Art Elements Christmas Ornament Blog Hop

Oh, I very nearly didn’t make it to this hop today, I always seem to bite off a lot more than I can chew at this crazy time of the year! But having missed the ArtBeadScene Ornament hop, I knew I had to do something for this one, organised by Art Elements.

Anyway, grand plans out of the window, I decided to go simple. I have these fabulous mini embroidery hoops that can be used in a few different ways, and I thought they’d make fine little decorations for the tree. These ones are the “big” ones, at 55mm/2.2 inches diameter. I pulled out my stash of Christmas fabric, my scissors and my hot glue gun and put them to work. One of these days I plan to teach myself how to do paper piecing to make tiny patchwork pictures, but in the meantime I think these are really quite sweet.

Here they are on my handmade ornaments Christmas tree. My big tree has so much on it, the special ones get a bit lost, so I have a little tree just for my handmade ornaments! Some made by me, some by others.

Anyway, this is a blog hop, so go and have a looky-loo at what others have made! And whether you celebrate Christmas, or not, have a lovely holiday and see you in 2018 (eek!).

Guest Designers

Kathy Lindemer

Hope Smitheram

Denise McCabe

Paisley Lizard

Samantha Wescott

Sarajo Wentling

Divya N

Linda Newnham

Melissa Trudinger

Art Elements Team

Susan Kennedy

 Caroline Dewison

Laney Mead

Cathy Mendola

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Lesley Watt

Lindsay Starr

Claire Fabian

Niky Sayers

Shiny Baubles: the Tacky Holiday Earrings Blog Hop

I was Christmas shopping a couple of weeks ago, when I came across a box of miniature baubles for $5 at a favourite shop of mine (and my girls), Typo. My first thought was to use them as decorations for my daughter when she did her hair as a Christmas tree for Crazy Hair Day at school this week: 

But then a Facebook friend of mine, Diana Ptaszynski, announced the first Tacky Holiday Earrings blog hop, to let us all showcase our shiny, glittery, tacky creations. And with teacher presents looming (it’s the last week of school for the year here in Australia), it was the perfect opportunity to make some glittery statement earrings.

Two of the teachers on our present list have a penchant for big, shiny, earrings — perfect! So I put together a couple of pairs of earrings featuring three baubles dangling from a chain of jump rings. Being plastic, they are so light to wear, the size doesn’t matter! I hope they love them!

I also created a bunch of single bauble earrings, for those who might want to be a little less flamboyant.

Sorry Diana, no ugly Christmas sweater here, it’s too hot in Australia right now for sweaters! But maybe some of the other participants in the hop have indulged you!

Diana Ptaszynski

Michelle Ann McCarthy

Heather Powers

Loralee Kolton

Sue Kennedy

Melissa Trudinger <– YOU ARE HERE

Kari Asbury

Sandi Volpe

Lindsay Starr

Laney Mead

Heather Boardman

 

Art Bead Scene Ornament Blog Hop

If you’re looking for the History Hop: Paleolithic Style blog post it’s here.

It’s the time of the year for decorating Christmas trees and Art Bead Scene is holding its annual Ornament Blog Hop to showcase ornaments made with art beads. This year I was lucky enough to acquire a couple of Gaea Cannaday‘s beautiful ceramic Christmas designs to use in my ornaments, and they arrived just in time.

The first one is a cute little plaid Christmas tree. Those of you who know me know of my love (umm, obsession?!) with the Outlander books and TV series, and this ornament is actually destined to be part of a Secret Santa exchange (shhh). This tree needed a decoration for the top and I’ve knotted the two together with green and red waxed linen.

The second ornament came with three coordinating ceramic beads, and I’ve simply knotted them all together with waxed linen in a similar style to the tree.

This ornament has already found a spot on my rather crowded Christmas tree.

For other participants in this blog hop, visit the Art Bead Scene post here, which features everyone’s links. Sit back with a holiday drink (as it’s summer here I think I’ll have a vodka cranberry cocktail) and see what everyone has made! Happy holidays!