do-it-your-own-dang-self ornaments

Today my little sister came over and we spent hours making kitschy, cheesy homemade Christmas ornaments for her tree! Our family's tree has always had an abundance of ornaments that you could consider kitschy or cheesy... stuff my mom bought in the early '80s at TG&Y for almost nothing, stuff we kids made in grade school, happy wooden figurines -- that's kind of what we like! She brought supplies, we went out for supplies (clothespins mainly, for making reindeer), and I have oodles of supplies already too.

I think about fourteen were made in total. My mom joined us, bringing in another three tons of supplies, and said, "What's your theme??"

My sister: "Homemade."

My mom: "I just wondered if you had a theme."

My sister: "...Christmas."

Me: [busts up laughing]

Crocheted a stocking on the fly and added a strip of white felt to the top. That's the fun thing about crocheting; you can just make it up as you go a lot of the time. I don't really know how to do things "right." But the theme was cheesy and homemade, so... it was hard to go wrong!

I did a wreath, too, by just chaining and then doing a single crochet in the same chunky yarn I use to do forest-colored deer hats along a small strip of florist wire, so it could retain a casual circle shape. Then I sewed some beads on for baubles, hot-glued a bow on, and tied even more yarn on for a hanger.

Then I did a beaded snowflake with silver and clear/iridescent beads on pretty blue felt. I think of that as "Monday blue" because that's close to the color I see Mondays as. (I have slight synesthesia with days/months.)  The thing that took the longest because it wanted many coats of paint was this gingerbread boy done in Sculpy. He got little puffball buttons and I painted on the icing with a toothpick instead of a brush.

My mom did these three heart-shaped ornaments:

My little sister did this elf fellow, adding a head and arms to a clothespin with Sculpy. His name is Günther and we created an extensive backstory about his job at the North Pole. His hat is rather jolly.

She also did these three reindeer (Rudolph, Dancer, and Prancer, she said), so I asked her if she would do a pink one for me, and she did! We both thought it was so cute that we did two more, one for her and one more for me...

They have little white puffball tails!! They're so freakin' cute! I think I might keep one and give one away as a present...