Easy Peasy Soda Can Butterfly Ornament: Day 12 of 12!

This is it, a dozen upcycled ornaments complete!  This upcycled Soda Can Butterfly Ornament is not only pretty but also quick and easy!

This is also you're last chance to share this post and win all of the ornaments that I made during this twelve day holiday event. Use the Rafflecopter below to enter and I'll announce the winner on YouTube tomorrow!  Good luck to all of those who entered and thank you so much for following along.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Just in case you missed any of the tutorials, here they are:

Aluminum Can Ball Ornaments

T-shirt Yarn Candy Canes

Shabby Chic Denim Dove

Felted Sweater Ball Ornament

Paper Towel Roll Flowers

Tissue Box Ball

Cookie Cutter Ornament

Silverware Handle Ornament

Pallet Picture Frame Ornament
DIY No-Sew Sweater Snowman
Junk Angel from a Whisk and Cork

A Junk Angel, Handmade by Me! Day 11 of 12

I wasn't sure how this ornament was going to work out!  But I say, "Not bad, not bad indeed." As an added bonus, all of the components (except for the glitter) are upcycled!  Can you guess what she's made of?

Did you think I was really going to make you guess?  Do you see it? Her face is a slice of a wine cork, her wings and dress are pieces of a wire wisk and the ribbon comes from the inside of a ladies shirt...you know those ribbons they sew on to help keep the garments stay on the hanger in the store.  Yep, I save all those too!  Hop over to YouTube to see how I pulled this Junk Angel together.

No joke, y'all....we only have one ornament left.  And then someone is going to win 'em all!  Here's the Rafflecopter to enter for today:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

And don't forget to check out all of the other hand-made and upcycled ornaments:

Aluminum Can Ball Ornaments

T-shirt Yarn Candy Canes

Shabby Chic Denim Dove

Felted Sweater Ball Ornament

Paper Towel Roll Flowers

Tissue Box Ball

Cookie Cutter Ornament

Silverware Handle Ornament

Pallet Picture Frame Ornament
DIY No-Sew Sweater Snowman

DIY Pallet Wood Picture Ornament: Day 9 of 12

I'm pulling out a whole slew of power tools for today's upcycled Christmas ornament!  But don't let that scare you, they make this project one of the quickest ornaments so far (I'll add some product accessory links at the end of this post if you need to reference them). This Pallet Picture Frame Ornament has a bit of sentimental value for me and is an actual gift that I'm making for my brother and sister. (I'm hoping the brother didn't click through when this blog post arrived in his email inbox today - fingers crossed)  Here's the ornament, see the story below: 

Over the last 26 years, no matter where I lived or what my design tastes where at the time, there was always one photo that I prominently displayed:

That's a picture of my "Ninny" embracing my brother and sister as she was getting ready to leave on her last visit with us.  A few short months later she passed away.  I took the picture (with my 110 film camera), that's why I'm not in it. But I have always displayed it to remember her and what an amazing woman she was.

I've also been repeatedly asked by my brother and sister (and mostly my mother) why I have that photo and they don't.  So this year, I decided to do something about it.  Unfortunately, I only had the one picture and have no idea where the negative might be if it even still exists.  So I scanned my only photo and hopped over to Shutterfly.  I had a couple of sheets of wallet-sized photos printed up to use in these DIY picture ornaments.  When my order total came to only a few bucks...I kept browsing.  And I picked up another Christmas gift for my mother.

Mom was just complaining about how her wedding album was a mess. And boy was it?  The album and the photos have yellowed over the years and one edge on each photo was bent and cracked.  You see her album was a touch small for the photos so they had all been folded up and are now pretty brittle. I was able to scan the photos and crop out most of the cracks in the photos and then drop them into pre-styled pages. I'm not much of a "scrapbooker"so having really fabulous layouts already made for me made it so easy to do.  I'm pretty excited about the way it came out and know she'll be excited to see it under the tree this year...but I digress.

There are just three more upcycled ornaments after today, so before you hop over to YouTube for the tutorial, don't forget to enter to win all of the hand-crafted ornaments that I've made during this twelve day event.  Here's the Rafflecopter to enter with for today's Pallet Picture Ornament:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you need to reference them, here are a couple of the accessory products that I used in today's project:
Martha Stewart Simple Circle Cutter
Lenox Hole Saw

And just in case you missed any of our previous projects that we've made, here are the links. (you can still earn extra entries by visiting each one now):

Aluminum Can Ball Ornaments

T-shirt Yarn Candy Canes

Shabby Chic Denim Dove

Felted Sweater Ball Ornament

Paper Towel Roll Flowers

Tissue Box Ball

Cookie Cutter Ornament

Silverware Handle Ornament

DIY Spoon Handle Ornament: Day 8 of 12

I've been aching to pull out the power tools to make a Christmas ornament and today I did it!  My Dremel makes quick work of these DIY Silverware Ornaments so be sure to hop over to YouTube and see the full tutorial.  But before you go...

