Travel Map Favorite Places Ornament

November 23, 2020November 22, 20205 Comments

Good morning! It’s Thanksgiving this week in the U.S., so Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I have been busy getting my house decorated for Christmas this past week. I will get some pictures taken and take you all on a tour soon.

I made this ornament for Lauren a couple of years ago but never posted it. I don’t have many pictures, but it is pretty simple to make. I have several other projects using Mod Podge. Click on the title to take a look!

Items you will need for the project:

Styrofoam ball
Mod Podge
Map
Popsicle stick
Paint brush
Glitter

For this ornament, I wanted to include the city of Seattle because that is one of Lauren’s favorite places. You can pick a favorite vacation spot, a hometown, or a spot that is special to you! If you can’t find a paper map, you can print maps off the internet to use.

I tore the map into little pieces being sure to keep the city of Seattle in the middle of one piece. I used a popsicle stick to hold my styrofoam ball.

I took the paintbrush and spread it onto the back of the piece of map and then placed it on the styrofoam ball. I kept doing this overlapping pieces of the map as I went.

Once the whole ball was covered, I spread Mod Podge over the whole thing, making sure to add Mod Podge under pieces that weren’t laying flat. I also sprinkled iridescent glitter over the whole thing while it was wet. Once the ball was dry, I added a rope loop at the top to hang it with. I made a little hole in the top with a pencil, put some glue in it and then stuck the rope inside.

travel ornament glitter sparkles and hanger

You can see Seattle in the picture below. I love how it sparkles! Oh, I also added a bow to the top.

I always buy an ornament for the different places we travel too, so this is the perfect addition.

travel ornament blue green glitter map pieces

Do you have a special place you would feature on your ornament? I would love to hear about it! Have a great week!

Homemade Christmas Ornament Roundup

November 9, 2020November 8, 20203 Comments

Good morning! Can you believe it is almost the middle of November already? That seems so crazy! Now is the time to create some new ornaments for your Christmas Tree. Have you ever hosted an ornament party or attended one? I think that would be a lot of fun.

I went back through the blog to look at what ornaments I have made throughout the years. I was surprised at how many there were! There are lots of different ideas and skill levels to choose from. I hope you find something to inspire you!

Paper Pinecone Ornament-This was one of my first ornaments I made for the blog. I still hang this one on my tree and love how it turned out. It does take a bit more time, but it was so worth it.

Faux Deer Ornament-This ornament was made for a fellow blogger and was the first Ornament Exchange I participated in. It was always fun to create a special gift for someone else.

Glittering Silver Sequin Ornament– This was one of my first ornaments, hence, the blurry pictures. This one takes a bit more time, but it’s not difficult. It’s very pretty on the tree!

From Sea Urchin to Jellyfish Ornament– Here is another one from the Ornament Exchange. I made this one for a fellow coastal lover!

Wooden Buoy Ornament– More coastal! This one I made for my own tree and love how they turned out!

Wire Star Ornament– Lauren and I made this one together and would be a great one to make with your kids.

Seashell and Driftwood Ornament– Here is another ornament for the Ornament Exchange. It was so fun to make one and to receive one!

Minnie Mouse Wooden Bead Ornament-Here is a fun one for all the Disney lovers!

Nautical Inspired Seashell Ornament– This is the last one I made for the Ornament Exchange. I always make an extra for myself too. 🙂

Christmas Cat Ornament– Lauren made this one last year. Perfect for the kids and for cat lovers!

Wow! That’s a lot of ideas for you! I hope you found something to inspire you! I added some links below to some craft items you may need or want to purchase. We are an affiliate for Amazon, so we earn a little commission on anything you purchase, at no extra cost to you. Thank you so much for being our faithful followers!!

Nautical Inspired Seashell Ornament

November 14, 2019November 11, 201913 Comments

Good morning! Welcome to the 2019 Ornament Exchange! I’m so excited to be participating again this year! It’s such a great way to find other bloggers and some new friends. Thank you Erlene for putting this all together! Look at all these great ideas! You can click here to go back to the blog hop and link up your own ornaments!

This year I was partnered with Morgan from Charleston Crafted. She has some of the cutest ideas and the cutest little boy! I love her style and enjoy following all the diy’s her and her husband work on. Please go over and take a look at her blog!

Morgan enjoys the coastal style just like I do, so making her an ornament for her Christmas tree was easy! I started our with these clear ornaments. I found the smaller ones at the Dollar tree and loved the swirly design.

