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.  

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.