Cut, Paste and Color A Paper Angel Tree Topper

      I designed this brightly colored angel for one of my small trees last year. She is very light weight and made from card stock, scrapbook papers and markers. Simply download and print the pattern below. Cut and trace around the features that you would like in fancy papers. Then embellish the features with permanent markers, glitter and small decorative snowflakes. I colored both sides of this angel and included the "Rejoice" text on the front side of her gown.

      Glue both the front and back sides together along the edges only. Let the tree topper dry overnight before stapling in the paper toilet tube. Make sure you staple together one end of it before inserting the tube between your layers of card stock. (see picture below.) The tube will be the place to fit a narrow branch at the top of your Christmas tree. The tube helps prevent tearing and keeps the angel from losing her shape over time.

      You can decorate an entire tree with brightly colored papers ornaments and top it off with this angel. A tree topper such as this one will compliment a variety of styles and colors. Choose coordinating papers and or colors to achieve your own unique tastes. I will include more paper Christmas ornaments on this blog that you can cut, color and paste to go along with my angel in the near future.

Close up details of my finished paper angel tree topper.

I stapled together the ends of one half of a paper toilet roll and then inserted it between my
two colored angels. Then I positioned it firmly over the top branch of a small tree.

Paper angel tree topper pattern. Enlarge the image to fit an
81/2 x 11 sized paper before printing. Another angel craft by kathy here.

More Paper Tree Toppers:

• A Lovely Woven Star Tree Topper
• Felt birds in a nest for the top of the tree
• How to tie a large bow for the top of the tree with Nancy Alexander

Craft a Snow Baby From Cotton Batting

Close up of my first snowbaby.

     This cotton spun snow baby is made by layering cotton batting and white glue on top of a chenille stem figure wrapped with masking tape. The process, although contemporary, is very similar to those used by German and American cottage industries before and during the First and Second World Wars. If you should choose to make one for yourself, be patient and and allow for plenty of drying time between applications.

Supply List:

• white cotton balls
• translucent white glitter
• white school glue
• white tacky glue
• chenille stems
• newsprint
• masking tape
• a small china or clay head of a child
• acrylic paints (black, brown, blue, red, flesh tone, white)
• flesh tone oven bake clay (if you are making your own head)
• fur and/or hair trims
• wire for hanger

Step-by-Step Directions:

1.  Twist and bend a small figure from chenille stems, crushed newsprint and masking tape.
2. Apply white school glue to this figure and wrap a first layer of cotton batting around the limbs. Let dry.
3. Crush and mask a snowball for your figure to sit upon.
4. Cover the snowball with one layer of cotton batting and white glue. Let dry.
5. Now glue the figure and snowball together with white tacky glue.
6. Glue a hook firmly to the back of your figure at this point so that it may be covered with several layers of cotton batting.
7. Use tacky glue to adhere either a china, composite, or clay mask or head to the body. Let this dry over night. You can see by the pictures below that I twisting wire around my clay mask in order to hold the face in position while it dried over night.
8. Now you can layer rolled cotton into place with glue in order to "fill out" the body of your snowbaby. I chose to give my snowbaby a plump belly and bottom. 
9. Next, add with glue a soft shaped hood around the mask.
10. Let the figure dry overnight again.
11. On the third day I am ready to add my last cotton batting layer. Let this layer dry completely.
12. Add a dusting of translucent white glitter to the snowy areas. My snowbaby is holding two snowballs in her hands. I also glued glitter onto these.
13. Paint the snow baby's facial features and glue on bits of hair and fur.
14. I twisted a layer of cotton to a hook for hanging my snow baby as well.

Step-by-Step photo process of making a cotton batting snow baby.

Different views of my cotton batting snow baby figure.

More About Snow Babies:

• History Behind Snow Babies 

 More articles on this blog about cotton batting ornaments:

• Novel Decorations for the Christmas Tree
• Questions and Answers about reproducing cotton batting ornaments
• Include Cotton Batting and Powdered Mica in Your Christmas Decor!

More Cotton Batting Ornaments: Step-by-Step Directions/Tutorials from Kathy Grimm

• A Craft Tutorial for a Cotton Batting Squirrel
• A Craft Tutorial for a Cotton Batting Hornet's Nest
• Wrap a Cotton Batting Christmas Bell
• Craft a spun cotton batting mushroom by hand
• DIY cotton batting cup of cocoa tutorial 

Sew Primitive Sock Snowmen Ornaments

       As my children grew, I seemed to loose many matches of socks! But being a thrifty parent, I saved the random selection of socks in a basket just encase I ever managed to find a matching pair. 

      After several years of this ongoing frustration, I decided to use up the matchless pairs in a craft, of course, and now you see the result of my endeavors pictured on the right.

