:: paper ornaments

Hello, sweet friends I have been dying to visit you here, but life has certainly gotten in the way the past few days. I have taken on a few jobs that continue to keep me busy and otherwise occupied. I am now taking a much needed break to catch up with you, and to share a little project I worked on last week. I love how these turned out.

I got the idea for these lovely paper ornaments from my sister, she sells her version in her shop on etsy... Petits Metier. I've been long admiring the look of the vintage paper wreaths around the web and thought It would be so pretty to have something like them for my tree. I plan to make my own real paper wreath soon....whenever I get the chance.

Being the huge book lover that I am made this project a little difficult, it killed me to pull a book apart...especially a book from 1915. The only way I was able to justify this crime is that the poor book was already falling apart on it's own. I tried to keep the pages with poems intact to scan for use in other projects, but the other pages were fair game.

Here is my little crafting basket...I can take this with me when I sit down to watch television and fold away. Here you see all of my little pages folded up ready to be glued together into a finished ornament. My ornaments start out with a full book page that measures 5"x7". I begin by making a one quarter inch fold at the bottom, and continue to fold accordion style till the whole piece is folded up. I then fold this piece in half...it takes two pages to make my ornaments.  I simply glue each of the edges together to form a circle, including my twine inside the last for a hanger. Then I add a little glue in between the pages toward the center to hold it together.  I continued by adding a paper circle punch topped with a pretty button to the center of each one.  I simply used old catalogs for my paper circles {fossil keeps sending the best ones for this project}.

I adore this little poem, and wouldn't dare consider folding it up. I'm keeping these together in another folder to scan and use in other ways. I just love the sweet poems and stories in this old Fourth Grade "Studies in Reading" book. The poem is so perfect, for we had our very first snow of the season this Saturday. I guess it worked out that we didn't get our tree sooner because we got to drive through the beautiful snow on our way to pick it out... It was like driving through a beautiful Christmas card. 

Saturday morning I was cleaning and getting ready for the tree procurement festivities while "White Christmas" played....I looked up and Oh my goodness...there were snowflakes flying through the air. You would have thought I was 10 again the way I screamed and got my children to join me for the snow dance {come on, you know you have a snow dance too...don't you?} Isn't the snow just gorgeous. Nothing makes me happier this time of year than a good snow fall and hot cup of spiced cider.

Anyhoo, on with the scheduled programing. When I made my first ornaments I didn't think about a hanger, so I decided to add them to a compote filled with trimmings from our tree. I love the simplicity of this arrangement on my kitchen table. It also allows me to keep out my collection of stacked vintage china. 

I will have to be super careful with these little beauties in the future because they were already in such a fragile state that they nearly fell apart as I folded them. I really love them so much and I think they are so lovely, it will break my heart if they fall apart. I'm thinking I will have to store them in an airtight container, and wrap them with tissue paper so they don't abrade each other.

So, there you have it....another super simple inexpensive Christmas decoration or gift...wouldn't they be lovely on a special package, or all wrapped up together as a gift. 

I hope it won't be so long before I can get back here, but if you like you can sign up for my posts by e-mail...then I can come to you automatically each time I post. I just signed with some of my favorite blogs recently, and I love when they pop up in my e-mail because often times I can't find time to get on the computer so this helps keep me up to date without having to remember to check in. Okay, Okay I've yakked long enough....see what happens when I can't check in here.

:: peace :: love :: hugs ::

Carrie

Linking up to The Shabby Nest for Frugal Fridays projects.

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:: a mossy gift

{do you see the cute little sprout popping up?}

Lately, I've been obsessed with moss terrariums, and I recently did a post on them here. I think their simplicity is absolutely beautiful, they make me dream of running on beautiful hills of lush green grass. Lucky for me I have a super sweet sister who reads along and knows exactly what I like. While working and staying here with me here in my town, she found a plethora of this beautiful moss at her job site, and what did she do with it? Well first she made me a sweet little gift with it to thank me for having her stay with me....then she brought me back a whole bag full of this beautiful stuff. Isn't her little moss gift the sweetest? I loved having my sister here with me for an entire month, she's back home now and I really miss her. 

Yesterday I pulled everything out and began working on a project that I've had on my mind for a while now. For me these little terrariums will bring in a much needed jolt of life and color for the dull winter months to come. This project was so simple, all I needed was some soil, rocks, and of course lots of lovely moss, I also added a few succulents that I had on hand.  I'm going to be on the lookout for some small mushrooms, little houses, or woodland creatures to add for some extra color and fun.

Here's the first one I completed using an old silver bowl and cheese dome {which I have tons of}. So, What do you think?

This next one.... I used a small apothecary jar for.  This one was a little more difficult because of it's small size....lucky for me I have kid sized hands.

Lastly I used my jumbo apothecary jar. While adding the succulent to this one the top broke off allowing me to add it to the smaller jar { I hope it will take root and live...fingers crossed }.

Here they are in their home on my library table.  They're perfect, I love the color they add. Library tables are another obsession of mine....Love them.

So there you have it, a super simple, inexpensive and natural gift idea for the holidays.  Maybe you have someone on your list like me who would love to receive one of these beauties. The only tricky part may be finding the moss, otherwise you can use just about any found container { thrift stores are an excellent resource }.

:: peace :: love :: hugs ::

Carrie

Linking to My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia's Tuesday Treasures

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