On The Remainder of This Year’s Christmas Crafting

Aside from the pom-pom ornaments and the pixie ornaments in the last two posts, I managed to jam a few other craft projects in before Christmas.

This year I made two Putz houses from the patterns on Retro Renovation to add to the three I made a few years ago and the one that belonged to my grandma (which didn’t make it out this year). Both were scaled down by half, since I wouldn’t know how to store larger ones.

I’m not entirely sure what I think of my watermelon colored house, it just kind of happened in an unplanned sort of way. It’s not really a snowy weather looking house, which I didn’t decide upon until after I attached the house to the already painted base and I think I’m just going to leave it this way until next year. The cottage, on the other hand, I am perfectly delighted with!

Then there’s Fredrick the tipsy, red pin-nosed reindeer who has some very shiny antlers. Frederick, in case you didn’t know, is the 5 1/2 inch counterpart to Rudolph and he's quite the legend among doll house people and mice.

 

He does suffer from a slight alcohol dependency, which causes him to tip over frequently (well, at least until he was glued down), but he’s slowly learning to like eggnog instead.

The instructions for making him and the sleigh came from a 1958 New Ideas for Christmas magazine I found at a thrift store (after waiting a year for them to put out holiday items again because I didn’t buy it the first time I saw it).

I will readily dispute the claim "it takes only an hour to make."

I altered it by painting the corks instead of using gummed paper (not something I have handy), using seed beads for the eyes, and forgoing the ears. Sparkly paper was used to cover the sleigh and the presents are pieces of cardboard wrapped in wide curling ribbon. I also skipped making Santa because I ran out of the right size corks. I really love how it turned out and am sorely tempted to leave it out all year. 

And that sums up my Christmas crafting, minus a few presents. ♥

On an Invasion of 1950's Pixies!

A belated Christmas story (with apologies for the less than stellar photos, I kept missing the time when the lighting was good)...

We've been invaded by 50's pixies*.

They appeared on the tree the day after Christmas and seemed to be as equally shocked to see us as we were to see them.

Most are rather Christmas-y and we know they’re from the 50’s because almost every ornament they’ve touched now has atomic stars on it, which is quite nice as far as what you might expect when you suddenly find you have pixies in your house. 

We also discovered a purple one that we're assuming must be a New Year's pixie. Unlike the others he seems only to be attracted to the blue and silver ornaments.  

They aren’t bothersome, but we do wonder when they’ll be leaving. We tried explaining to them that it will have to be soon because the tree has to be taken down, but so far this hasn’t seemed to make any difference to them and they continue to merrily sit on the ornaments without a care in the world. 

At this point, we're perfectly willing to let them stay, but as we aren't sure as to how they'll react to being removed from the tree, we can only hope they’ll get homesick and go back to where they came from or that our tree is serving as a temporary rest stop on their way home.

♥♥♥

(*Pattern and instructions for pixies from Va-Voom Vintage. Thank you for sharing, Brittany!) 

On Making Pom-Pom Reindeer and Polar Bear Ornaments: A Tutorial

 

It's time for this year's ornament tutorial! This year I was inspired by several older reindeer head ornaments that we have among our decorations and thought this would be a great ornament to recreate both in reindeer and polar bear form. These are quick, simple, and really easy craft for all ages, not to mention fun!

To make these you will need:

• Felt
• 1 inch pom-poms (3 per ornament)
• 1/2 inch pom-poms (1 per ornament)
• 1/8 inch ribbon or pre-made bows
• Googly eyes or small beads 
• Gold or silver cord (about 6 inches)
• Reindeer antler or polar bear ear template (see step 2)

How to make them:

1. Take two of the 1 in. pom-poms and glue them together. Carefully glue the third one on top and in the middle of them. Let dry for a few minutes and then glue 1/2 inch pom-pom onto middle one for the nose.

2. Cut out the reindeer antler or polar bear ear template and use it to cut out your felt.

3. Place a generous amount of glue on the portion of the felt you'll be attaching to the pom-poms.

4. Fold your piece of cord in half and place ends in glue. Put one more drop of glue on top of the ends.

5. Now place your pom-pom pieces on the felt. 

I didn't get a pic of this step when I made my ornaments, so pretend the cord is there.

6. Tie your ribbon into a bow and glue on to the bottom pom-pom. Glue on googly eyes/beads. 

7. Let dry. 

8. Hang on your tree and enjoy!   

For previous ornament tutorials, be sure to check out the Tutorials page! 

♥♥♥