An Old-Fashioned Christmas Tree Trimmed In Silver Tinsel

       Left, In 2015, my husband has set up the white pine near to the front window of our cozy little family room. I am relieved to report that these pictures were taken last week and the tree is still very fresh. Give your real trees plenty of cool water to drink while they are exhibited during the holidays. Right, the lights are strung and I have yet to cover the rug and plastic at the bottom.

       This year my adult children requested that the tree be decorated in traditional silver; it is not my husband's preference but we will make the exception this time. For a few years I have accumulated silver tinsel garlands, picks, baubles and snowflakes on after Christmas sales for mere pennies. This is the only time to shop for such frivolities if you can bring yourself to do it. Most folks are "burned out" by this time; they are tired of the shopping and crowds. However, if your funds are limited such as mine, this is the most practical time to purchase items for your future Christmas trees.

       Here is a photo of the tree top to bottom. This white pine is very delicate and only light weight trimmings may be used to hang from it's branches. My youngest loves the shimmery glow of lights reflecting off of silver on old-fashioned trees like these. This year she chose the theme and colors of our family tree. I rarely have decorated trees using this theme because my husband does not like them so very much. However, he did find this one nostalgic and pleasing. Our oldest family member who is 91 was delighted to see it. Grandpa Al said that it looks just like a Christmas tree from his childhood approx. 1910. The silver tinsel, cotton batting and Victorian scrap all were typical of that time period. Below I have included links to some of the ornaments included on my little Christmas blog. You can make your own versions for the tree this year or next.

       Near to the top center of our family tree, hangs a lovely porcelain head angel trimmed in white feathers and silver tinsel.

       Left, is a wrapped, cotton batting Christmas Bell that I designed after a vintage photograph. Right, is one of a set of 12 icicles hand spun from cotton batting last year.

       Left, This Victorian wire ribbon rosette is so light weight that I hung it easily from the very tip of this white pine branch. Right, barely seen is a vintage chenille stem Santa; his friend, a snowman, hangs from a lower branch.

       Left, the Birch Yule Log ornament with a hollow opening for Christmas letters and or treats. Right, the DIY Sea Shell Star ornament made from cotton batting sheets and paper clay shells.

       Upper Left, is a snowball garland made from cotton batting and glass bugle beads. These garlands were very common place on Christmas trees 100 years ago.  Right, is the cotton batting basket ornament that I crafted for this tree several night before.

       Left, is a Victorian scrap angel made with a cup cake liner and a silver snowflake. Right, at the top of my tree hangs an angel trimmed with a golden tassel skirt.

• Craft paper rosette ornaments and garlands 
• Search all the cotton batting ornament crafts from my blog 

More Silver Tree Trimmings:

• Traditional Silver Christmas Tree
• Aluminum Christmas Tree slide show
• Silvery White Christmas Tree
• Silver, Gold and Blue Christmas Tree
  

Cotton Batting Baskets

       Originally I intended to turn these little wire frame baskets into paper mache´ornaments. But because I decided to decorate my living Christmas tree with cotton batting ornaments this year, I chose to wrap them with cotton. 

       Our family tree this year is a white pine and as some of you may know, these branches can hold little weight and the foliage is generally quite sparse. The white pine needles are long, fine and soft. For all of these reasons, many people avoid cutting white pines and opt for a sturdy blue spruce instead.
        The positive aspect of selecting a white pine is, however, what is looks like when properly trimmed. These trees are often used to display very light weight, antique glass ornaments because it is much easier to view large collections through fewer branches from every angle and although I do not have an expensive glass collection, I do have many cotton batting reproductions that I like to show off with similar flair.

These wire shaped baskets were made with chenille stems intertwined 
together across the backside of a small bowl. The examples are not yet 
wrapped with cotton batting because I thought that I would craft them
into paper mache´ baskets.  If you wish to make your own using cotton,
 I recommend that you wrap them first with batting before shaping the
basket on the backside of a small bowl. 

