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!!

A Clowder of Christmas Cat Ornaments!

November 25, 2019November 25, 201912 Comments

Good morning! How was everyone’s weekend? Mine was crazy busy, but it was fun. I celebrated one Thanksgiving already and I ate so much food! I basically had to be rolled out the front door to my car that’s how much food I ate. But it was a wonderful day with family and I wouldn’t change anything.

*This post is sponsored by DecoArt. All opinions given in this blog post are my own.*

Welcome to the 5th annual 12 Days of Holiday Ideas event, hosted by Shirley of Intelligent Domestications and Erlene of My Pinterventures Between Nov. 11th and December 6th there will be hundreds of new ideas shared by over 55 Co-host bloggers!

Go here to see our kick-off collection of Holiday ideas as well as all of this years talented participating DIY and Foodie Blogs. Download this years November and December calendars with all of the topics and dates so you can make plans to watch for ideas!

We are hosting a BIG GIVEAWAY from our Sponsors this year! Be sure to scroll all the way down for more information and to enter to win!

Today we are showing you how to make your very own ornament! And I promise, this isn’t super complicated. It can be done in one afternoon if you wanted.

Now as some of you may know, I have 2 cats named Target and Amelia. I love my crazy cats and I have cat ornaments that look like them. But, I knew I wanted some other cat ornaments for my Christmas tree to spice it up a bit. So I am here to give you instructions on how to make your own cat ornaments!

Things you need:

-Popsicle Sticks

-Paint

-Pipe Cleaners

-Colored Felt

-String

-Hot Glue

-Sharpie

Step 1: Paint the Popsicle Sticks

This step is pretty self explanatory, but it’s still the first thing I did. I used the awesome paint from our sponsor DecoArt! DecoArt is one of the sponsors for the 12 Days of Christmas and they graciously sent us 8 different paint colors to use to our hearts content. They are also part of the giveaway at the bottom of the blog posts so make sure to check that out! We appreciate them sending us the paint and sponsoring this blog post!

My personal favorites are the pink, red, and dark blue. The darker colors covered the popsicle sticks really well, but I had a bit of trouble with the silver. It didn’t show up on the wood, so I would suggest using it as a top layer to add some sparkle on your project. The light green was okay but it was kind of streaky so I was not a fan of that one either. But I painted the sticks to prep them for step 2.

Step 2: Make your Pipe Cleaner Tails and Glue to the Popsicle Stick

I tried to match the pipe cleaner to the correct paint but unfortunately I didn’t have purple or dark green, so I used colors that looked good together. I tried to make my tails look a little different so my cats had some character. Here is what my blue tail looked like!

I did have to bend the tails just a smidge so that way I could glue it to the Popsicle stick, but it didn’t hurt the tail at all. I put a small amount of glue on the Popsicle stick so that I could stick the two pieces together.

Here’s all of my cats with their tails!

Step 3: Draw a Face on your Cat

I used a fine point sharpie to draw a little face on the cat, but you might be able to use a regular sharpie on a bigger Popsicle stick. I drew two little eyes, a nose, a mouth, and 3 whiskers on each side.

Step 4: Glue a String Loop to the Cat

You can do this step a couple different ways depending on how you want to hang your cat ornament. I took a bit of thread and hot glued it to the back of the head side of the cat. You can use twine or even an ornament hook if you wanted, but you will need some hot glue to hold it together!

Step 5: Make Ears and Scarves out of Felt

Originally, I was going to end here. But I didn’t think the cats looked quite right without some tiny ears and some cute scarves. So I cut some felt that matched my cat bodies to make some tiny little ears and some red and yellow felt for some wintery scarves.

Step 6: Admire Your Cute Kitties!

I think they turned out so cute! I now have a clowder of cats for my Christmas Tree which will be perfect to add with my Target and Amelia ornaments. I hope you enjoyed this cute tutorial and thank you to DecoArt for the paint! See you on Wednesday for the next blog post!

MEET OUR SPONSORS who have generously donated fabulous prizes for the Big Christmas Giveaway!

DecoArt winner will receive a prize package valued at $100!

Dixie Crystals/Imperial Sugar winner will receive a Keurig Coffee Maker valued at $100!

Oriental Trading winner will receive an OrientalTrading.com gift card valued at $200!

Cabot Cheese winner will receive a gift basket of Cabot products valued at $75!

Burlap Fabric winner will receive a prize pack of products valued at $50!

Zulay Kitchens winner will receive one Milk Frother and a Lemon Squeezer valued at $21

It’s Home To You winner will receive one wooden Santa sign valued at $65

Giveaway begins Nov. 8, 2019 and ends Dec. 6, 2019. Winners will be notified by December 13, 2019. Sponsors will ship each prize to the winner. There will be a total of seven winners, one for each prize. Drawing is by random selection using the Rafflecopter widget.

Must be 18 to win. Open to U.S. residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hundreds of Christmas Ornament Ideas!

November 14, 2019November 11, 2019Leave a comment

Welcome to the 2019 Ornament Exchange Link Party! It’s my fourth year of the blogger ornament exchange and you’ll find hundreds of DIY ornament tutorials and inspiration. This link party runs from November 14th through December 14th, so make sure to come back to add as many of your own handmade ornament tutorials before it closes!

This year, we have 38 talented bloggers hosting the handmade ornament exchange link party! The rules of the challenge were simple: create a handmade ornament for $15 or under, create a tutorial (all tutorials are linked below), and ship the ornament off to a new home!

ORNAMENT EXCHANGE LINK PARTY HOSTS

My Pinterventures • Create and Babble • 2 Bees in a Pod
Across the Boulevard • Elle Marie Home • Faeries and Fauna
Home on the Corner • This Autoimmune Life • Our Unschooling Journey
Domestic Deadline • Inside the Fox Den • Intelligent Domestications
Cookies, Coffee and Crafts • Munofore • Rosewood and Grace
Raggedy Bits • Christmas Tree Lane • Making Manzanita
Mom Home Guide • From Evija with Love • Red Cottage Chronicles
Coastal Bohemian • Our Crafty Mom • Girl, Just DIY! • Pixel Maven’s Retreat
Prim and Propah • Purple Hues and Me • Farm Girl Reformed • Eye Love Knots
Keys to Inspiration • Charleston Crafted • Sparkle Living
Interior Frugalista • Love My Little Cottage • My Family Thyme
Crafting a Family • All Things New Again • Just a Little Creativity

You can see the ornament I created for my new friend Morgan, here.

DIY Turquoise, Silver and Gold Coastal Ornament

I can’t wait to see what you have all created! Link up you ornaments below!

Share your handmade ornament tutorial on the link party below ⇓⇓ Add as many ornament tutorials as you like until December 14th.

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!