Tissue Paper Silhouettes

We've been having fun during the past couple of weeks experimenting with what I call stained glass ornaments but what are really tissue paper silhouettes. I remember making these at school. The tissue paper always got destroyed by that goopy, almost congealed, white glue and plastic applicators we had to use. But now we have Martha Stewart craft supplies from Michaels.

For the first one, my little boy drew a house and I cut out the windows and door and backed it with tissue paper.



For the second one I used the ornament template at marthastewart.com and copied a Disneyland silhouette we had made when the kid was about two.



Any tissue paper will do but I've been using some Eric Carle designed tissue from the Klutz book You Can Make a College. It adds a festive touch. Apart from the tissue paper all you need is black construction paper, an exacto knife and craft glue.

Recycled Paper Tube Ornaments

My mom (a kinder and first grade teacher for many many years) put me onto this one.

Slice up a paper towel or similar paper roll into rings about 2 inches wide.

Let the kids decorate! We painted the tubes, brought out the glitter glue and dipped into our stash of pompoms, sequins and googly eyes.



Voila.



Ready for the tree - and easy for little fingers to hang themselves. Simply place ring over the end of a branch.

Paper Chains

There's something very evocative about paper chains and I look forward to making them every year. This year we mixed it up a little and made pink and orange ones to match the pink Christmas tree.



There have been some beautiful variations on a theme this year including:

Tiny paper chains over at pixiegenne

Fabric chains over at The Small Object

Knitted chains at Cath Kidston in London spotted by Fredsworld

Recycled Card Ornaments

I have fond memories of making recycled card ornaments as a kid.
First grade maybe?



And then these, that were found over the weekend at the Goodwill. I have serious love for vintage holiday cards and these showcased them perfectly. Who knows, perhaps the ones we made this year will someday be sold for $0.99 to a vintage (2007)card lover !

(More details of how we did ours and a link to a how-to here.)

Homemade Holiday Decoratios

Thanks to everyone who visited us during November for our holiday gift guide. It was a lot of fun to put together. For the next week or so we are going to be featuring homemade holiday decorations, both ones we've made ourselves and ones we've noticed out there in blogland. Enjoy!

I was flipping through Living Etc and got inspired by this photo of edible decorations. So over the weekend we had a go at making some of our own garlands with marshmallows and cranberries.





I'm loving the classic cranberries but the Cheerio garland turned out pretty well too.