My Little Tree Expirement

So!  How about that Christmas Tree?  Ha!  That is what I have been asking myself for about two months.  On Halloween, I start to ponder what I want to do about the dilemma of decorating my tree.  Last year, I discovered festive magazines and began to truly obsess over the idea of handmade ornaments.  Let me tell ya, there is nothing that is a sign you are getting old like transitioning from reading fashion, hair and style magazines to being all up in some home and garden, country living type of magazines!    That transition cracks me up.

I decided last year that I wanted to make ornaments.  I didn't because I took on several handmade projects in terms of gifts, and I made a heap handmade Christmas cards.  By the time I was done with that, the anniversary, the handmade birthday shenanigans, and whatnot, I decided that perhaps I shouldn't handle a hot glue gun or glass.  So I let the dream rest until this year.

I think the best way to do this is to show some of my inspiration for what I would liked to have achieved and then I will reveal what happened with my personal tree :-)




Handmade ornament I found here on Flickr

HGTV Website

Better Homes and Garden, this one and below

Clearly, I found much more than this, but these ideas were my main inspirations.  Each of these ideas has one of my favorites in it:
1--  MUSIC.  I love music paper!  I wish I were more musically inclined, but I've got no talent in that arena at all.
2-- WORDS.  Clearly, I get on here and ramble away about the irrelevant happenings of my life. I love to read and write.  I love different fonts and scripts.  Words have so much meaning in history and day to day life.  I really wanted to find away to WRITE out the holiday spirit onto my tree
3-- PAPERRRR!!!  Yes, we have been through this before.  I am obsessed with paper.  I love the idea of a paper crafted tree.  I was concerned it might look cheap, rather than classy and well put together.

.....  So without further ado, I will show my personal Christmas tree for the first time.  Believe or not, I'm not one to show off my tree for some reason.  It goes up, it comes down and no one ever knows what happens in between.

These are the first ornaments that I made.  I have been wanting an ivory color schemed tree for about 3 years.  My problem is that no matter what, I just have to incorporate red and gold colors!  I think my mind can't comprehend Christmas without a deep whine or ruby red and some gold.  Although I wanted an ivory colored tree, I caved and added hints of red and gold.

These ornaments were all made with paper being shoved inside the hole when you take the top part off.  The smaller ornaments have shredded paper inside.  Yes, I literally put colored cardstock into my shredder and used that to stuff the ornaments and then I hot glued ribbon around them.

The larger ornaments are strips of coordinating colored scrapbooking paper.  The paper is cut into thin strips and slid into the ornaments.  I did not have double-sided paper, so I actually had to use a pencil to slide the paper around so the white backside didn't show.  Then I made a bow and ribbon for the top.

I made some doves out of glittery cardstock.  I was concerned that these might look tacky, but they looked all right ... in my eyes!  These last few glass ornaments were filled with tulle.  I love the iridescent ivory color and they way it looks angelic when the light hits the glass.

I made these because I wanted words on my tree, without big, tacky posters.  Please excuse my elementary level stitching.  Ha :-)  These are small embroidery hoops, with sparkly cardstock around the finished product.  I tied a piece of tulle ribbon to the metal closure to hide it.  Although my inspiration came from the above stitched pieces, I really can't sew!  So any ideas of applique weren't going to happen on my behalf.  Plus, I prefer words to pictures anyway.

And lastly, what would my tree be without a bunting!  You know I am all about making buntings these days.  This one was quick and simple.  Paper triangles made from musical note scrapbooking paper.  These little flowers that I adore. I punched some holes on the sides of the triangles and strung them up using hemp string.  Considering that I made over 50 triangles, there was no freaking way that I was going to mess around with embellishing this bunting the way I did with others I've made.  Also, the bunting wasn't the focal piece of the tree.  It was mainly there to fill in spaces.  I hate empty spots on my trees!  I usually buy hoards and hoards of ornaments to try and fill them in, but this year, I had more control over that.

 

Since I made many rather large ornaments for my narrow tree, it worked out well.  Perhaps in the future, we will move into an place where we have space for a wider tree.  And then I will have to really be creative in filling the spaces!

I like the way the doves and all the paper crafts look in the tree. 

Believe it or not, after making about 50 ornaments, I actually have about 3-4 more different ideas for ornaments that I still want to include.  I want to place family photos on the tree.  I saw that in a magazine and loved it.  I need to find photos and print them on ivory papers.  I also want to make some ornaments that look like these:

I found these here.

 I actually tried to make these and the ornaments I got were too small for the hole punch I used.  I am going to revisit this idea with the very large ornaments.  I think they look so creative and so unique!

Here is another example found at Craftionary:

 

 

Enough of this, involving you in my Christmas décor obsession!  In the end, just know that we are pumped about our handmade Christmas tree this year.  I look forward to adding design elements to it in the years to come.  And it was all so easily done!  I am a Christmas junkie.  I love looking at trees and using "decorating" as an excuse to express myself in a festive manner.

 

Did you make ornaments this year?  Do you have any special Christmas decoration traditions in your home?  No matter how you answer these questions, I hope that you bring holiday cheer to your home in your own specialized way!

 

Enjoy the evening on this Hump Day!