Another Carol Duval Show video! Making Polymer Clay Tree Ornaments

Image by CraftyGoat via FlickrHere is a wonderful video from the Carol Duval Show (how I miss that show) that has Donna Kato making a beautiful Christmas tree hanging ornament. I bet if you watch this video, you will soon run to get some polymer clay and begin making your own ornaments. I know I will make these, but first I will watch the video about 100 times because I just love Carol and Donna Kato, but I really loved this show.

Enjoy the video!

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Dorset Button Christmas Decoration

Here is another easy, quick Christmas craft that you can do while watching television.  But, you end up with really lovely tree ornaments!  Enjoy.


I found this tutorial at Trishalandesigns.








I made them for a Blog Swap.












In the original post I briefly explained how I made them.












And then finished the post with a promise to post a step by step tutorial.

As we are all starting to think about the holidays now is a good time to deliver on my promise.

Step 1: You will need a wooden curtain ring with the screw eye attached. Thread, tapestry needle, beads(optional), ribbon to hang.

Step 2: How much thread you will need depends on how big the curtain ring is and how much filling of the centre you plan to do and type of thread. For the orange one I used 2.5 skeins of Stranded Cotton. Unravel the skein so the thread pulls freely. Hold the tail of the thread as in the picture.

Step 3: Make a loop over the tail of the thread. Pull the remaining thread through the loop (imagine a button hole stitch).

Step 4: Pull the "knot' firmly capturing the tail of the thread securely.

Step 5: repeat this step a couple of times then cut off the excess tail.

Step 6: Repeat this step until the entire ring is covered. Make sure that you roll the 'knot' to the inside.










Keep going.












Just a little bit further.

Step 7: Now we are going to make the spokes. I thread the needle (with this thread) before starting this step as its easier than stopping a doing a bit later. Wind the thread around the outside of the ring, down the front side, around the back. You need to be careful here that the point where the threads cross on the top is centred. Ignore the back for the time being.

Step 8a: The photo below shows and even number of spokes on the top. You need an odd number.












Step 8b: Bring the thread from the back onto the front side. Instead of winding completely around push the needle down to the back at the half way point.

Step 9: Now you are going to secure the centre point and at the same time bring the back threads into alignment with the top threads. With the needle threaded criss cross across the centre point pulling the back threads into place as you go. Continue until all are aligned. This is important. If you don't make sure that they are aligned before beginning weaving your button will be off centre. Try and keep the centre neat but don't stress too much as it can be covered by beads or sequins.

Step 10: Now we are going to starting filling in the centre. This is a basic over, under weave. This is why you needed an odd number of spokes. I always start at the top near the scew eye.

Over.

Under











Continue over, under until you get back to the top. The odd number automatically makes sure that the next time around the moves are the opposite.

Step 11: Now is when you get to start to personalise you decoration. There is no need to completely fill in the centre. You can see by the samples that I decorated all differently.

I sewed beads on to the front.








Don't forget the back.It will be seen hanging on the tree. Add some ribbon through the screw eye and pop it onto your tree.

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Christmas Piñatas

Here's a quick and inexpensive tutorial for making Christmas pinatas.  Make several and decorate the tree with gifts, or make a group to give as gifts to friends and acquaintances.  These look simple and easy, so you have time to make plenty.  This also looks like a fun craft to make with the kids!

This was discovered on AllCrafts.com.



I have been wanting to make little papier-mâché Piñatas for such a long time after seeing them on Not Martha, and Christmas seems like the perfect time to make these little balls filled with sweets or toys. They are easy to make with young ones, and fun to find fillings for. Children will enjoy pulling them apart and seeing what’s inside, and everyone will enjoy making them and seeing them hung up around fireplaces, on trees, or clustered on a door or shelf.
With a simple flour and water paste* mixed to a smooth gloopy consistency and papier-mâché strips of tissue paper around semi blown up balloons of about 10-15cm diameter.

Leave a gap around the top as your opening – enough to get goodies inside.

Leave to dry till the case is hard, and then deflate the balloon by pricking it or cutting it with scissors (it won’t pop, but will let air out slowly as it removes itself from the inside of the papier-mâché case).

Once you have the empty shell, you can fill with whatever you like – small bags of sweets, toys, biscuits, glitter or cut out pieces of paper, small puzzles to put together, or even write out your own jokes to tell.

Then take another piece of tissue paper and a length of ribbon and seal the opening with more flour/water paste.

Have fun decorating! Finally add a small tag to the ribbon which says ‘Pull Me’ to help open.

Pull open, and enjoy!
* For those with gluten or wheat allergies, the following alternatives to wheat flour can be used: Tapioca flour, rice flour. Experiment with other flours to see if they work, or alternatively use a white paste with PVA craft glue watered down, however I tried here to limit the amounts of glue being used in the whole project. You may want to add some salt to the paste to prevent mould as well.

Homemade Centerpieces: Felt Christmas Tree Centerpiece

Time for another tutorial on making a wonderful Christmas Decoration. I found this tutorial on All Crafts, where you can find many other wonderful tutorials for holiday crafting.

This one looked especially fun and the end result was beautiful, so I wanted to post it here. Enjoy and Happy Crafting!  Please send me pictures of your tree, if you make one, and while you are at it send a picture to the All Crafts site, too.
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Homemade Centerpieces: Felt Christmas Tree Centerpiece
christmas tree centerpiece
Materials for Homemade Centerpieces -
Felt Christmas Tree Centerpiece
homemade centerpieces
What You Will Need:
* Styrofoam cone (12" x 4-7/8")
* Felt: green (2 shades if desired), red, white, yellow
* Green buttons (about 115)
* 2 yellow buttons
* Small buttons in assorted colors (about 40)
* Yellow seed beads
* Embroidery thread: red and yellow
* Sewing needle
* Thin bead needle
* Wire - 4" (Straightened paperclip)
* One cotton ball
* Hot glue gun

* Scissors
Instructions for Homemade Centerpieces -
Felt Christmas Tree Centerpiece
Step 1:
Begin by printing out the Felt Christmas Tree template. The basic idea of making each bough is quite simple. Trace the pattern onto your felt and cut it out. Hot glue a button onto the end of the piece. Then hot glue just one of the pointed ends and bring the other pointed end over on top of it, creating a cone-like shape. See photos A and B. This is how every piece will be made. The next step will give you the details as to how many and of what size.
homemade centerpieces homemade centerpieces
Step 2:
If the cone you are using is the same size as listed in the materials, than you can follow this step exactly. If you are using a different size cone however, you can get the general idea but change the quantities as needed.

Note: Size 4 on the template sheet is there if you decide to make a tree on a very large cone, but if you are using a 12" cone (like we did) or smaller, you won't need size 4.



The cone will take a total of 16 rows of boughs to cover it completely. For our tree, we alternated between a green and dark green felt for every row. This is optional. The number of pieces you will need to cut out and of what size is listed below, starting at the base of the cone and working up.
* Rows 1 and 2: Cut out 10 for each row (20 total) of size 3 bough
* Row 3: Cut out 9 of size 3
* Row 4: Cut out 8 of size 3
* Rows 5, 6 and 7: Cut out 8 for each row (24 total) of size 2
* Row 8: Cut out 7 of size 2
* Rows 9 and 10: Cut out 6 for each row (12 total) of size 2
* Rows 11 and 12: Cut out 6 for each row (12 total) of size 1
* Rows 13, 14 and 15: Cut out 5 for each row (15 total) of size 1

* Row 16: Cut out 4 of size 1


Step 3:
Now that you know the pieces you will need, you can begin constructing your Christmas tree! For every piece, glue a button on the end and glue the points together as described in Step 1.
Pick one side of the cone to be the front of the tree. You will always start each row from this side. While ideally, every bough would fit nicely between the two below it, that is very hard to do and sometimes the boughs will overlap. By choosing a front, all the overlapping and smooshed boughs will be in the back. If this doesn’t make much sense right now, it will as you begin working.
Begin to hot glue the first row (bottom row) onto the cone. To glue on each piece, put hot glue on the side where the two pointed ends were hot glued together. Then quickly place the piece on the cone and hold it there for a few seconds while the glue cools. Continue to do this until you reach about row 12. See photos C, D and E for how this should be looking.
christmas tree centerpiece homemade centerpieces christmas tree centerpiece
Step 4:
Once you are around row 12, stop and cut out the pattern that is a circle with four lines on the edges. Trace this onto green felt and cut it out. Make slits in the felt where the lines are. Now hot glue the center of this circle to the top of your cone. Then glue down two opposite flaps. See photo F. Now glue down the other two remaining flaps. See photo G. This piece creates a nice felt covered top to your tree.
homemade centerpieces christmas tree centerpiece
You can now finish gluing on the boughs. homemade centerpieces
Step 5:
Now that the tree is mostly done, it is time to make a few of the embellishments! Cut out the peppermint pattern and make 10 to 15 circles out of red felt. Now cut out just the portion of the pattern that will be the white stripes. Trace this onto white felt 10 to 15 times. Each white piece is then sewn onto a red piece in red embroidery thread, using the backstitch . See photo H for an up-close look. Once all of these are finished, hot glue them on the tree as you like.
homemade centerpieces

Next, for the star, trace and cut out two of the star pattern on yellow felt. Sew a yellow button onto the center of each piece, and then sew yellow seed beads around the edge of each piece (a thin bead needle is needed for seed beads). See photo I. Then place both sides together and begin to stitch the running stitch around the edge. Before you completely sew them together, place a cotton ball in between them to give the star a little puffiness. Then tie the thread off.