...be sure to enter to win one of these silverware ornaments and all of the hand-crafted ornaments that I'm making during the 12 Days of Upcycled Christmas Ornaments.  Here's today's Rafflecopter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Just in case you need the details on specific power tools and parts that I used in this tutorial, here are a few links:

Dremel 200
Dremel Flex Shaft Attachment
Cut-off Wheel
Silicon Carbide Grinding Stone
Dewalt Cobalt Pilot Point Twist Drill Bits

And don't forget to check out all of the other projects:
Aluminum Can Ball Ornaments
T-shirt Yarn Candy Canes
Shabby Chic Denim Dove
Felted Sweater Ball Ornament
Paper Towel Roll Flowers
Tissue Box Ball Ornament
Cookie Cutter Ornament

DIY Cookie Cutter Ornament: Day 7 of 12

More than half way through our Twelve Days of Upcycled Christmas Ornaments and the 5K giveaway.  Phew!  Have you been making any of these ornaments?  I hope you'll love today's Cookie Cutter Ornament, it's a pretty easy one to achieve!

I'm excited to be giving away all of the ornaments that I'm making during this 12 day event so be sure to enter with the Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check out all of the previous ornaments that we've made so far:

Aluminum Can Ball Ornaments
T-shirt Yarn Candy Canes
Shabby Chic Denim Dove
Felted Sweater Ball Ornament
Paper Towel Roll Flowers
Tissue Box Ball Ornament

DIY Christmas Ornament from Tissue Boxes: Day 6 of 12

Today's featured Christmas ornament is a simple one indeed and great for kids and adults alike.  Check out these Ornaments Made From Tissue Boxes:

Tissue boxes have some the most fun and even beautiful packaging.  I use them in my jewelry creations quite regularly but there's always plenty of these empty boxes laying around.  So why not add a little glitter and hang it on the tree?

Don't forget to share this project for your chance to win all of the ornaments that are part of the Twelve Days of Upcycled Christmas Ornaments. Here is today's Rafflecopter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check out all of the previous ornaments that we've made:

Aluminum Can Ball Ornaments
T-shirt Yarn Candy Canes
Shabby Chic Denim Dove
Felted Sweater Ball Ornament
Paper Towel Roll Flowers

Paper Towel Roll Christmas Ornaments: Day 5 of 12

Seventeen BILLION toilet paper rolls are thrown away each year! WHAT?! And that doesn't include the tubes from paper towel rolls.  I think that makes the roll the perfect medium for a Christmas ornament, don't you? Here are a few examples of some that my niece and I made one afternoon.  This IS the perfect craft for families to do together.  Check 'em out:

You can see how we made our Toilet Paper Roll Ornaments on YouTube!  Don't forget to enter for a chance to win all of the ornaments that we make over this 12 day event.  Here's today's Rafflecopter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And if you missed any of our other projects be sure to check them out (and YES you can still enter each of the previous projects Rafflecopters so share on):

Aluminum Can Ball Ornaments
T-shirt Yarn Candy Canes
Shabby Chic Denim Dove
Felted Sweater Ball Ornaments

DIY Sweater Ball Christmas Ornament: Day 4 of 12

I have a really simple and elegant Christmas ornament for you today.  I made this one from a felted wool sweater with a coffee stain that I found at a thrift store.  I'm pretty sure more than a few of you have accidentally shrunk a wool sweater before...I hope you didn't throw it out because it will be perfect for this fourth project of the Twelve Days of Upcycled Christmas Ornaments.

You can find the video tutorial for this Felted Sweater Ornament here.

While you're here, don't forget to share this tutorial and enter to win all of the ornaments that I'm making during this holiday event.  Here's the Raffecopter for today's post:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

...and if you missed any of the other ornament tutorials, you can check them out here:
Aluminum Can Ball Ornaments
T-shirt Yarn Candy Canes
Scrappy Denim Dove

DIY Denim Bird Ornament: Day 3 of 12

It's Day 3 of the 12 Days of Upcycled Christmas Ornaments and today I'm showing you how you can make a shabby chic ornament in any design you can imagine from a pair of jeans.  In this case I'll be making a dove.

