Nesting Ornament

Here's something I did a while back with a set of egg shaped lions that nest within each other.  I thought they'd make cool ornaments so I drilled a hole into the top of each one and fished a piece of twine through the hole and tied it off.  The kids love these and have so much fun opening and putting them all back inside of each other.

Penguin Ornament

Here is another handmade ornament that I made a few years back.  Very simple and it doesn't take nearly as long as the Santa ornament took me.

Materials:
foam egg
celluclay
paint
felt (hat and mittens)
google eyes
small wood stars (feet)

Mix up the celluclay mix.  Cover the egg in the celluclay and let dry.  Once the egg is dry you can sand it where it needs smoothing and paint the penguin's body.  For the feet I used little wood stars that I cut up and painted orange.  Glue the feet to the body.  The hat and mittens are made from felt and I used a blanket stitch to give it a little more decoration. Glue the mittens and hat on to the body.  Next, I glued on the eyes and nose.  The nose is a small triangle of felt.  For the ornament hanger I used a piece of jewelry wire and a big bead that stays put once I crimped it and tied it off into the hat.  I think he's a cute little ornament.

Santa Ornament

We put up our tree this past weekend and it reminded me that I need to show you the DIY Santa ornament I made last year.  I found the instructions in the 2009 Better Home & Gardens Holiday Craft magazine.  They seriously should have put this sentence in the instructions when I was contemplating making them.  **Warning, this ornament will take DAYS to make.**  I was crazy enough to make 9 of them last year.  What's wrong with me?  There are quite a few steps in making just one and then there is also the drying time for the clay to set up.  The end product is quite cute so I'd have to say it was worth all the effort.  The basic materials that make up the Santa are 2 foam balls (one small one for the head, and a half of a bigger one for the body), toothpicks for his legs, wire for his arms and clay. After I was done forming the Santa ornament, I let it dry for a few days.  Then I painted him and added a piece of fishing line for him to put up on the tree.