Supply List:

• ornamental picks with berries and strong wire stems
• cotton balls
• white glue
• masking tape
• chenille stems
• quail eggs (hollow)
• a small bowl to use as a form

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Twist masking tape around the chenille stems until the furry parts have all been covered and as you twist the tape, pull it slightly to help stiffen the wires a bit.
2. At this point I recommend that you coat the masked wire with white glue and begin to wrap the wires with white cotton. This is a vert messy prospect but you will get the hang of it in time.
3. You can also try rolling the wire between the palms of your hands in order to twist the cotton in a more uniform coating about the wire. It doesn't matter if your surfaces are imperfect at this point. 
4. Take the longest cotton wrapped stem and twist it around the outer rim of a very small bowl. Tape the edges together. You should let these overlap a bit. When you are finished with this step, you should have a wire circle the same circumference as the lip of your bowl. 
5. Leave this around the outer lip of the bowl. Now you will need to begin to weave additional wires around this wire "hoop" and across the back of the bowl. Cross these wires back and forth and tape them together with strips of masking tape wherever they come in contact with each other. See photo above. When you are finished, you should have some lovely, abstract wire baskets to fill.
6. I decided to twist some decorative, artificial raspberries, leaves and stems around my baskets and to also give each one a handle as well. I took apart a few inexpensive picks to accomplish this. 
7. When the baskets looked the way I wanted them to, I then lined each one with some soft fluffy cotton padding and a bit of glue. At this point you could line your wire baskets with tinsel instead to craft an alternative look. 
8. I stuffed the inside of my cotton batting baskets with hollowed out quail's eggs. These baskets are so light weight that they can be hung from the branches of a white pine quite successfully!

Far left, the wire frames taken off the bowls are neatly shaped and ready to paint, mache´ or wrap with cotton balls. (unraveled cotton balls) Center, close up, side view of one basket. Right, I filled my small, light weight baskets with hollow quail's eggs and more soft cotton before hanging it on my Christmas tree.

Mosaic Shell Baubles

       When I was a young girl, I often visited my grandmother who lived next door to a very unusual house. The home owner loved to decorate his front lawn with crushed bits of glass, shell, and porcelain pressed into cement forms. That's right, he had no grass. 

        Being a very young person, I thought this was quite the fantastic display. However, I am certain that his neighbors did not appreciate his taste so much. His creation was dismantled after the house exchanged hands but I still remember it fondly and I thought of him while crafting these ornaments for my white Christmas tree.

These paper baubles are fashioned from egg cartons.

Supply List:

• paper egg carton
• shell pieces for mosaic crafts
• tiny shells
• porcelain figures of sea creatures
• tacky white glue
• white school glue
• wire for hanging
• aqua blue glitter (fine)
• masking tape

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Cut apart the small units of your paper egg carton and glue/tape these together in order to shape your paper bauble forms. I crushed newsprint into small "spikes" and taped these shapes to my egg carton pieces in order to replicate vintage bauble forms from the late 1800s. 
2. This process takes time, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be crushing and taping enough ornament shapes to open your own factory! Don't forget to crush and tape around wooden toothpicks in order to craft features that would ordinarily bend or bust off over time if not reinforced by stiff materials inside your bauble. 
3. Tape in a wire hook for hanging and reinforce it with a bit of glue as well.
4. Now you are ready to glue shells and shell mosaic pieces onto the bauble surface. Use a very tacky white glue for this procedure. If your ornaments are three dimensional like mine, this will take much time and patience because it takes time for the glue to dry properly. I know that many of you are thinking, "wouldn't hot glue be a better alternative?" Well, it wouldn't for many reasons. The most obvious reason being that you would definitely get burned many more times than you expect. Secondly, it is my opinion that hot glued work looks sloppy and it is not really permanent. I could continue to rant but that is enough for now.
5. Next, I pooled white glue inside the crevices of my shapes and sprinkled aqua colored glitter. This may take a couple of days to dry. Don't bother trying to smooth out this surface. In nature, it would not likely be so smooth. My intent here was to suggest a shallow pool or puddle of water where one might see a small sea creature, such as a tide pool.
6. I then purchased a couple of miniature sea creatures from a local hobby shop to swim about these mosaic shell baubles. I chose a tiny fish and an octopus that have the same shiny surface as the shell pieces.