Remember this is also part of the 5K subscriber giveaway over on my YouTube channel. Here's the Rafflecopter for this project:

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Be sure to check out the last two upcycled projects:
Aluminum Can Ball Ornaments
T-shirt Yarn Candy Canes

DIY T-Shirt Yarn Candy Cane Ornament: Day 2 of 12

So simple, so cute, so upcycled...that's my kind of Christmas ornament!  These T-shirt Yarn Candy Cane Ornaments were so much fun to make that I had to make a few extra for my upcoming craft fair!  But fear not, I'm sharing the loving and giving you the step by step instructions to make some of your very own.  Not to mention giving them away as part of the "Twelve Days of Upcycled Christmas Ornaments" and 5K Subscriber Giveaway.

Head over to my YouTube channel to see how I made these cute little candy canes from a couple scraps of T-shirt yarn.  And don't forget to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway to win these and all of my other ornaments.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Miss Day 1 did you?  You can find my tutorial for the Aluminum Can Ornaments here.

Sparkly DIY Aluminum Can Ornaments: Day 1 of 12

Happy Black Friday y'all, the Christmas season is finally here!  Well, at least in my book it is anyway.  As a young child, I remember all the ornaments coming out of the attic the day after Thanksgiving and watching dad struggle to untangle the lights for the tree.  Once the lights were on my mom would hand one ornament to each of us kids to go put on the tree, and then another and another. And then that night, after we were all tucked in, my mom and dad would redecorate the tree so that it wasn't quite so "bottom heavy."

But now I'm tall, taller than my mom and I can decorate my own tree...the whole tree!  I still deck the halls with some of my childhood ornaments but there is always room for just one more. Well, hopefully twelve more because that's what I'm adding this year.  So without further ado, here is ornament numero uno of the Twelve Days of Upcycled Christmas Ornaments, they're made from Arizona Tea cans:

Don't forget, I'm giving away all of the ornaments that I show you how to make over the next twelve days in exchange for your help in getting me to my 5,000 subscriber goal over on YouTube.  You can enter twice each day of the contest, just check out the Rafflecopter below. You can see all the details in my last post here.

Here's the video tutorial.  Enjoy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How Many Christmas Words in a Scrabble Game?

So just how many Christmas words can you get from a Scrabble game?  Really, I don't know the answer to that question.  You see, in case you haven't noticed, I'm an upcycler.  That means that when I purchased my Scrabble game it was from a yard sale.  The sale came with a comment something similar to this, "I'm not sure all the pieces are there...."  Unlike most people who spend their hard earned cash on board games, this was music to my ears!  "I'll take it!" 

So, I set off to make some ornaments with my Scrabble game.  You've seen the ones where they put the letters in the rack and use it as part of the ornament, right?

I decided to mix things up a bit with mine.  I addition to painting the racks and using them in the ornament, I also used ribbons and other upcycled bits in them.  I'll show you mine, but as for a tutorial, if you know how to use a glue gun then it's pretty self explanatory.

I also did some with scrap pieces of ribbon and cording that have been taking up space for a couple of holiday seasons now:

Nifty right?  You could even use the letters to spell out the names of all the members of your family....pets, too.  Great opportunity to teach a spelling lesson to the younger kids in the family without them even knowing it!  The possibilities are a many! 

In all I ended up with about  15 or so ornaments from this one maybe incomplete game of Scrabble and a ton of leftover tiles with the letter I on them.  If you come up with some great Christmas words using a few Is, post below (please).

Window Screens Turned Glittery Tree Ornaments

When I was a child it was tradition to set up the Christmas tree on the weekend of Thanksgiving, usually Saturday.  With Elvis Presley's greatest Christmas hits playing in the background, we three kids waited patiently for dad to wrap the strands of lights around the tree.  Once he was out of the way, it was a dash to the tree with one ornament at a time as mom handed them off to us.  Once we had loaded up the tree dad would put the angel on top and we'd admire our handiwork, albeit a bit lopsided.  It was also tradition for mom and dad to redistribute nearly every ornament on the tree once we were in bed.

As an adult, I typically maintain the tradition of erecting the tree over Thanksgiving weekend.  But I have, of course, added a tradition or two of my own.  That includes a new ornament each year to add to my tree.  This year I made a new set of ornaments and will forgo the purchase of a new one.  Are you ready for some Christmas tree cuteness made from old window screens?

I started out making these star shaped ornaments and then had a request for a large tree topper shaped like a dog bone...for a "certain someones" pet shop (MOM).

So I did that too!

And then thought why not little dog bone ornaments - which of course I had to personalized!

Want to make some for yourself?  Check out the video tutorial that I did for the star shaped ornaments.  Just want some to show up in your mailbox?  You can do that too!  You'll notice that I didn't just stop at stars and bones....








Did you put your tree up this weekend?