Happy Hour Linky Party 11

Welcome to Happy Hour number 11 

So glad you are here! 

Well, Christmas is in full swing over at Craftberry Bush.  This week I showed a series of homemade ornaments for our Homemade Tree mini series.  I shared how to make a romantic winter scene in Paris, a sweet little bare tree bulb, a too sweet little penguin in a bulb ornament, a traditional woodland pinecone ornament and an adorable felt penguin.  While Happy Hour was on hiatus last week, I also shared a pretty JOY sign that makes me smile.

On the home front, I have been extremely busy, which is making me feel a little uncomfortable because I am doing exactly the opposite of what I believe Christmas to be.  I am getting lost in the hustle of the season as opposed to the JOY of the season.  I am looking forward to fulfilling my commitments so I can sit back and get back to my normal calm self. 
Don't get me wrong, I am also very grateful for the opportunities that I have been given and the reasons of my hectic schedule right now.  I will share with you next week! :) 

Aren't these little snowman that Jaime made soooo adorable? She was also feeling the JOY of the holidays and made a cute candycane canvas and these beautiful let it snow ornaments.  And if that wasn't enough eye candy, she wowed us with these gorgeous Santa bags....LOVE.

Taryn is always full of beautiful ideas and this week was no exception.  Don't you just love those burlap stockings and that gorgeous winter wreath? And what a simple and creative way to make tags for gifts not only during the holidays, but any time.  Oh...and did you know that Taryn is the newest contributor for the 36th ave?  How amazing is that? 

Now it's your turn....we missed you! 

The Homemade Tree - felt penguin ornament

Hello my sweet friends.  It's Thursday and the last day of our Homemade Tree series.  Today I have what I hope you will agree is the cutest little guy to share with you.

Last year, I showed you this cute little gray chick as part of the 'deleted scenes'.  Or in other words, posts that didn't make it to the blog.

This year as I was pulling out all of our Christmas ornaments, this little guy made another appearance. 

So I thought I would share how I made him...

This time, I made him into a little penguin, just
cause we have a thing for penguins in this house...:)

Here is what you will need:

 1 small and 1 medium styrofoam ball
Exacto Knife

2 toothpicks

Hot glue gun

Gray and white felt

Sewing pins

Scrap piece of fabric

Scissors 

1. Take both the small and medium balls and cut the top of each as shown
2. Insert 2 toothpicks into the medium ball
3. Apply hot glue (use low temp glue)
4. Insert small ball onto toothpicks and press to glue together
5. Cut a semi circle a little bigger than the small ball and cut 3 slits along the top
6. Glue onto ball as shown (this will be the front of the head or the face)
7. Cut 12 long gray pieces of felt and 10 long pieces of white felt (long enough to go around the medium ball)
8. Pin or glue 8 of the gray pieces along the back of the medium ball (where the small and the medium balls meet or what will be the neck)
9. Pin 4 of the white pieces at the front of the medium ball (where the small and the medium meet or what will be the neck)
10. Glue 3 of the white pieces perpendicular along the side of the body where the gray and the white meet (see picture)
11. Glue 4 pieces of the gray felt behind the white felt (you should have 8 gray pieces and 4 white pieces running up and down as well as 4 gray pieces and 3 white pieces running sideways (see picture)
12. Take first piece of white and weave over under the other white pieces as shown; continue to do this this until all pieces have been weaved through both front and back
13. Pin or glue pieces down and trim excess
14. Take some of the excess pieces and glue to the back of the head
15. Take some of the excess and glue a strip along the side to hide glue or pins; this will give you a clean looking edge
16. Cut feet, beak and wings and glue onto body; I used 2 pins for the eyes and with a Sharpie, coloured them black or you could glue two small black beads 
17. Take scrap piece of fabric of your choice and wrap around neck and tie as a scarf 
18. Glue or sew string on top of head to hang (not pictured) 

And finally, take a deep breath because you're done! 

It seems really complicated but it really isn't once you get the groove of the weaving.  I think these are just such sweet ornaments that would also make great gift toppers. 
  
Note: It goes without saying that if you will be gifting this to a child, I would recommend gluing instead of pinning.

So what do think?  Too much work?  I guess that's what makes handmade so special...:)

I hope you enjoyed this mini series.  Don't forget to come back later tonight when we host HAPPY HOUR once again! 

See you in a few hours! 

much love,

The Handmade Tree - snowy mini pine cone ornament

Hello everyone and welcome to day 3 of our little homemade ornament series.  I hope you have been keeping well. 

I'm working on some really exciting things and have been swamped with Christmas stuff.  I can't wait to share with you!  I think I may have bitten more than I can chew in terms of project commitment, so this following ornament is a bit of a cheat.  It's from a guest post I had done for Stephanie Lynn last year.

