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Monday, November 30, 2009

Our tree is up! ...And ornament how-to's...



Last night we put up our tree (to the sweet sound of the late football game) and this year I decorated with a combination of Christmas card cut-outs and alphabet block ornaments.
Of course, since it's me, I couldn't find the right type of alphabet blocks. All I could find was some modern, bright pastel set in which the letters all stood for up-to-date, politically correct things ("C is for climate change"). Still, I think they're pretty cute.
How to make the ornaments:
For Christmas card ornaments, save all your old cards this year. Cut out around the picture and use rubber cement to glue the picture to black poster board. Cut out, leaving a small border, and rubber cement to gold metallic poster board. Cut out ornaments, leaving room to punch a hole for hanging (use a paper punch), and decoupage with acrylic varnish. Spray varnish is best since it prevents colors from running. You will need quite a few coats of varnish- I used 7 coats - so make sure you have the time and place for ornaments to dry between coats.

For alphabet blocks, simply cut a 16" length of wired ribbon and tie it with a double knot around the block. Tie ends into a loop and trim.


I made some mantle decorations, too, that say "peace" and "joy".






We had cheese and wine while we decorated. I bought pickadew havarti, horseradish havarti, brie, chedder, and meunster. We tried a juicy new wine called a "bonarda" - delicious.


Doesn't the tree look pretty through our front window?

1 comment:

  1. Love your tree! And what a fabulous couple of ideas for ornaments. We have ornament overload on our tree already (well at least we usually do, tree isn't up yet).

    But the blocks would be great for a shelf or a mantle. Love, love! Thanks for the great idea!

    I cannot wait till we get our tree next weekend!

    ReplyDelete