Ornament Party

Early every December I have an ornament exchange party for me and 11 of my dear friends. Everyone brings a dozen handmade ornaments and exchanges them with one another, so that we all get to take home 12 different handmade ornaments.

But mostly it is an excuse to get together and eat yummy food and visit! I just love it! It is one of my favorite holiday traditions, and always gets me into the holiday spirit.

This year the theme was "All Creatures Great and Small," so I made animal shaped cookies in honor of the theme, which were fabulous with my famous white hot chocolate!

After we all had our fill, we unveiled our creature creations! Always fun to see what these clever gals come up with!

Shannan made us each a pair of turtle doves out of the pages of an old book, felt, and buttons.

Staci made these adorable lambs with clay and furry fabric. Adorable!

Shari made these sparkly dragonflies out of Mountain Dew cans, if you can believe that, along with glitter, glass and wire. Very cool!

Tara hand sewed these little owls out of felt. It was so hard to chose between the two because they were both so stinkin' cute!

Kristi, who comes some distance to join us every year, always makes her ornaments out of seashells. This year she made the funnest little mouse! Really clever!

My friend Michelle, who is quite the seamstress made embroidered ornaments with this year's theme on it. Every ornament had a different animal on it! Really great!

Me and my dear friend Dayna. Dayna likes to make ornaments with jingle bells, and this time she turned big red jingle bells into lady bugs. I loved them!

Above is a second ornament made by Kristi, the seashell lady. It is made with a large sand dollar and clay. Really striking! I can't believe she made 2 sets of ornaments! But I won't complain!

My sister-in-law Shirley amazes us every year with the wood ornaments that she and her husband make with the scroll saw. In years past she gave us and Angel, Mary, Joseph, and the Baby. This year we got the animals, a camel and a donkey. Soon we will have the whole set!!! I can't wait!

My sister Lisa made these turtle doves out of cinnamon/applesauce/glue dough and covered them in clear glitter so they look just like gingerbread cookies sprinkled with sugar. The small great!

My ornaments came out just how I imagined. I used kind of flattened acrylic clear balls to make snow globes of sorts. I found the sweetest image of a vintage greeting card with baby forest animals intrigued by a pair of tiny red stocking hanging in a tree. I added a bit of glitter to the trees and snow, and decoupaged it to the back side of the ornament. Then I stuck a miniature tree into the bottom of the ornament and threw in some fake snow and sparkly white beads. Around the outside edge I added sticky tape and silver micro beads and to the front added a few rub-on snowflakes. On the top I added some vintage scallop trim and ribbon, and a glittery twig of mistletoe and a glittered bird.

I love, love, love them!

And just to show my friends how much I love them, I always give them another handmade gift. This year it was these festive necklaces made from old chandelier crystals. I decoupaged holiday fabric on the back. I love them all!

I gave them in these little matchbox boxes that I made with decorative paper. I clipped a cute red cardinal bird on top, each with his own little message of joy. Inside the gift, as tradition, is next years' theme, so they can get started right away in gathering ideas. Next year the theme is Christmas Bling! I can't wait to see what these clever ladies come up with!