It's a little more traditional...I hope you like it

You will need:

Mini pine cones 

Newspaper print paper or a brown paper bag

Masking tape

Brown paint 

 Artificial snow batting 

Epson salt

White glue 

Berries and greenery for embellishment

Ribbon 

Soda pop tab

Hot glue gun 

1. Form paper into a sphere and use masking tape to hold it together (note: I elected to use paper instead of a Styrofoam ball as the paper is more pliable and the pine cones fit nicely into each other)

2. Paint the bottom part of the sphere brown, leaving the top unpainted as this is where the 'snow' will be placed

3. With hot glue gun, glue pine cones individually making sure they fit nicely into each other

4. You can cover the bottom part of the sphere only as the top will be covered with 'snow'

5. Apply hot glue to top of sphere and spread batting across the top. Hot glue soda tab vertically on top of the ornament as this will be used to hang the ornament (not pictured)

6/7. Apply a thick coat of glue over batting and cover with Epson salt

I used berries and winter greens to embellish

the ornament and tied a ribbon to the top. 

Easy right? 

 I'll be back tomorrow with a NEW tutorial.

Have a great day!  Talk to you very soon.

much love,

ps. If you wish to see sneak peeks of what I'm up to, I share daily on my FB page...:)

The Homemade Tree - handmade ornament 2

You made it through Monday...yay!  Monday's can be difficult enough as is.  For my friends in the U.S., I'm sure this Monday proved extra challenging after your long weekend.  

Yesterday I mentioned I would show you how to 

make this pretty Parisienne scene inside a bulb...

Given I already had two Eiffel towers, I thought I would make something a little different, but using the same technique.  Here goes....

1. Gently cut bottom of plastic bulb, setting the bottom piece aside
2. Cut a circle of cardboard a little larger than the opening that you just cut
3. Hot glue desired scene onto cardboard making sure the height of your scene fits within the bulb 
4. Hot glue bulb onto cardboard
5. Trim cardboard around ornament 
6. Remove hook from bulb and using a funnel, pour Epson salt or glitter into the bulb; set aside
7. Retrieve the cut-off bottom piece of bulb and fill with epson salt or glitter
8. Gently hot glue bottom piece of bulb onto bottom of the cardboard 
note: to cover the visible edge between the two parts that have been glued back together, apply a coat of ModPodge or glue to bottom of the bulb up to the visible edge. Dip bulb into Epson salt. You now should have a nice frosty effect on the bottom of the bulb and the edge will not be noticeable. 
9. Bend a Q-tip slightly and insert into the bulb to clean the inside of the bulb, where some of the glitter or salt might have gotten stuck 

 BONUS tutorial...

Instead of cutting entirely through the bulb, cut slightly more than half way.  Pinch the bottom of the bulb to open, insert object(s) and re-attach opening by gluing and follow steps 6&8 from above. 

I just love this one! 

This is going on my 'to do' list for my nieces and nephews.  The penguin is a 'survivor' from this post, which will soon be accompanied by more that I will make out of polymer clay.  Don't you think these would make great keepsakes?  A little memory Christmas ornament.

I hope you are enjoying this little series; I will be back tomorrow with more. 

And thank you so much for visiting.  I am extremely grateful for your company and the thoughtful comments you leave.  While I haven't had much of an opportunity to respond to all of them as I usually would (for reasons which I will be sharing with you soon), please know that I read each and every one and will respond to you as soon as I can.

much love,

Snowglobe Ornament - a tutorial

Hello all!  I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving long weekend.

As I was unpacking our Christmas ornaments this year, I realized the ornaments that bring the most comfort and beautiful memories are those that are imperfectly handmade by either our children or myself.  Each one evokes a different memory or stage in our lives, but they all fill me with happiness.  As a child, I was always encouraged by my parents to create and so making things has always been part of who I am.  It is why I do so with such passion, love and care each and every year. 

This year, I decided to expand on my little winter wonderland ornament and make romantic French scene to go with my new old white Christmas tree. 

This is what you'll need to make your own:

Large plastic clear bulb

Exacto knife

Pencil 

Thick cardboard or white bristol board 

Scissors 

Hot glue

Epson salt

Glitter (silver or gold)

Mini Christmas trees

1. With a sharp Exacto knife, cut bottom of the bulb, ensuring you cut gently and slowly so to avoid an uneven cut

2. Using the cut bottom of bulb, trace a circle onto cardboard or thick white card stock paper

3. Cut out circle (I used scalloped scissors for a bit of flare)

4. Reduce image at the bottom of the page small enough to fit into bulb and print onto thick paper NOTE: I did not print a template, but hand drew the tower, so mine is not perfect (as hubby graciously pointed out)

5. Cut out image and assemble as shown

6. Apply glue or ModPodge and cover with glitter; allow to dry completely 

7. While tower is drying, apply glue to mini trees and cover with Epson salt; allow to dry

8. Hot glue tower and trees onto cardboard (or desired scene) 

(The picture above shows snow on the 'ground' prior to placing the bulb on. But for the next ones, I found it was easier to FIRST glue the bulb onto the cardboard and then apply the Epson salt through the opening of the bulb)

I really love how they look in the tree.  Since making this one, I have had so many ideas of what to put inside these snow globes and can't wait to get the kiddies involved in this project. 

Tomorrow, I'll share how to make this guy...:)

source

Right click and save onto your desktop. 

See you again tomorrow? 

Have a great Monday! 

much love,

The Homemade Tree - handmade ornament series 2012

On Monday I will commence my yearly handmade ornament series and would be honoured if you joined me.  In the meantime, here are some ornaments from the past (click on the photo to take you the original post). 

 Have a great rest of the weekend! 

much love,