I bought some glittery paint to add to the ornaments. I knew these would be the perfect colors for Morgan.

I practiced making dots first on a piece of paper. I didn’t want to mess up the ornaments!

I used a cup to balance the ornament on and once one side was dry, I turned the ornament to paint the other side.

While the paint was drying, I made bows for the top of each ornament. I learned to make bows years ago when I took some florist classes. They aren’t too difficult, but do take a little bit of practice. If you want really nice looking bow, use wired ribbon. It makes any bow look perfect! Here are the steps for making your own bow:

!. Start with a small loop of ribbon. This will be the center of your bow.

2. Twist the long piece of the ribbon on the back of the loop.

3. Taking the long piece, twist the ribbon into another longer loop on one side. When you bring it back to the middle, twist it again and make a loop on the other side.

4. Keep making loops on each side of the center loop and keep twisting the ribbon on the back.

5. Once you have as many loops as you want on each side, make one more loop around the bottom. You can also leave extra so you will have 3 tails on the bottom.

6. Cut a small piece of wire (easier done before you start :)), slide half the wire through the middle loop.

7. This part takes a little practice. The wire should go between your two first fingers and them squeeze the two ends of the wire together under the loop.

8. Once the wire is together, twist it tightly around to secure the bow.

Fluff up each loop and cut the long tail loop and you have a bow! Did you know if you cut ribbon on a diagonal, it won’t fray?

Here is a video too that might make it a little easier to understand.

I used silver and gold ribbon, tied them into bows and glued them to the top of each ornament. I also glued some seashells onto the ribbon, just to make it look more coastal.

They look so pretty when they sparkle with the lights from the tree.

Since the ornaments were a little hard to see on a white tree, I took a few pictures with green pine too.

I loved making these and I think they turned out so good. Thank you Morgan for your ornament too! I will be sharing it soon! Be sure to go back and link up your ornaments too. I would love to see them! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Seashell and Driftwood Ornament

November 15, 2018November 5, 20188 Comments

Good morning! I have an exciting post today! I am taking part in MyPinterventures Ornament Exchange! (Thanks Erlene!) I believe this is the 4th year I have participated in the exchange and it’s fun to see what all the other bloggers come up with for their ornaments and see what your partner made for you!

I was partnered with Michelle from Coastal Bohemian. Of course, coastal always works for me! I picked up the driftwood from the beach this past summer and I bought the small seashells ($2.99) and charms ($1.99) from Michaels. I already had the pretty string from another project. Other than those pieces, I just needed my drill and my hot glue gun.

I started out by drilling a hole in the top of each piece of driftwood, so there would be a place for the string. This was pretty easy since the wood is so soft.

I picked which charms I wanted to use and snipped off the ring at the top with wire cutters. I used hot glue to attach it to the driftwood.

I played around with different placement of the seashells, trying out different colors and sizes. Once I was happy with it, I hot glued them into place.

The last step was to tie a piece of string through the hole so it could hang from the tree.

They turned out so pretty! I’m going to make a couple of extra for my own tree too.

I hope Michelle enjoys hanging these on her tree as much as I enjoyed making them.

The pretty colors and seashells immediately take me back to the beach.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! I hope you take time to go visit the other bloggers and see their ornaments too! If you would like to add your ornament how-to to the link party, go here.

Star Wire Ornament

December 19, 2017December 18, 2017Leave a comment

Hello everyone! Here is a post from last year. Hope you enjoy!

This is a super simple project that my mom and I put together with the short amount of free time that we have had. Hope that you enjoy!

First of all, gather your supplies. You will need 2 gauges of wire, 20-24 gauge and a thicker one, around 18 gauge. You also need your cookie cutter and wire cutters.

Start by making a loop at the end of the thicker wire. I used a pencil and wrapped around it. Secure the end by wrapping it back around the wire.

Now you can wrap the wire around the cookie cutter. I ended up wrapping twice, just to make it stronger, but once will probably be enough. You want to be able to push it into the corners and around edges.

Once it is wrapped, secure it by wrapping around the part where the loop is. Then you can remove it from the cookie cutter. Cut off any excess with the wire cutters.

Now for the fun part! Start wrapping wire around the star shape. This is where you use the thinner wire. I just kept wrapping around all different ways until I felt like it was finished.

This will look so pretty on the tree! You could pick different colored wire too, like copper or gold. I tied a sheer white ribbon around the top. I did try with with a heart shape too, but it didn’t have enough edges to keep the wire in place. Too bad, because it would have looked really cute :(.