Christmas Hanging Basket

I have seen pictures on the internet of these pretty moss lined hanging baskets converted to Christmassy hanging baskets. They are pretty expensive.

I thought I would make one. So I went to the store and found a couple of those empty baskets. And, they just happened to be on clearance.

I filled it with bendable pine garland.

Now this is the part of the process where you can get creative.

I added a couple of poinsettia bushes, pine cones, a pick, plastic snowflakes, handmade Christmas ball and a handmade felt cardinal.

You can hang it outside on your deck or under the protection of your porch or hang it inside.

I think mine will be hung outside during nice days and brought inside at night and on bad days.

You can also add lights and glass balls to it. Most of the ones I have seen on the internet are decorated that way. I used items I had on hand. And, after I get the rest of my Christmas decorations out, I might add more items to mine. Another way to make it pop, would be to paint the metal parts red.

If these are going to be kept inside, you don't have to glue or tie anything. 

And, unless they are going to be outside in very windy weather, I don't think you will have to do any gluing or tying. Everything seems to stay put pretty good.

I hope you make one. They are very pretty!

Christmas Craft Ideas

A lot of times we give cookies, candy and other treats for gifts.

Here are a couple of ways to give them to people.

Make paper cones and fill them with goodies.

Gather supplies, such as card-stock paper, construction paper, Christmas stationary or scrap-booking paper (take your pick), ribbons, scissors, glue, double sided tape, stapler and other pretties you might like to include.

Cut your paper into a square shape so it will fold into a cone easily. You can use regular scissors or the fancy ones that cut with a pretty edge. Glue together the edges and staple at the top. You can cover up the staple later with a decoration of your choice.

Cut a strip of paper, glue a ribbon on it and attach it to the top as a strap. Cut tissue paper and fold into a cone shape, fold up the bottom of it and insert into the cone.

Decorate them any way you like. You can use ribbons, buttons, stickers, etc. depending upon who the recipient is. Fill with candy, cookies, gift cards or other small items. They would be nice to leave in the mailbox for the mailman, a neighbor, kids or grand kids, etc.

Another unique way to gift goodies is to get one of those plastic  storage boxes that is divided into small sections. Make sure you use one where the sections are not too tiny. You can make your own box of candy for giving and the container can later be used by the recipient to store items in. Below is one that I keep beads in.

Use your imagination to decorate it. I used decorative paper, cut it to size and attached it to the top. I used double sided tape so it could later be taken off easily. I attached a large ribbon around the sides (again using double sided tape. Be sure to put the tape around the corners.) I made a poinsettia for the top and a nice gift tag.

Again, decorate the containers the way you want to decorate them.  I used materials I already had on hand.

Fudge, holiday m & m's, peanut butter blossom cookies, Hershey's kisses, or my snowball cookies I gave you the recipe for in an earlier post, would all fit nicely into the divided sections of this storage box. Put in an assortment of cookies and candies, instead of putting in all of the same type. These boxes come in different sizes, so you can use any size you want.

I think this would be much better than buying and giving a store bought box of candy.

Hope you enjoyed my ideas. Happy crafting!

REMEMBER, to enter my give a way in the previous post! I will also be adding home made Christmas ornaments to the prize.

"First" Christmas Ornament

My son got married in January, so I thought I'd make them a "first Christmas" ornament.

Here are the supplies you will need:

wire (22 guage or thicker), wired ribbon, mod podge, glitter, beads, brush, wire cutter, punch

and of course a used flat canning lid (not pictured) I save my used canning lids and have a ice cream bucket full of them.

I spray painted my lid a gold color and my husband drilled a small hole in the top and bottom of the lid. You can file down the sharp edges or get a hammer and hit a punch on the hole and it will flatten any sharp edges. This is how I did it. Find pictures that you want on the ornament and print them off on your printer on regular paper (not photo or card stock). Use the canning lid as a template and draw a circle around your picture. When you cut it out, cut inside the line around 1/4" or so.

Brush Mod Podge on the lid.


Put on the cut out picture and smooth away any wrinkles.



Pick a pretty font and color and type out "First Christmas 2009" on it. Print it and tear around the words and put it on top of the photo and apply another coat of Mod Podge over the entire surface.

I put a picture of the wedding cake on the back. Wait until the Mod Podge has dried on the pictures and apply another coat around the edge and sprinkle the glitter around the edge on both sides.



Cut two lengths of gold wire. Put one into the hole on top for the hanger. Shape it pretty like. Fold the other length of wire in half and insert it into a wooden heart that you have painted gold,

slide glass beads onto the wire, put the wire into the bottom drilled hole, bend over and twist it around and around.

