A little snow globe inspiration

 On Monday, it snowed steadily all afternoon and into the evening ... it felt a bit like living in a snow globe!  

 And also on Monday,  I came across a couple of fun snow globe ideas that I thought I'd share with all of you. 

 The above is a piece of 6" scrapbook paper from a set called Snow Globes.

I blogged about this set back in 2015 when I purchased it, as you will see if you click the link above.  Back in late November, I took some paper from this set and the other one I got at the same time, over to our camp for grandkids to craft with.  The other day, I was putting some things away and came upon the remaining papers from this set.  Oh, this one is so sweet!  It's really inspiring me to make some simple snow globes (minus the water) from jars,  just to use in winter decorating.

I did a bit of a search to see if I could find any of this paper still on Etsy or eBay, but struck out with that.  I did, however, find these adorable paper snowglobe kits:

 

They are out of stock, but maybe can still be found somewhere.  A kit makes 12.  They are so cute!

The same day, in sorting through some things I had saved for scrapbook journaling, I came upon this:

Oh, aren't those snow globe cookies the cutest?   This was from a King Arthur Flour catalog, but maybe not a very recent one, for I couldn't find them in the online store just now.

The closest I came was these Falling Snowflake cookie stamps.  

 

 

They are on clearance right now, $14.95 for a set of 3, which is still a little pricey for me. 

And all of this reminded me of these felt ornaments

which I've been wanting to make for years: Felt Snowglobe Ornaments.  Maybe this will be my year!

Repairing and refurbishing

 

 Does this happen at your house?  It invariably does at ours.  Whether we are decorating the Christmas tree in December, or taking it down in January, we seem to always find an ornament or two that needs repair.  This year I decided that before I made any new Christmas ornaments or projects, I would refurbish the old ones that I just tend to forget about fixing.  Above you see the damaged ones.  We also had several ornaments that didn't have adequate hangers, so I just didn't use them.  I decided to take care of those at this time also.  

The above ornament is a little tree I made using an idea from Gooseberry Patch.  I wound embroidery floss around mini spools, added button "ornaments" and a star charm at the top.   This year I found that one of the green spools had become detached,  as you can see in the top photo.

The ornament below is one I had purchased from an Etsy shop in a previous year.  The silver chenille stem that edges it had become separated from the ornament.  Hot glue quickly fixed that, but I'm not sure it will last.

The patchwork ornament you see below was made with a styrofoam ball, fabric scraps, and lace.  One pokes the fabric scraps into the foam ball using a nail file.  This ball was missing its hanger and also one scrap of fabric.  It was a pretty simple matter to find a new scrap and add it in, along with a ribbon hanger.

The ornament below has great sentimental value for me.  I can remember sitting on the floor, taking time to create this while a toddler and baby played around me.  If I was doing this now, I would not make it pink, but probably shades of green.  However, the pattern called for pink and I had pink, so I went with it.  

The hanging loop had come out of this one.  I had to just create another loop at the end, because the thread that forms the hanging loop is what holds the ornament together.  As this ornament hangs on the tree, air currents will move the bell clapper and the bell itself.  Even though I'm no longer crazy about the color, I love this ornament and want to commemorate the time and trouble I took to make it.

The Hallmark ornament below is one I bought in Idaho on a clearance sale.  I love it but needed to add a hanger.  This will be perfect at our camp this coming Christmas as we go to great lengths to keep mice out!

A better view of the interior of the "cookie cutter" is below.

The three ornaments below were freebies from Country magazine back in the 1990s, I think.  They just needed hangers, so I added thin red ribbon.  These are pewter-like and quite heavy.  The one below is from 1999 and features a tree in a pickup truck.

A festive horn is below.

The last one is very hard to see.  I took two photos but couldn't get a good one.  It's a rural mailbox (my favorite!) with a cardinal atop and fields, farm and houses in the background.

