2013 Memories Ornament

2013 was full of amazing memories for us.  Hunting. Traveling. Exploring. Laughing. Crying. Crafting. Loving. Living. It was just amazing.

We decided to end the year with making a "Memories Ornament" We simply just took a plain silver ornament off of our Christmas tree, and wrote on it with a sharpie. We covered with it our favorite memories from 2013.

We plan on doing this every year from now on.

Think about it...

Wouldn't it be cool 20 years from now to look back at all the memories written all over the Christmas tree!? 

I think so!

I also love starting new traditions! ☺

 

DAY 19: Halrems Ornaments 2013

James and I buy eachother a new Christmas ornament each year. The past few years, I have been making his and Harlems. Well here are the ones I made for Harlem this year. I talked about playing with salt dough on  December 5th I believe, when I made Our First House Key Ornament. Well I made another small batch of salt dough again a few days back to make Harlem a few Christmas ornaments. The first one I made is so easy! I rolled out a ball, and flattened it. Then I yelled "HARLEM! COME HERE BOY!" Harlem came running to me I asked him politely to sit (and he did) then I took his paw and gently pressed it into the dough. At first the paw print didn't look that sharp but after only one coat of paint it really popped out! So like I said I put one coat of the silver sparkly paint on it after it air dried, then I painted on his name and the year, as you can see below.

After the paint dried I used my hot glue gun and glued a ribbon onto the back on the ornament and then hung it on the tree! Ahh I love it! So easy and now we will forever have a piece of Harlem on our Christmas trees. ♥

The next Harlem ornament I made was just as easy. I used salt dough, rolled out a few different sized balls, and flattened them to form the shape of a bone. I then used the back end of a paint brush and carved HARLEM into it. I let the piece air dry along with the paw print ornament, and then painted it with a water color blue I had lying around the craft room. I was planning on doing more than 1 coat but I really liked the 'washed' look of just the one coat. I let the paint dry and then hot glued a gold ribbon onto the back and hung the ornament by his 2011 ornament of him as a puppy. 

  I am very happy with how these ornaments turned out and they were both made from supplies that I had just lying around our house!

DAY 11: Clay Word Ornaments

 I have been wanted to make chrome looking word ornaments for a little while now. So today I broke out some clay I have had and preheated the oven. I usually don't like baking clay, because it stinks and because the oven sometimes stinks afterwards. And ALSO I have heard a few times that it isn't healthy to breath in the fumes. But I had this clay already (before I heard that) and I really didn't want it to go to waste. (shhh don't tell) I made a few rounded balls and flattened them with the palm of my hand, then I took the back end of a paint brush and carved in the words LOVE. PEACE. and DREAM. Three of my most favorite words. ♥  I baked them in the oven for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees, then let them cool off for about an hour. (I got caught up doing other house work) I came back and painted them with my current favorite silver sparkly chrome colored acrylic paint and let the paint dry. After the paint dried, I used my hot glue gun and glued on some green ribbon as hangers. Then simple hung them on our tree. One thing I really love about these ornaments is that the possibilities are endless. You can make them say anything you want and they are so quick and easy to make! You could even use a type of homemade salt dough and I am sure it would work just as good!

Our First House Key Ornament

 

We are obviously still living in our first house. We did have an apartment for a little while before we bought this house, however, this is our first HOME ♥ We we are planning on staying for at least a few years. I made up a batch of salt dough. (Recipe link is below) I love playing with clay and/or salt dough. I have been wanted to make a first house ornament for a little while now, and so I finally got around to it. I really tried to take a good picture of it, but I failed at that. It is silver and glittery in person, but my camera phone wouldn't pick up the sparkles. :( booo. Oh well. 

So, here is what I did. I made my salt dough (SO EASYY!!) I then rolled out a ball and flattened it. I used a straw to make a hole in the ornament for a ribbon to go through. Next, I took our key and pressed it into the dough. I took the key out and let it dry. After it dried out (I let it sit our for a few days) I painted it with one coat of sparkling silver and let that dry. Then I took black paint and painted our numbers on it. After that was dry I tied a green ribbon through the hole I made with the straw and hung it on our tree! 

YES IT REALLY WAS THAT EASY!!

Click HERE for the Salt Dough Recipe!