Tie an approximately 2 foot length of wired ribbon into a bow around the bottom of the hanger. Here is the front of the finished product. It looks much better than the picture shows, the lighting is not good and there's a glare on the picture.


Here is the back view with the wedding cake.



There are lots of possibilities with this ornament. You can make one for a baby's "First Christmas", you could put Victorian pictures on the ornament, pet pictures on the ornament, etc. etc. If you do one for a baby, you could use a combination of small ribbons for the bow, paint the lid either blue or pink and hang pretty little plastic baby items instead of the heart.



I wasn't too good on the instructions, but I think you get the idea. They are pretty easy to make.
Use your imagination and make lots of different ones. You could use silver or copper wire, different kinds of ribbons and beads, homespun ribbon etc., like I said before the possibilities are endless.

A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

Finally putting up some decorations.

Here are a few of my favorite things.........

Christmas Fenton

What is Christmas without a vintage Santa cookie jar to put all those favorite cookies in.

Snowmen made from mop covered styrofoam balls and decorated up for the cold winter weather.

More snowmen. The large one is made from an old vinyl record album and 45 painted, glued together and decorated. The small one is made from a CD you don't need any more.

A favorite wreath I decorated with vintage Christmas ornaments.

Do you have your decorations up yet?

Maybe these photos will give you some ideas of what you can make.

Don't forget to comment. Your name will be put in my drawing for hand made ornaments and a holiday pin.

Crafting With Tiles

I'm always buying items at yard sales with the intention of making something with them.

Well, last week I took my bag of 20 white tiles out of the floor that I had bought at a yard sale. I figured my husband was tired of stubbing his toes on them.

I cut some pretty Christmas material into squares.

I love to decoupage! Decoupage or Mod Podge is a waterbase sealer, glue and finish for all surfaces. You can use it on just about any type of surface.

Spread the Mod Podge onto the tile.

Place the material on the tile, making sure to press out any wrinkles or bubbles.

Spread more Mod Podge on top of the material. (It dries clear)

If you want you can sprinkle a very small amount of white glitter on top.

Add two or three more layers of the Mod Podge, letting it dry between applications.

Oh, I almost forgot, cut out squares of felt and glue to the corners on the bottom of the tiles so they wont scratch your surfaces.


You now have trivets to set your hot cocoa cups on this winter.

They would make a nice gift. Stack four together, tie a ribbon around them, add a mug and hot cocoa packets and place in a pretty basket.

You could also use pretty Christmas wrapping paper instead of material for this project.

As I stated in one of my comments, do not immerse these in water to clean. If needed, dab gently with a paper towel.

If you have any extra tiles, give it a try, it's easy!

I'm Crafting!

Well that time of year is here when I get in the mood to craft.

The following Christmas crafts were made from yard sale and/or thrift store finds.

I bought a Badge a Minit at a thrift store last year. It came in a box with lots of supplies and I think I only paid a dollar for it. I love it!

I'm making Christmas badges. The snowflake, trees and angel were made from Christmas material I got at yard sales. The gingerbread face is a graphic I resized from Craftymugs site. I think I am going to make some from Christmas wrapping paper, too.



This next craft is an icicle ornament. I got a box of plastic icicles at a yard sale. I've bought the glass ones before, also. They work good for this craft, too.

Supplies needed: icicles, 22 guage wire, ribbon, decoupage, glitter, and blue beads.

Step One: Put decoupage onto the icicle.

Step Two: Sprinkle glitter onto decoupage.

Step Three: Cut off a length of wire, insert one end into hole at top of icicle, bend into any shape you want for the hanger.

Step Four: Make a bow out of your ribbon. It would be better to use a smaller width ribbon than what I used. I used the wide ribbon because that is what I had on hand. I folded it in half to make it smaller.

Finished ornament. I also glued a blue bead on the end of the hanger.

Next are high heel ornaments. I thought these would look good on a Victorian themed Christmas tree. I found a box of these glass high heels at a thrift store. As soon as I saw them, I said to myself "These would make great ornaments!"

Here is what you will need: the glass high heels, pearl beading, small bunches of flowers. The beads and flowers can usually be found at Wal Mart or a craft store. I'm sorry, but I have no idea where you can find the high heels.

Here is a close up of the glass high heel. They were in a box of 12. I only paid 50 cents for the entire box.

I used a glue gun to attach a single flower at the bottom of the shoe. I cut a length of the pearl beading and hot glued both ends underneath the shoe where the heel is for the hanger.


I hope you enjoyed these crafts. Try making some for your tree. They are very easy to make.