Monday, December 19, 2011

Making Batting Ornaments

The spirit of Christmas past is on me this year. I have been making these beautiful batting ornaments for my tree.There are people who collect old pressed or spun cotton ornaments, such ornaments are rare and hard to find because in the mid-1870  children were given the ornaments to play with and because of this few survive. I prefer to make my own ornaments and decorate them to my taste.




I made this angel tree topper using two cds that I didn't like and a cardboard tube. I glued  the top of each cd (this is the side that has the lable) to the cardboard tube on opposite sides of the tube. Then I glued a pair of paper wings to each cd so there is an angel on both sides, and I embellished it with glitter and an angel scrap or chromolithographs silhouette as shown below.




I made this old style sheep, It is made of sculpey III modeling compound, wooden matchsticks(remove heads). Cotton batting, acrylic paint. For the sheep body, I worked sculpey and formed a roll, then I bent one end to form the neck and head. Then I inserted four matchsticks into the body for legs. Bake according to manufacturer's instructions. After baking I painted the head and eyes then covered the body and legs with batting, and glued with white glue.

I made this batting cotton mushroom ornament. I found the instruction here

Making  paper angel wings


To make the batting ornaments I started by cutting a cardboard body and glued two long pieces of chenille stems to the piece of cardboard. I wrapped  batting around the stems and cardboard body, glueing while wrapping. Until you cover the entire body like you see in the photo. With this body you can start making an ornament, a santa, doll or an angel.
For the santa ornament I used  a piece of red felt and wrapped it around the body.I made a cuff by rolling the end of the felt like you see in the photo.




Cut a cape like you see in the photo. I glued a piece of chenille stem around the cape edge.

I cut a square from a piece of felt and glued one end to make the hat.
Glue the cape and hat to body and glue a santa chromolithograph face. You can find this santa face at The ghaphics Fairy blog, and print it. 

I set this Christmas tree on my bedroom side table. I love it.
I want to thank you for all your wonderful comments. I really appreciate it. The winner of the nine paper feather is: Lynda @ Happenstance Home
Please email me  your address to send your feathers.
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I want to wish  you all a Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year full of bleassings from above.