tree trimmings
a couple of posts back i mentioned that i had made some ornaments for our tree. i created them for the Crate Paper blog in conjunction with the group Creative Weekly posts and i'm sharing them here today.
as i said in the Crate post, i'm an East Coast transplant living in Southern California where snow is a foreign commodity (unless you travel up to one of the mountain towns). at this time of year, i am always missing the snow--though my parents tell me there is none to be missed yet where they live, either. when January rolls around, i am just fine to do without it, but for Christmas...there's just something about that stuff!
that's why i made all of my ornaments out of snowflakes. i used chipboard and wood veneer flakes in different sizes and painted most of them with my silver or gold leaf pen.
from there, i layered on materials like lace, tulle, patterned paper snowflake punches, and more. for some of them, i placed a large (3") tulle circle over the paper punches to give them a softer look. i think the ornament in the above photo might just be my favorite; i love the gold bird with the pink and lime green Sleigh Ride papers.
here's another ornament with the same colors, but i switched out the gold for silver. the tiny wood bird shapes are from Studio Calico. they come plain but i just painted them silver and gold like the snowflakes. in the photos above and below, the backing snowflake is actually a chipboard sticker from the Sleigh Ride collection and they had nice designs on them already so i didn't need to alter them by painting them. because they were stickers, i backed them with a piece of lace to keep them from sticking to everything they touch.
these ornaments were super simple to make; it was really just about picking colors and patterns and then deciding which embellishments to pair together. i only made 8 but i probably would have made a lot more if i'd had the time.
i'm also considering using them to decorate my Christmas packages. i usually try to give an ornament as a little add-on gift; it's something my mom has always done. these would be great to give because they're handmade and they would definitely add a festive touch to the overall package.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPXfFFVD5z-LLauQNgHI0w_HEoztGRi4QKJ5989Eufj2ukeiHSRBucH7nogcK0Adn2k7-cxE4k-nZ2prz0z-p4gmU-8hwQ8QTCgebHDCjgaRlbSSK5WzvY7WOwOeaq5ob46p7m23reOQ8/s400/ornament_3.jpg)
well, it's less than a week until Christmas...the items on my List aren't quite getting accomplished as well as i had hoped...and i'll admit that i got kind of discouraged about that over the weekend. but what can you do? sometimes you just have to go with the flow. i keep saying this in every December post i've written, but i think it's true and i say it here because i need to remind myself that it's what matters: family comes first. and after the events in Connecticut last week, it's become even more evident. when i think of the parents and families who lost loved ones, i realize that baking cookies is not important at all. what is important is making sure i spend as much time with my little guy and my husband and my family as i can. i hope you get to do the same. take care, friends.
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~Rebecca