Gorgeous Christmas Decorations

We weren't quite sure what we would be doing for Christmas this year, and so our decorations went into storage along with most of our belongings.  As it turns out, we will be spending Christmas eve on a plane, in an airport, and then in a car midst the holiday traffic, so decorations in storage isn't such a bad thing.  Except, it does feel strange not having any decorations at all in the build up to Christmas, and it seems kind of silly going out and getting new ones.  But making our own?  Now that is a good idea!

So this is where we started.  Bridie calls them 'the spinners' because she likes spinning them around.  I call them about the prettiest things we have made with the scallop punches, and a great way to make use of the 'tricky bits' of the pretties kits (those whole beads, and the hat pins)!

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And once again, oh so simple to make! For these ones I have used some paper from the Baja Breeze patterns pack.  All you need to do is punch out some shapes (I have used the scallop circle and the scallop square but you could probably use any shape), fold them in half, and then glue them together until they loop around and join up.

Because the paper is double sided, I made the most of it by alternating the two patterns.  The circle ornament was made using 10 punched circles, while the square used 8.  You could use more or less as you prefer.  For these ones I threaded a couple of beads on a hat pin, put the hat pin through the gap at the centre of the ornament, where all those folded edges meet, and then added a couple more beads at the bottom to finish it off.  The hat pins have a 'clutch' at one end to secure everything in place, and a hook at the other end to hang the ornament.   Best of all, if you want to, when you have finished with the ornament you could always take it apart and reuse the beads and hat pin for another project.  If you prefer to make them more permanent you might want to add a drop of crystals effects when you attach the clutch, to prevent it being removed.

Better than a bought one, that is for sure!