If you have never sculpted a tiny cotton batting ornament before, this project is perfect for beginners. I included a project similar to this one last year, an ear of corn, but this one is even easier!
Left, the unpainted pea pod ornament. Right,
The finished version of this vegetable made
from cotton batting.
Supply List:
cotton balls
white school glue
tacky white glue
newsprint
masking tape
wire for hanging
green and white acrylic paints
tiny paint brush
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Crush the newsprint into a small narrow pea pod shape, approximately two inches long.
Wrap this newsprint form in masking tape.
Insert a wire for hanging at the wider end of your pod. Tape and glue in this wire firmly.
Unravel a couple of cotton balls and take a very tiny piece between
your finger tips with a small bit of glue and roll this wad into a tiny
ball. (unravel pictured below)
Repeat this process until you have made four or five pea sized balls.
Use the tacky white glue to begin sticking one, two, three peas
side by side from the top to the bottom of your pea pod shape. Press
these peas together as you go. Take your time and let these dry as
you go. It helps to work near a warm light or heater.
Now wrap a layer of cotton batting around the sides and back of your pea pod. Layer glue on top of this addition before painting it. The front of your peas should not have any additional batting wrap on them. (see picture of unfinished peas in pod above.)
Let your finished pea pod dry overnight.
Paint the pea pod using multiple shades of greens. Use a very tiny brush to get down inside the cracks with
paint.
Let the cotton batting ornament dry and then seal it with a acrylic
gel (Matt finish) to keep your ornament looking clean over time.
Store your cotton batting ornaments between white tissues inside a
tin box with a tight sealing lid. These boxes are the types used to
store butter cookies and sometimes candies.
Unravel ordinary cotton balls to craft this pea pod ornament.
This classical music CD is one of my favorites to play during the Christmas holidays. I know that the choir also has a newer versions that I have yet to hear so I've posted a link to their website below for you to visit and check them out.
The college maintains five choirs, three bands, two orchestras, three
jazz ensembles, two percussion ensembles, and two hand bell choirs.
Historically, music education began with the college's 1891 formation,
when piano and organ lessons were taught by one instructor. The college has since expanded to hold a music department of 45 faculty, which offers five Bachelor of Music degrees and two Bachelor of Arts degrees.
The Concordia Choir is an 78-member mixed choir that travels internationally and has performed at major performance venues, including Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. The choir was founded in 1919 by the college's voice instructor and began touring in 1923 under the direction of Herman Monson. The choir grew to national prominence in the following decades when Paul J. Christiansen, son of conductor F. Melius Christiansen, became the director. Christianson remained in the position for 49 years until composer René Clausen took over in 1986, who remains there today. Under Clausen, The Concordia Choir has released numerous recordings and has performed with the King's Singers.
The college has put on an annual Christmas concert since 1927, which remains a tradition of the local community. From its inception, it has featured the music department's choirs and orchestra. In 1940, Christianson began working with painter Cyrus M. Running to incorporate murals with the concert to reflect the music's themes. Running completed the designs until 1978, when their development was taken over by David J. Hetland, whose murals have traditionally extended 56-by-20 feet. After Hetland's 2006 death, mural designs were taken over by artist Paul Johnson. The concert is currently performed four times annually on Concordia's campus and twice annually at Orchestra Hall. Over 450 students perform for an audience of twenty thousand, and the concert is broadcast on radio and television. The 2009 concert, Journey to Bethlehem, was recorded by Twin Cities Public Television and won a regional Emmy. It was broadcast nationally by members of the Public Broadcasting Service.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
Tape in a wire hook for hanging and reinforce it with a bit of glue as well.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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:
