Belated Christmas Ornaments.

[Volatile Rainbow]

My fiance and I had a pretty crappy Christmas this year, because all of our spare cash was going into building a house. Therefore, we decided that once our house is complete, we're going to put up our tree and have our own Christmas. My tree doesn't have a single ornament to adorn its branches, so I've recently started making my own. I bought pins, sequins, eye hooks, and styrofoam balls. While each one has turned out to be fairly satisfactory, I'm realizing now that I don't want a seven-foot tree chock full of ornaments that all look the same.

So here's what I need from you:

-Ornament Ideas
-The materials I'll need
-And if it's complicated, an explanation on how to do it
-Stores at which I can find materials or craft books

Any help would really be appreciated--I want my tree to be freakin' awesome.  

[Tes]

~
I like cutting shapes out of felt and decorating those with fabric paint, sequince, beads, yarn, embroidery floss, whatever. Cute little gingerbread men, pretty snowflakes, minature stockings.

You can also hang candy canes on your tree for a sweet addition.

Pomanders also rock out the hard one on trees with their GLORIOUS smell.
To make one take whole cloves and jam as many in an orange as possible, with the stem sort of side in the orange and the flowery looking side out, it helps to take a needle and poke a hole first. Make sure the heads of the cloves are all touching. However leave a space to tie a ribbon at the end. Allow the orange to dry out, don't put it in anything and make sure it is nowhere moist, this helps to dry it out without getting it mouldy. If it does dry without moulding you can keep it for years and it always smells so goood. After it's dried tie your ribbon on and hang it. Apparenyly orrisroot helps it dry faster and more evenly but I've never used it myself so I can't say for sure. You can try putting it into an oven for an hour on a low temp to help dry it out.
http://www.sam.hi-ho.ne.jp/basilica-design/craft/Poto/Pomander.jpg
HOMG they are devine.
~

 

[Maer^ier]

I don't know if you're handy with a crochet hook, but you can crochet justa long string of satin ribbon and it looks poitively gawgous.

Well, I think so anyway.

You may want to use one of the larger sizes of hooks you have though, the small ones take forever.  

[Volatile Rainbow]

Tes

~
I like cutting shapes out of felt and decorating those with fabric paint, sequince, beads, yarn, embroidery floss, whatever. Cute little gingerbread men, pretty snowflakes, minature stockings.

You can also hang candy canes on your tree for a sweet addition.

Pomanders also rock out the hard one on trees with their GLORIOUS smell.
To make one take whole cloves and jam as many in an orange as possible, with the stem sort of side in the orange and the flowery looking side out, it helps to take a needle and poke a hole first. Make sure the heads of the cloves are all touching. However leave a space to tie a ribbon at the end. Allow the orange to dry out, don't put it in anything and make sure it is nowhere moist, this helps to dry it out without getting it mouldy. If it does dry without moulding you can keep it for years and it always smells so goood. After it's dried tie your ribbon on and hang it. Apparenyly orrisroot helps it dry faster and more evenly but I've never used it myself so I can't say for sure. You can try putting it into an oven for an hour on a low temp to help dry it out.
http://www.sam.hi-ho.ne.jp/basilica-design/craft/Poto/Pomander.jpg
HOMG they are devine.
~

I've heard of pomanders before, but I wasn't sure what they were. It sounds like it would make my little house smell wonderful. Thanks! biggrin  

[Volatile Rainbow]

Maer^ier

I don't know if you're handy with a crochet hook, but you can crochet justa long string of satin ribbon and it looks poitively gawgous.

Well, I think so anyway.

You may want to use one of the larger sizes of hooks you have though, the small ones take forever.

Not so handy with a crochet hook, sorry to say. I started to learn a few years ago, but the neighbor that was teaching me moved away. I was really getting into it, too--I was thinking of buying a how-to book the next time I swing by JoAnn's Fabrics.  

[Volatile Rainbow]

ForestGreen

My mom crocheted snowflakes and starched them one year. The tree looked wonderful.
Another thing my mom did one year was make a batch of salt dough and cut out ornaments with our christmas cookie cutters. When they were dry she painted them. http://www.20ishparents.com/holiday/salt.shtml
You could make godseyes and hang them on the tree. http://www.makingfriends.com/godseyes.htm I use popcicle sticks that I've glued together for the frame.
You could also make a paper chain with some fancy paper.

