When I set out to find an idea for this year’s ornament (read my journey), I came across several that made me giggle with delight! And while I won’t reveal any of them (because you’ll see them in future years!), I was completely charmed when my husband discovered this year’s ornament idea.

I subscribe to the Lowe’s Creative Ideas magazine – a free publication that comes every few months. With each arrival, I sit down and read it cover to cover, taking in the creative ideas I might be able to try in my own home.

You can only imagine my excitement when the Holiday 2011 magazine came a few months back. My husband had gotten the mail that day and when I got home from work that evening, he had already opened the page to the tiny tree ornament. “I think you should make this ornament this year,” he said with excitement. (I think he’s grown just as excited every year to see what creation I’ll come up with!)

This fun little tree is made from wood joining biscuits used in wood working projects. (However, my local Lowes store didn’t have the small ones. I found them at Home Depot.) I had so much fun making the ornaments this year because they were something different and so unique.

Here’s wishing you all a Merry Christmas! May your trees be decorated with all kinds of fun creations this year!

Day 14: 2011 Christmas Tree

Materials:

• Wood joining biscuit
• Wooden dowels
• Screw eyes
• Orange peel texture (spray can)
• Hot glue
• Twine
• Ribbon of your choice
• Tagboard

Instructions: From the tagboard, cut a 4.5-inch circle and cut in half. Make a cone from each piece and glue the edges together, leaving a small hole at the top. For the branches, glue biscuits to the one, working from the base up and overlapping. The first row along the bottom should hang off the end of the cone about half way. The top two layers should overlap slightly. Paint the tree. Spray the texture on the biscuits for snow. Cut the dowel to hang out slightly from the bottom. Attach a screw eye to the top of the dowel pin for the trunk. Thread the twine for the hanger. I glued the dowel into the top of the cone to hold it in place. Add a ribbon bow.

The journey continues on revealing an ornament from my collection (see related post).

Day 13: 2010 Santa Clothespin

Materials:

• Wooden clothespin
• Felt: red and white
• 2.5-inch screw eyes
• Paints: red, black
• Hot glue
• Black ribbon for belt and hanger
• Black button
• Santa template

Instructions: Start by painting the clothespin from the top all the way down to leave ½-inch at the bottom. Paint the remaining ½-inch with black. Paint the top of the head white, but leave the face part the color of the clothespin.

Carefully screw in the screw eyes to the top of the clothespin.

Download the Santa template. Trace the templates onto the red felt and cut out the shapes. Use hot glug to put the clothes on Santa. After it’s dry, add Santa’s belt and button. Trace the arms from the given templates and cot out four arms for each Santa. To make the arms thicker than the clothing, glue two of the felt arms together and let dry. Attach the arms to each doll with a dab of glue.

Cut out Santa’s hat, beard and mustache from the white felt and attach to the head.

Once done, thread the ribbon through the screw eye and hang on the tree.

The journey continues on revealing an ornament from my collection (see related post).

Day 12: 2009 Santa Paintbrush

Materials:

• Small craft paintbrush
• Piece of craft paper or linen paper
• Paints: red, flesh, off white, black, white
• Delta Decorative Snow
• Twine
• Hot glue

Instructions: Start by painting the handle of the brush red for the hat. Cut a piece of craft paper or linen paper to wrap around the brass portion of the brush. Glue in place. Paint Santa’s face with the flesh paint. Add an off-white mustache and black eyes. For the nose, I used white paint, but put a small amount on the brush, then dabbed it on a paper towel to get out the most of the paint. Then brush on a slight nose. With white paint on your brush, speckle it on the red handle to add the splotches. Then, with the decorative snow, dab it on for the brim of Santa’s hat and the tip. Add twine as a hanger.

The journey continues on revealing an ornament from my collection (see related post).

Day 11: 2008 Penguin

Materials:

• Sculpey clay in black, orange, white and green
• Black permanent marker
• Paper clips
• Ribbon

Instructions: Start by kneading your clay for a few minutes to make it workable. Prepare for the baking of these ornaments on a metal sheet at 275 degrees.

Start with the body of the penguin and form an egg-shape out of black about 2-inches tall and about 1.5 inches thick at the base. Next, grab a small piece of the white clay, form a small ball and then flatten for the penguin’s stomach. Before attaching it to the body, take a paper clip and rough the body of the penguin and the back of the stomach, which will allow the two surfaces to form a bond. Place the stomach on the body and smooth into place. The stomach is about 1-inch wide.

Next, form two small white balls for the eyes. Follow the same directions above for sticking the two together by roughing the sides with a paper clip. Add two small tiny black dots for the eyes. Next, roll a small piece of orange and form a small beak for the penguin. Add it to the body with the same directions above. Use a paper clip and form a small crease in the beak.

To make the feet, form two balls of orange clay for the feet. Mold into an oblong egg-shape and fix to the body. Use the paper clip to form three small toe creases at the top. Add a small piece of green to the bottom of the feet for the skates, and then insert the paper clips into the feet.

To make the hat, form a ball of green and roll it into a cone shape. Work an indent into the inside so that it can sit on the penguin head. Fold over the top of the hat and place a white clay “pom pom” at the end. It’s important to make sure this fold in the top of the hat folds over and touches the hat, but still has a slit so that you can fit the ribbon through. Use the same directions to rough up the edges of both the hat and body before attaching the hat to form the bond.

Bake at 275 degrees for 30 minutes. Allow to cool completely. Add a ribbon to hang the ornament.

The journey continues on revealing an ornament from my collection (see related post).

Day 10: 2007 Snowman Bell

Materials:

• Large craft bell (I found rusty red bells)
• Paints: white, orange, black, yellow, green
• Paint brushes of varying sizes
• Sponges
• Twine

Instructions: Start with the white paint on a brush and dab out some of the paint on a paper towel. Dab on the paint using soft textured actions to keep the snowman looking like he has rough edges. You may also use a sponge for this action. Using a brush, paint on the snowman’s hat of any color you want, adding fringe details and black edging. Paint the snowman’s eyes and mouth with black, his carrot nose with orange. For extra texture and detail, I used the sponge and added extra paint texture around the bell. Add a piece of twine for the hanger.