I glued the shell mosaic pieces directly onto the masked surfaces with tacky glue.

Details of the finished mosaic baubles. The tiny octopus and clown fish are made from porcelain.

More Ocean or Beach Themed Christmas Decorations:

• Seaside Christmas Tree from Beach Cottage Decor Finds
• Handmade Christmas Ornaments by Martha Stewart and Easy to Make Shell Garland and and 12 Homemade Xmas Ornaments to Make from Completely Coastal
• white Christmas tree with netting and sailboats
• Beach Christmas Seashell Tree
• Bountiful Shell Inspiration from Fine Shell Art Blog
• Holiday Decorations from Southern Soul Mate
• Pinboard "Aquamarine for Christmas"

 M/S of waves crashing in over rocks, Bovey Tracey, Devon.

Last Christmas I Acquired A White Christmas Tree

      Now many folks debate over politics, religion, sporting events, evening meals etc.... But in my home the debates surround the Christmas decor. 

       I had it in my mind to decorate a white Christmas tree and put the progress online. So now I am off to wander a bit today to see what I can find. My younger daughter has told me that she does not want me to decorate this tree in red, white and blue. She told me this because she knows that I would try to do that very thing, given the fact that my two favorite colors are red and blue. 

       Wish me luck, I'm thinking perhaps a pale aqua and copper color scheme instead? I'll be back to show you my progress . . .

Here are some of the items that I purchased. Pale blue snowflakes,
white snowflakes, two different copper colored glitters, copper foil spray
 paint and aqua blue and copper colored sea glass (acrylic).

       As I consider designing the ornaments for my tree, there are several practices that I usually conform to. The selection of a color scheme is the most obvious of these practices. Keep in mind that color schemes should be obvious from an easy distance. Although, it is not important that every ornament shares the exact same color. In fact, it is better for there to be slight variations in a color palette in order to lend a greater sophistication to a Christmas trees' appearance overall. For my white tree this year, I will be sticking with two color selections: copper and teal. I will also be over emphasizing the white of the tree as well.
       A large group of similar ornaments should also be evenly distributed throughout the tree from top to bottom. As you can see in the photo above, I have acquired these ornaments already: snowflakes in white and pale blue. Snowflakes are a motif that I prefer to ordinary glass baubles because of the textures and visual complications these add to my trees. These are also affordably priced in the states and seldom break. I will also accumulate and alter a generous selection of pine cones to wire to my white tree from my neighborhood. Not only are these inexpensive to decorate with but large numbers of similar ornaments, like pine cones, will give my tree a formal regulated appearance.
       The lighting of my tree needs to be consistent as well. For this tree I will most likely select white lights. But what is more important to me, is that the length of wiring attaching the lights should be white. In order for the wiring on any tree to be less evident, it must be the same color as the tree itself.

Left. Baubles that I purchased on clearance after Christmas. The red versions will be put on the green tree only I think. Center. A few more art supplies for this year's white tree. Right. The tree topper that I began to work on last year. It is partly finished but I will show how to paint it on a future post. I will look really nice on the white Christmas tree I think.

       Selecting metallic baubles for each of my Christmas trees is also a matter of routine. I usually hang these close the the interior of my trees, just behind the electric lights. These metallic finishes will help reflect the artificial lights and lend more sparkle to my tree overall. Because my color palette is copper and teal for the white tree this year, I will use metallic glass baubles already in my collection with similar color variations.
       The crowning glory of the tree should be consistent with the overall appearance of the tree but for many folks, a tree topper is a neglected item. Perhaps this is because tree toppers generally cost more and there are fewer choices to be had in the Christmas market places of America. Most Americans will top off their tree with an angel, star, or Santa. I will be making my own tree topper in order to save money and I already know in advance that this particular topper will be a star of some sort.
       When designing my tree ornaments, I try to remember my husband's eccentricities. He is not fond of tinsel. I, however, am of the mind that every Christmas tree should have some sparkle! For this reason, I have had to come up with more complicated designs in order to achieve an overall "glittery" affect without using obvious ropes or prefabricated icicles on our family trees. Sometimes I feel like the cook in that child's classic book, "Stone Soup." After every member of my family takes what they don't like off of my Christmas trees, there is very little left! One daughter doesn't like this color, the other doesn't like too many ornaments and the husband wants only trees to look like his mother's versions, wow. And you thought picking out the perfect tree was a contentious process among your family members?  That event is only the beginning of negotiations at our home.