I know there are more things that Mom and I did when I was young and we were really poor, but I can't remember them now.

Wow, I'd forgotten all about the paper chains I used to make in school when I was little. I used to love doing that--it was seriously the highlight of my holiday season. I think it's a great idea, and now that I'm older and have a bit of extra cash, I could do glitter designs on the paper--or I could weave the chain out of some fancy lace or trim, and bead it. Hmm.

Gawsh, this damn tree is turning out to be a lot of work. sweatdrop  

[kochi~mochi]

My friend and i have have our own little tree in her room.
This year, we took a bunch of little paper stars (ya know, the folded poofy ones?) and strung them together. We used sparkly paper to make them, so they were shiney and it was gorgeouse.
We also put our littlest stuffed animals in the tree, which turned out cute.
We made little fairies out of leaves and a little fabric last year, they were cute. We made the body out of fabric, and then actually sewed the leaves on their backs like wings. They were fairies, though they looked more like butterflies.

What i would do for the awesomest tree ever would be to just wander around looking at what you own, and how it could go on the tree. Thinking extremely outside the box makes your tree unique, and extremely memorable. Keychains, bracelets and neclaces hooked together, whatever you find and think would look cool with a little bit of light from the tree. That way, when you see those same objects later in the year, you have a little bit of christmas with you. 3nodding  

[Volatile Rainbow]

Mikono

My friend and i have have our own little tree in her room.
This year, we took a bunch of little paper stars (ya know, the folded poofy ones?) and strung them together. We used sparkly paper to make them, so they were shiney and it was gorgeouse.
We also put our littlest stuffed animals in the tree, which turned out cute.
We made little fairies out of leaves and a little fabric last year, they were cute. We made the body out of fabric, and then actually sewed the leaves on their backs like wings. They were fairies, though they looked more like butterflies.

What i would do for the awesomest tree ever would be to just wander around looking at what you own, and how it could go on the tree. Thinking extremely outside the box makes your tree unique, and extremely memorable. Keychains, bracelets and neclaces hooked together, whatever you find and think would look cool with a little bit of light from the tree. That way, when you see those same objects later in the year, you have a little bit of christmas with you. 3nodding

This is by far the best advice I've heard yet. You've given me a dozen ideas--thank you!  

[Annchen]

Old fashioned but cute... And if you're desperate for sugar you can eat them. biggrin

I couldn't find a good recipe (or rather: I couldn't translate it properly sad )  

[kochi~mochi]

Volatile Rainbow

Mikono

My friend and i have have our own little tree in her room.
This year, we took a bunch of little paper stars (ya know, the folded poofy ones?) and strung them together. We used sparkly paper to make them, so they were shiney and it was gorgeouse.
We also put our littlest stuffed animals in the tree, which turned out cute.
We made little fairies out of leaves and a little fabric last year, they were cute. We made the body out of fabric, and then actually sewed the leaves on their backs like wings. They were fairies, though they looked more like butterflies.

What i would do for the awesomest tree ever would be to just wander around looking at what you own, and how it could go on the tree. Thinking extremely outside the box makes your tree unique, and extremely memorable. Keychains, bracelets and neclaces hooked together, whatever you find and think would look cool with a little bit of light from the tree. That way, when you see those same objects later in the year, you have a little bit of christmas with you. 3nodding

This is by far the best advice I've heard yet. You've given me a dozen ideas--thank you!

No problem! I'm a poor highschool student, and have been putting up my own tree for three years now. 3nodding So i'm well aware how hard it can be to make your tree special without much money going into it.  

[Volatile Rainbow]

Dammit, I wish I could find a Hobby Lobby around here.  

[Volatile Rainbow]

So far I have ten Christmas ornaments and I just started working on my paper chains. I'm thinking about sewing some garland out of cloth, instead of going with the cheap foil kind. It would take me a long time, but I'm thinking it's worth it. Has anyone ever tried this? Does it turn out well? I'm not a master seamstress, but I figured it shouldn't be terribly hard--just involved.

This is what happens when you're out of work sweatdrop  

[Volatile Rainbow]

The stupid glitter pens I bought for the chain are crap, even though I got the most expensive ones I could find, thinking they would be better quality. I laid out the construction paper and did the designs I wanted, and it's been two days and they STILL aren't dry. I'm thinking about using my leftover sequins and glueing them onto the paper links, but I don't know how messy that would turn out to be, or even if it would work.