Christmas Crafts: Not so traditional ornaments

This summer as I was doing some cleaning around the house, I found a handful of key chains just sitting in a basket on a shelf.  I hated that these fun key chains were just sitting in a basket, not being seen or used.  Honestly, I hated to use them because I didn't want to ruin them.  Sounds crazy I know, but it wasn't like they were cheap key chains from a quarter machine.  Three of them my sister brought back with her from China.  So, I had an idea....make Christmas ornaments!  But what I ended up doing was sticking them in a drawer in my craft room.  That was six months ago so give me some slack. :)  I pulled them out the other day and made some easy ornaments with them.  That way at least once a year they can be displayed.

Here are the ornaments laid out and some little bits of ribbon I had leftover from other projects.

The first step was removing the chain part from them, expect for the ones from China, they didn't have an extra loop at the bottom to string the ribbon through.  

The Africa key chain was given to me by a Wal-Mart shareholder from Africa when I worked at TJ Maxx.  He had one on his lanyard and when I told him I liked it, he pulled a handful out of his backpack for me to share with the other employees. 

The flamingo one is from a trip my sister took to the Bahamas (weird how it sounds normal to say 'the Bahamas' instead of just Bahamas...anyways).

The New York one is, obviously, from New York, yet another trip my sister took.

The last three are from China, and yet another trip my sister took.  She's quite the world traveler.  At least she brings me back presents! :)

 

All I did was attach some ribbon to the key chains and then hung them on my tree.  Super easy- just the way I like it! And cheap- I didn't have to buy a thing!

I also hung one of my college graduation tassels from the tree, once again so it can be appreciated at least once a year (I can only find one of three.... they've got to be somewhere). 

I also added ribbon to my chapter officer badge from when I was involved with Phi Theta Kappa in college.

So, not your 'traditional' ornaments but fun anyway.  Like I said, I hated for this stuff to be just sitting around or thrown in a drawer.  Now, they can be displayed and admired once a year.

Another little trick I started doing this year was writing on the back of ornaments what year they reference.  For example, we took a trip to Las Vegas in May and I brought back an ornament, so on the back I wrote May 2014 so when we are old and gray we can remember when we went.  Also, we got a cute ornament in honor of our new puppy, Molly.  It says 'rescued is my favorite breed' and I wrote the date we adopted her on the back.

I hope this gives you some ideas of items from around the house that can make cute ornaments.  Of course this wouldn't work if you have one of those fancy trees where all the ornaments have to match or be a certain color.  We aren't like that- ours is a modge-podge of colored lights and ornaments. But it is a fun way to display those memories.

Christmas Crafts: $6 wreath

I've been getting crafty lately and I have some cute new projects to show off.  Here is the first one that I just completed today and it took literally 2 minutes (not counting the time it took for my hot glue gun to warm up).

The super simple, but extremely cute, welcome wreath only cost me $6 and like I said took no time at all to make!

All you will need is the welcome sign, a wreath, and a hot glue gun.  

 The welcome sign was only $1 at Deals.  They had some other cute decorations from $1-$5.

 

 The wreath was only $5!  They had gold and silver too at my local Deals store. 

 All I did was remove the ribbon from the sign (save it),  added a little hot glue to the back of the sign, and then stuck it on the wreath.

I used the ribbon from the sign to hang the wreath from my door hanger.  Easy as pie and super cheap! 

I urge you to check out your local Deals or Dollar Tree or whatever your 'Dollar Store' is called.  They have super cute decorations! I have some other cute projects I made using dollar store items, check back for those posts soon!