Supply List:

• 

  Very primitive snowman with shell button nose.

  white baby socks
• old white button
• plaid felt (brown tones)
• small wire stem with leaves
• yellow wool
• hook for hanging
• batting
• needle and tan or white thread
• black embroidery thread

Tea Bath Supply List:

• black tea
• small pot of water
• stove top

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Bring a few cups of water to a boil on the stove top; then turn off the heat.
2. Add the black tea bag to the water and let the tea bath steep for ten minutes or more just to ensure that you stain will be dark. Don't remove the tea bag.
3. Now soak the white baby socks in the tea bath for 40 to 50 minutes.
4. Remove the socks and set them outside on a glass surface to dry. Make sure that you don't leave these to dry on top of something that you care not to stain! Do not dry the socks in a drying machine. The tea dye will leave a residue that may stain other clothes. Do not rinse out the socks either, this will remove some of the tea stain.
5. Now stuff the socks with a poly-fill batting. 
6. Wrap a small strand of embroidery around the middle of each sock to create a segmented looking snowman.
7. Sew over this knotted floss, a small clipping of wool for the snowman's scarf.
8. Twist the wire stem with leaves into a wreath shape and tack this element onto the front of the snowman's belly with thread so that he looks as if he is holding the miniature wreath.
9. Sew on his button nose and add two little black "cross stitch" eyes.
10. Cut from the plaid felt two triangle shapes and sew these right sides together leaving the shortest end of the triangle open to fit on top of your snowman's head.
11. Turn the little hat right sides out and stitch the pointed hat to the top of the snowman's head.
12. Push the wire hook through the back side of the knit material to hang up your primitive snowman. 
13. Not only does he look cute, he smells good too!

More Handmade Primitive Ornament Crafts:

• A few homemade Christmas decorations from Simply Prim
• Primitive Vintage Script Bird Ornaments
• Country Candy Cane Ornaments
• The Primitive Handmade Directory

Snip, Stitch and Tuck Snowmen From Notions

       Some ornaments are "sew" easy they hardly take much consideration at all to assemble. Make these fun little fellows with your children on a lazy Sunday afternoon. All you need is a treasure trove of old sewing notions and an nice skein or two of white wool yarn.

What a cute way to recycle old odds and ends from your sewing box!

Supplies needed for this craft include: white wool yarn, thimbles and a flexible measuring tape, pins and needles, buttons and old hooks, old wooden spools, card stock, and hot glue gun and glue.

Step-by-Step Directions:

1. Wrap wool yarn around a bit of card stock over and over until the wool forms round balls. 
2. Attach and stack these yarn balls to each other with a long threaded needle using a similar color to the white wool.
3. Hot glue an old wooden spool or a old tin thimble to the top of the snowman's head to serve as a "hat"
4. Sew onto the snowman's face tiny odd notions: buttons for eyes, old hooks for noses, flexible measuring tape for scarfs etc...
5. Weave a thin wire hook into their backs for hanging.

More Ornaments Made From Recycled Wooden Spools:

• Creative Crafts To Make With Old Wooden Thread Spools
• Spool Trees from Silver Boxes
• String wooden spools together to make a snowman
• Tiny birds nesting on top of wooden spools

Craft Easy Nativity Star Ornaments

This Nativity ornament is so easy to make but yet it looks as though took a long time to craft!

      I just love the way this easy little star ornament turned out. I took very little effort on my part to produce it. Depending upon the stickers you use, this project could look quite different. I purchased these nativity stickers at a Michael's hobby store but you could find similar ones at any number of retailers. This is a perfect Christmas ornament project for those who love to scrapbook.

Supply List:

• plastic star ornament container
• white glitter
• white school glue
• sand paper
• wire hanger and one cotton ball
• silver tinsel
• Nativity stickers

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Rough-up both the inside and outside of the plastic ornament container with sandpaper. This will help the glitter stick to the plastic surface.
2. Then layer white glitter on both the outside and inside of the plastic star. You may choose to brush on the glue but I used my finger tips instead. Make sure to give the ornament extra coats of glitter around the edges of the star.
3. Glue inside the ornaments a small amount of silver tinsel. Many retailers sell this material for mere pennies during the holiday season.
4. Now add extra glue to the backing of your stickers and firmly press these to both the inside and outside your glittery star!
5. Cover and wrap a wire hook with cotton batting using white glue. Twist the wire through the plastic hook or hole provided and hang the ornament on your tree.

Left, plastic star ornament containers come with two sides; so you can craft two separate miniature dioramas. Next, rough up the surface of any plastic form in order to give it a surface that will except glue/paint. Center, apply the glitter and glue generously in stages. Far right, glue inside the star ornament a bit of inexpensive tinsel. This ornament has real bling!

More Nativity and Advent Ornament Crafts:

• Read and download patterns about planets and stars from http://christianclipartreview.blogspot.com (Chrismon patterns)
• Stained glass nativity picture
• 2010 Nativity Projects from that artist woman
• Nativity star ornament from the happybrownhouse

Sew Easy Iron-On Embroidery Rose Heart Ornaments

      You can make these simple layered heart ornaments with scraps of fabric, embroidery threads and embroidery decals. I trimmed my layered fabrics with a blanket or button hole stitch. Normally you would iron on the embroidery patch only and finish off the project. However, I added an additional blanket stitch to the edging of my iron-on embroidery roses because these examples were cut from an old recycled pair of jeans. I then added a ribbon to each one for hanging.

The blanket stitch demonstrated.

Learn More About Embroidery Techniques on Machines:

• The easy way to make embroidered patches
• How to Do Free Motion Embroidery On Any Digital Sewing Machine
• Studio Galli Fine Arts & Crafts Films