Creating Christmas - Memento Ornaments

I knew I wanted to do something for the baby's first Christmas, and I still had the hospital cap and bracelet that he came home with. I didn't know what else I planned to do with them, and this was so simple. Of course I got the larger ornament to be able to get the cap inside, and used a pen to move things around until I liked it.

This is our 3rd Christmas in this house, but really the first one in which we have time to decorate. The first one, we moved in about 3 days before Christmas, The second one we were visiting family in Australia and arrived home on Christmas Eve. Again, I found this idea on Pinterest and loved the simplicity - and bonus, I already had the materials!

Creating Christmas - Glass Globes & Sprinkles

Okay, we have all seen glass globe ornaments decorated in a bazillion ways - years ago I did a nativity scene on a glass globe by filling with paint for the background and painting details on the outside. When I found this on Pinterest though, I loved the idea to use sprinkles.

But I was skeptical of the outcome. My initial fears:

- clumping glue and thus clumping sprinkles

- dissolving sugar resulting in bleeding, runny colors

I am happy to say neither of these fears was realized. I think what really made it work was using acrylic varnish as the glue. I wasn't sure I had any so Modge Podge was going to be my back-up. I didnt have to use it though, so I am not sure how well it would work. The varnish is much thinner than white glue or Modge Podge, so it created only the thinest layer inside the globe. It also begins to dry quickly, so less chance of bleeding colors.

Since I was already doing peppermints, I stuck with the red and white idea. I tried plain red sugar crystals and a mix of red and clear. 

The plain red crystals were finer so they created a more complete coat of color on the inside of the globe, creating a textured but uniform look - almost like velvet. I love how the mixed crystals turned out. The crystals were larger, so the missed some spaces, but you can really see the texture and when light shines through they almost look like stained glass. 

Using the little bar or ball sprinkles would give you even more variety!

Creating Christmas - Peppermint Ornaments

Last year I told my hubby that our small apartment tree was not going to cut it in the new house, so this year I am going from a 6 foot tree to a 9 foot tree. Of course that means I need more decorations and ornaments, but instead of spending a lot on decor that is only up part of the year, I scoured Pinterest for ideas on ornaments I can make.

I fell in love with these peppermint candy ornaments from HelloHomebody and thought how hard can it be?

I had 6 cookie cutters in 3 sizes. In the largest I used 9 peppermints, in the medium I used 3 peppermints, and in the smallest I used 1 peppermint.



It wasn't that hard, but here is what the simple four-step procedure gorgeously depicted on Pinterest doesn't show you:

- Spraying cooking spray on the inside of a cookie cutter is messy and hard to do without a lot of over spray. I sprayed in short bursts and then used a paper towel to help get the spray into the corners of my stars.

- Cookie cutters are not flat against the cookie sheet. I noticed this when I first put them on the cookie sheet, but took a chance to see what would happen. Yes, some of the peppermint candy oozed out underneath the cookie cutter, but I found that I could score it with a toothpick while it was still warm and it would easily break off later. And even the scoring is not always necessary.

- If the candy cooks a bit too long, it will start to bubble up, but as long as it isn't burnt, it still makes a cool ornament. On a couple of batches, the candy was in the oven for a minute or so too long and created a more swirled design.

Out of my 3 batches, I lost about 3 stars which broke completely (too thin?) and I have a couple of stars that points broke off, but I am going to try to repair with glue or modge podge. Since I don't plan to eat mine, I am going to coat them with modge podge or acrylic medium so they aren't so sticky to touch.

The debris pile - mostly from candy that oozed under the cookie cutters and had to be broken off.
I plan to try to reuse it to create some more ornaments.