The debate over real or artificial continues. Which is best?

 Go with both! I get one real one for the sake of tradition

 and then put up several artificial ones. These I have 

kept for many, many years.

The ornaments that I am in the process of crafting for this tree:

• Mosaic Shell Baubles

Links to Decorating White Christmas Trees:

• Eric Pike decorates a white Christmas tree
• Dreaming of a White Christmas Tree
• Beautiful Collection of Gorgeous White Christmas Trees
• How to Decorate a Flocked Tree

Redwork Pet Patterns

      Here is a fanciful collection of antique-looking pet patterns for those of you who love to embroider old-fashioned redwork. You can enlarge the pictures, if you need to, by printing them out and rescanning them in your photo copier.

dog and cat seated, side by side

kitten and puppy in a basket together

cat fishing for trouble

Mandy Shaw loves her redwork and inspired by this antique quilt she shares with us how
 to design your own and then transfer the designs ready for stitching; this is just a taster
video; the watch the full film you should go to www.justhands-on.tv

More free redwork patterns from my Prickly Pins Blog:

• Nautical Themes for Redwork
• Victorian Themes for Redwork
• Native American Themes for Redwork

Turn a Novel Mexican Table Set

      The Mexican couple shown right, and the "jumbo" cactus just below, provide novel containers for salt, pepper and sugar. The cactus is turned by following the method described for the powder box. It should be finished smoothly on the inside. The handles are notched around the edge and hollowed out in the center to resemble flower blossoms. The one at the top can be turned with the lid and later carved, while those glued to the sides are turned separately. Holes bored lengthwise through the salt and pepper shakers are tapered at the bottom to fit the corks, after which a number of small holes are drilled through the top to meet the center opening.

• 31-MD-00186- Salt and Pepper Shakers Art Deco
• 31-DP-00214-Turned Salt and Pepper Shakers Honeycomb Tops
• Salt and Pepper Shakers - modern 
• Drill press and band saw only - wood branch salt and pepper shakers
• Maple domed tops for salt and pepper shakers
• How to turn a bowl with a matching lid - lathe work
• Wood Turning, Bowl & Lid Part 1 - at YouTube
• Wood Turning - A Lidded Box in Sycamore at YouTube

Use three shades of green paint for this cactus sugar bowl: dark green, a lighter shade of green and then a very
pale green for the star shaped, prickly needles.

Cut This Novel, Dutch Boy Pipe Holder!

Click to enlarge pattern.

      This holder will provide a novel decoration to dad's smoking set. The figure is scroll sawed from 1/4-in. plywood and the base is of 21/2 inch solid stock. Tenons extending down from the feet fit snugly in holes in the base to support the figure, which is sanded and painted in appropriate colors. Note that a small oval depression is made near the end of the base to take the pipe bowl so that it will not tip.

Charring Enlarges Pipe Stem

      A rubber pipe stem that does not fit tightly can often be made to fit by charring it with a match to increase the diameter of the portion that fits into the bowl. Hold the stem in the match flame until small bubbles appear in the rubber, then stick it into water to harden. 

• How to make a briar pipe using a drill press and lathe
• Lord of the Rings pipes: Handmade Churchwarden's
• Missouri Meerschaum Pipes
• Learn the basics of crafting wooden smoking pipes
• Read about toy pipe smokers, Räuchermann, made by hand in The Ore Mountains