Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tutorial. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Melted Snowman ornaments (tutorial.. sortof)

I have more to write to my "traditions" series.. I have Christmas to blog about and some home improvements to post on... but, time has escaped me lately.. that and some sickness in the family and well, blogging has taken a back seat.
It is not that I do not like to do it.. it is that with SO much to blog about I sit down overwhelmed and so, I quit.. yes, that is me, a quiter! Lol

Anyway...I would like to share some bulbs I made for family and friends over the Christmas season. I am only now posting this because I had to wait till the last of our family members received one.

They are.... THE MELTED SNOWMAN.
I seen these little guys on ... where else,  Pinterest. (can see the original here )

Here is MY version


Here are my supplies...

Orange play-doh  , peppercorn, a funnel for the salt, kosher salt (I added iridescent glitter to my salt, I thought this made it look more like real snow when it glistens), a clear bulb  and , not pictured... ribbon... for the scarf and the hanger.

First I rolled all the noses...The kids helped with this and thought this a LOT of fun.


We let the noses dry up. They were not 100% hard when we made ours but, you can do them a couple days ahead of time and make sure they are good and dry... I don't think it matters either way.

After that, I sort of quit taking pics.. we got into the groove of making them and I just didn't think to take pics... but here is what we did..

  • First we added the salt via funnel to the bulb. I premixed the glitter and salt, I think this is probably the best idea..you do not want to add the glitter later in case you add too much. 
  • Next dropped in the peppercorn. We eyeballed this. We decided 5-6 looked good for our bulbs but we used the smaller ones... bigger ones probably require more. Remember these are to represent the eyes and mouth so you want enough but not too much
  • After adding the eyes we dropped in the nose.
  • I took some old scrap fabric and frayed it to make it look like a scarf... I added it. 


After all of that we added the lid , cut some ribbon and there ya have it.. an adorable snowman...
The original did not call for the scarf or the glitter.. I just thought it made it more special but
they are SUPER cute without as well.
All in all these cost very little to make and made a huge impact. Everyone who received one LOVED them and I even had some people ask me to make them one when they seen other people receive them!
And, the kids and I just had a GREAT time making them.
These are DEFIANTLY worth archiving till next year if you are looking for something fun and inexpensive to make for gifts!

(oh and a side note.... in transfer sometimes the goodies inside would settle under the salt... if you just gently shake them, the goodies will come back to the top)

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Homemade Christmas bulbs (tutorial)

Recently our church got some new hymnals.
Which meant we had several old ones laying around the church.
I took a few home and made a gift for the ladies for the church.

First I ripped out the Christmas songs from two old hymnals and cut them into strips.



Then I wound  them around a pencil top...



and put them (while still wound tightly) inside the clear bulb.



once in a shook it around a little to loosen it up a little.. like so....


I repeated this until I felt that there were enough.
I did random songs.... each bulb received a few different 
hymns. This is the finished product.



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I was really pleased with how they turned out. 
I hope they look at these and have fond memories of the beautiful 
hymns they have sang over the years from this songbook.
These hymnals were also the same ones I had at my first church ever so, I am extra happy to have one too!

I can not take full credit for this idea.
I seen THIS  on Pinterest one day..
My bulb evolved from there.

Happy Crafting!


Linked to Raising Homemakers