It feels great having this little project taken care of.  In reality, it was just a few minutes with a glue gun and a few other simple supplies,  but it was so encouraging to me!

Christmasy crafting plans for 2021

 

 I have no idea where this will go, but I made a crafting list for 2021.  Some of these things are UFOs and others are things I haven't even started.  

I thought that here on my Christmas blog, I would list Christmasy and winter projects I hope to complete or at least work on.

 Christmas coasters (many already cut out -- they resemble the one above)
Christmas mug rugs (I have been longing to make some of these for years!)
A simple winter tablecloth
Figure out a finish for the Snow Angels cross stitch

 

 
Figure out a finish for the winter fun crewel embroidery

Finish February Sampler -- this would be from the same series as the December sampler below.  I spotted the finished December design on the wall of a needlework shop years ago and purchased the chart.  A few years back I finally finished it, but this clipboard would lend itself nicely to a January and February sampler as well, so I splurged and bought both charts in 2021.

Stitch January Sampler
Make gift tags out of 2018’s cards
Make Christmas tags out of a Dutch Blitz set and a Uno card set

 

Make fabric teabag holders like one I got from an Etsy shop

And most importantly, 

Try and do some Christmas crafting every week … just because I love it!

I have an entire folder on my computer desktop of Christmas projects I want to make, and a huge stash of Christmas fabrics and scraps, so really -- I just need to do this.  It didn't really happen in January, but hopefully the other eleven months will include happy times of Christmas crafting.

Sorting through a Christmas tote

 

When we were getting out our Christmas decorations, I was looking for a specific item and Mr. T handed down a large plastic tote out of the attic, labeled "Christmas and Snowmen/Winter".  As I hunted through the contents quickly (not finding the item I was looking for either!), I voiced the thought that probably almost all of this could go to the thrift store.  Most of the items were very nice, many of them things we'd been gifted with over time.  Some, like the candle below, were things I'd made myself but just would not be using.  He agreed, but noted that this was not the time to go through the tote.

So a month or so after Christmas, when we were packing most of the Christmas things away, I asked my hubby to bring that huge tote down again.  It took me a week or so, but I got through it.

Here is how it all shook out when I finished going through the tote.

To the trash:
A decorative hanging ball covered with gilded pinecones, suspended by jute twine — pinecones are falling off it and it’s just not pretty anymore

To the thrift store:
A stuffed bear holding a velvety gift box
A bagful of silk holly, some of it “snow covered”, and a few pine cones
A Christmas table runner that’s not my style
A snowman lamp that’s not really my style anymore
A wall hanging, same
Several pewter-look ornaments
2 square hand-decorated Christmas candles
2 partial sets of iron-on letters for personalizing Christmas stockings
A decorative wooden box with Christmas theme
A lighted folk-art type wooden reindeer
A few bits and pieces of handmade ornaments and some ribbon
Several Christmas ornaments (from the homestead) that we just won't use

To our camp:
A lighted evergreen garland
Two silk holly garlands
A woven rug in a quilt pattern design of red and green
A Christmas wall hanging I think would look good there
A gallon ziplock bag of assorted ornaments that could work for a camp Christmas tree

Let me explain that last section: to our camp.

 When I pulled that lighted evergreen garland (something I didn't even remember having!) out of the tote, my first thought was that we could use it at the camp.  We have a lighted evergreen garland over our picture window here at home, and it looks nice in all seasons.  The camp is not yet winterized (no insulation, though we have purchased the insulation for it), and I didn't really think of having Christmas there, just of using the garland there all year round.

But when I told Mr. T of my thought for the garland, he immediately noted that if we got things insulated as well as we hoped to, it just might be possible to plan for Christmas at our camp next year!  So as I continued sorting, I set aside a few more things we could use for a camp Christmas.  We will see what happens and how it all plays out, but for now it's something fun to think about and plan for.

I'm so glad I decided to sort through that Christmas tote!