The sun is shining, the corn is tall and Christmas 2005 seems light-years away. But let’s face it: Some morning in the not-too-distant future, we’ll wake up and realize that the holiday season is upon us.
While this may seem like rushing the season to many, crafters know that it’s not too early to begin making gifts and decorations for the holidays, and in keeping with the crafters’ philosophy, we’ll offer a holiday craft at least once a month, beginning this week and continuing through the end of the year.
| Plain masks in various styles
Specialty feathers, faux butterflies and silk-flower leaves Rhinestones, beads and sequins Hot-glue gun |
This week’s column was inspired by an idea we found in the newest edition of Better Homes and Gardens “Christmas From the Heart” cooking and craft book.
The featured items were small silver flatware pieces – such as butter knives and pickle forks, all picked up in thrift stores – decorated with seasonal ribbons and other adornments to make Christmas tree ornaments.
Our weekend hunt through area thrift shops didn’t turn up many small pieces, but we did find some great larger pieces, as well as some wonderful, large jailer’s keys.
The larger serving pieces, we decided, could be used as wall or wreath decorations, and they might even work as tree decorations on larger trees with substantial boughs. The keys adapted well to use as tree ornaments on regular-size trees.
Rather than spend a lot of time on verbal instructions for these ornaments, we’ll use photo illustrations instead.
The necessary materials are few: ribbon, holiday-themed appliques and other adornments of choice, a hot-glue gun, glue sticks and scissors.
As for decorating, simply tie on a few bows, leave some streamers, attach adornments as desired and, where applicable, provide a loop for hanging.
That said, take a look at our samples and try adding ideas of your own.
Decorated keys: To make our key ornaments (shown clockwise from top to bottom), we combined sheer, unwired, green ribbon with narrow, red satin ribbon, and added a snowman and matching red and green snowflake appliques; narrow white ribbon with a silver design and a strand of narrow, red, satin ribbon, adorned with peppermint-colored “Joy” and candy appliques; narrow red and green satin ribbon with a ribbon rose; and sheer, unwired, red and white ribbon with gingerbread house and gingerbread men appliques on a key ring.
Silver pie server: This was a wonderful find! Badly tarnished and costing only $1.99, it polished up brilliantly and looks like new. We added sheer, white, wired ribbon with a blue Christmas tree design, plus a couple strands of narrow white ribbon with silver design and two white, satin ribbon poinsettia blooms with tiny pearl centers.
Tennis-themed shoe horn: We couldn’t resist this gold shoe horn for tennis fans. It’s a bit large and didn’t polish up as well as we had hoped, but it still makes an interesting piece, suitable for your favorite tennis buff. Dressed up with sheer, gold, wired ribbon with a holly design; a couple strands of narrow, red, satin ribbon; a ribbon rose and red and green snowflake appliques; it’s quite presentable – and, um, functional to boot.
Cake server: This silver server with a faux-pearl handle spruced up nicely with sheer, unwired, green, and narrower red, ribbon, plus three burgundy-colored ribbon poinsettia blooms with pearl centers.
Key on ring: We removed three other keys from this jailer’s ring and dressed up the remaining key and ring with sheer, unwired, red and white ribbon with gingerbread house and gingerbread men appliques.
Serving spoon: This large serving spoon also polished up well and, with the addition of some wide, wired, blue and silver ribbon; a single white, satin ribbon poinsettia bloom with pearl center; a couple strands of narrow white ribbon with silver design; and sparkly white and silver snowflake appliques; makes a charming decoration.
Cake servers: This silver server with a faux-pearl handle spruced up nicely with sheer, unwired, green and narrower red ribbon, plus three burgundy-colored ribbon poinsettia blooms with pearl centers. And this rather worn server still makes a fine ornament with the addition of sheer, unwired, red and white ribbon, and candy cane, “Joy” and peppermint candy appliques.
Key ornaments: Large jailer’s keys turn into festive ornaments with the addition of narrow red and green satin ribbon and a ribbon rose; and narrow white ribbon with a silver design and a strand of narrow, red, satin ribbon, adorned with peppermint-colored “Joy” and candy appliques.
Note: We used glue very sparingly on all the ornaments so that the ribbon and other adornments can be easily removed and the serving pieces put to use in their intended functions.
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