Step 6:
Just a few finishing touches and your tree will be done! Take your piece of wire and poke it straight down through the top of the cone. This may be difficult since there is hot glue on the top, so use a small nail or something sturdy to get the hole started if necessary. Then just work the star onto the wire so the wire is inside the star.
To complete the tree, just hot glue your tiny colored buttons all over the tree to look like Christmas lights!
Your felt Christmas tree centerpiece is now finished!

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Here's a wonderful ornament that you can make for gifts!

Here's a really great tutorial to make easy gifts to give this year.  I know that I will be trying this myself.  These look so festive and I bet they are really easy.  I may make these to give to my co-workers and to mail with my cards to friends far away.  I really appreciate this wonderful tutorial.  Please click on the title link and visit the blog for more.
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Christmas Ornament Tutorial

Hi! I just sent all 9 packages to their recipients of my swap group today (Phew!) and decided to post the tutorial here as well. It's a christmas ornament made out of shrinkable plastic and adorned with my favourite itsy bitsy buttons. But first, download the template here.

STEP 1 : DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE. This is how the template looks. I've not included the patterns, you may want to decorate them as you like. Digitally or with sharpies/colour markers. I've used quilting textile patterns and put in the recipients name with Adobe Illustrator. If you need the illustrator file, just e-mail me.


STEP 2 : DESIGN YOUR ORNAMENT & PRINT. That's my work table with all the printed shrinkable plastics. Choose shrinkable plastics that allow you to print on your inkjet printer if you intend to do this digitally. Read instructions on shrinking percentage and enlarged as you seem fit. Bigger ornaments need bigger graphics (you may try out one first.) Usually shrinkable plastics will shrink about 50% tp 60% from the printed size. Some may even shrink horizontally more than vertical. For mine, the rounded ornaments started as perfect circles, but when they're heated it shrunk vertically more, so they now appear oval like.


STEP 3 : Remember to print at 50% lighter shade. Because of the shrinking that will take place in your ovennete, things will appear very much darker.



STEP 4 : CUTTING OUT THE PIECES. All arranged out. I'd advice you to cut 1 set at a time and punch the holes as soon as you do. Make sure the punches are on the same direction for all the pieces. If not, you will have the holes in the wrong edges.


Step 5 : PUNCHING THE PIECES. Only punch the edges where you will sew the pieces together. Always remember to punch before heating, if not it will be too late to punch once it is shrunk! Too thick and too damn hard! Oh yes, a bigger punch is used if you need a bigger hole. Too small of a hole will not be effective once it is shrunk. (I hope that makes sense.)
Step 6 : HEATING THE OVEN. Please use the oven. NO MICROWAVE OVENS (unless you want a Chernobyl incident here!) I use a simple toaster oven. You need very low heat (follow manufacturer's heating instructions). Pop them two at a time on top of foil. Watch them shrink and curl. Don't worry about the curling, it will naturally uncurl once it is ready to come out. This will take less than 30 seconds or more depending on heat. When there is no more movement or shrinking, pick them out with wooden chopsticks onto a wooden board and flatten while still warm.


STEP 7 : Place on wooden board to cool. Do the rest. It's quite automatic after awhile. If you notice unsightly dents in the middle, it means that your piece needs more heating. Do not overheat though, it will take a lot of heat to melt it again and it will be disastrous.
You can pop in The big pieces on at a time. Don't be in a rush, I know you'll get excited watching it shrink and dance but you need to control the curving when it comes out from the oven and you need to flatten it immediately.


Check out the shrinking.


Laid out to rest.


STEP 8 : VARNISHING. I used Modge podge to varnish and waterproof the pieces. You can also use aerosol sprays but Modge Podge is way cheaper. Let dry overnight and away from busybody 4 year olds.


STEP 9 : ATTACHING THE PIECES. Select matching buttons. Size of buttons depends on how far the holes are from one piece to another ornament piece. I tie a knot to secure the button first before sewing onto the pieces.


Select the last piece and sew to the upper one.


To knot off by going around a few times and knotting at the back to properly secure the button to the piece.


Sewing the upper pieces together depending on how many layers you want your ornament to be.


STEP 10 : ATTACHING THE RIBBON. Assemble the ribbon and buttons for the upper ornament.


STEP 11 : ATTACHING THE RIBBON FOR THE TOP MOST ORNAMENT. With the same method, attach the topmost ornament with a ribbon for hanging. Select soft ribbons for this.


Do the bow for the middle. You can opt for felt cutouts or maybe lace, there are many possibilities. Use your noodles!


Step 12 : ATTACH THE RIBBON to THE MIDDLE.


Knot off with the same method for a neat finish.


Tada! The finished ornament. This is for Melissa of Group 17.


All in a row. I even made one for myself. Now, remember to write to me about your creation this Christmas.


Merry Christmas Everyone. Have a blessed Christmas and Happy New Year. Do write and keep in touch.

Posted by Yoonie at 1:33 PM

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