Upcycled Heart ornaments

 I have been making little heart ornaments for my friends - just a little handmade something!!  The base of these hearts is a red sweater I bought years ago and wore all the time, especially at Christmas.  As it happens, it because a little stretched out and no longer looked great and fit well so it was removed from my closet to the give away pile.  When I was sorting through that pile I saw my sweater in a new light - crafts supply!!  So I brought into my craft room and cut it apart to so I could use it in my creations.  I first used it to die cut hearts for cards and went looking for it the other day to see if it would work for these little ornaments I had in mind.  One section had Heat N Bond already applied to it because it needed to be stabilized for die cutting earlier so I just ironed it to another piece of the same and  cut out hearts my hand.  I added a bead, round sequin and snowflake sequin to each side by sewing them together with crochet cotton.  I also added blanket stitch all they way around

using the same white crochet cotton.  I created the hanger using the two ends as I started my stitching at the top dip of the heart.
I am really liking the handmade look they have and that my red sweater will live on as tree ornaments in the homes of my friends and family!!
Christmas is about what is in your heart and not about what is under the tree!  There will be less under the tree this year because as a family we have decided to make a charitable donation instead of buying adult gifts. So we will be shopping for the grandchildren and sharing hand made goodies with our families!!
If the holidays are stressing you out, consider changing your mind about what needs to be done and changing any traditions that no longer work for you and your family.  You get to choose!!!

Therese

Christmas Tree tags

 Created these tags for the Tag Exchange with my card making group!  I die cut some decorative paper I created when I made this card using this cool tree die (SX) and then cut bases out of white cardstock for each one.  After gluing them together I sponged all the edges with green ink to blend the white to the green.  I die cut the stars and trunks separately, trimmed them neatly and glued them on afterwards.   I used hot glue to adhere the red sequins to the tree.  Had to be careful as the heat from the glue does interesting things to the plastic sequins.  To finish off the middles I added a little squirt of red glitter glue!  The perfect touch!

Here is the forest of trees that I created!  I did add a string to the top so it can be attached to a gift or used as an ornament!!
We cleaned on the weekend so we could start decorating the house for my get together tonight.  Yeah, the tree is up and has lights!!  Will add ornaments this afternoon and we will be ready to go!!  Looking forward to enjoying all of my Christmas decorations.  We are home this year for the holidays.

Therese