Friday, November 30, 2012

Make Your Own Ornament Tree

Ornament Christmas Tree for a Table or Mantel
Article found HERE

How to make a knitting needle Tabletop Christmas Tree
Experiment with different style balls and your favorite colors.   Use all one color or try a different color for each size ball you add to the knitting needle or try four balls of varying sizes in each color. This will give you a spiral effect.

How to Make the Knitting Needle Ornament Tree

Supplies Needed:

A mix of round Christmas ornaments in 4 different sizes –for one tree you will need about 20 balls.  At least 4 of each size.
Knitting Needle – 14 inches long (tall tree)  Spray paint the needles if needed to match your ornaments.
Optional: Christmas tree peak topper or a star ornament, ribbon spool, spray paint, scrapbook paper, glue, spray paint, paper cutter
Supplies-Needed to make an ornament Christmas Tree
To make the ribbon spool tree stand: Spray the spool with spray paint to coordinate with your ornaments.  Cut scrapbook paper the width of the spool. You could use ribbon, but I like the more finished look of the paper on the spool.
Decorating for Christmas

Attach the paper with glue. I used Aleene’s Tacky Line Roll Adhesive.
Holiday decorating ideas for Christmas
Attach to the spool.
Ribbon-and-Scrap-paper-stri
Thread the knitting needle up through the bottom of the spool.
Needles-in-Spools

If the spool has a large hole – you can stuff it with pieces of STYROFOAM to make sure the needle stays straight.
Spools-and-Needles

String four large Christmas ball ornaments (about 4” diameter) onto the needle, slipping the metal loops on the balls over the point of the needle. These four balls will form the base of the tree.  If you do not want to use the spool tree stand  and want to make the basic tree – the four balls when placed  squarely on a table will hold the needle upright.
Tabletop Knitting Needle Ornament Tree instructions and tutorial

Next string onto the needle four balls of a slightly smaller size. Each one will fit between two of the larger ones.  Then string on another four, slightly smaller, and finally four more again, slightly smaller, so that your tree has sixteen Christmas ball ornaments in all.  You can add more or less depending on the size of your balls.
How to make a ornament tree using a knitting needle
The tip will look like this.
Ideas for Chistmas decorating

On top of the needle place a Christmas star ornament.  I found this one at Michaels.  It had a “spring” style attachment that I removed.  I used that existing hole to place the star on the top of the knitting needle.  I used an awl to make the hole a bit larger so it fit over the tip of the needle.
Decorating for Christmas

Another way to display the tree is to place the whole thing in or on top of a planter.
How to make a tabletop Ornament Tree using a knitting needle

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Candy Serving Tray


Mint Serving Tray
You’ll need:mints
a cookie sheet
parchment or wax paper {I used wax paper, but heard parchment paper works better!}
your oven
How To:1. Heat oven to 350 degrees
2. Place wax paper on cookie sheet
3. Arrange mints in any design you wish on top of wax paper or parchment paper on a cookie sheet {allowing extra room on the sides}
4. Bake for approximately 8-10 minutes
5. Take out and allow to cool on cookie sheet {cools in approximately 5 minutes}
6. Remove wax paper from bottom {be careful, tray is fragile and breaks easily}
Voila!  A beautiful serving tray!
{Don’t forget your wax paper underneath the mints!
… lesson learned on this tray because it never made it off the cookie sheet in one piece!}
My favorite… with Hershey’s Candy Cane Kisses.
Yum!