Clothes Pin Ornaments

Old fashioned wooden clothes pins can make quite cute Santa ornaments. Make sure to get the kind pictured below, the kind with the hinges might work, but not quite as well. You’ll need red and white felt, red pipe cleaners, red, black, yellow, and peach paint, acrylic is probably the cheapest and easiest, and glue.

The clothes pins have what looks like legs already, and small torsos, so without even getting started you can imagine how the Santa will look. First glue a one to two inch piece of clothes hanger on each side of the clothes pin. If you have a drill, you can simply drill through the clothes pin and string one longer piece of pipe cleaner through for his arms.

Next, paint everything but the top part, which will be the head, red. After the paint has dried use black paint to paint the bottom sections of his legs black, like boots. Use the black paint to draw a line where his coat would be covering his pants. Draw a black belt around his waist, and draw on two small dots for his eyes. Use the yellow paint to draw a square buckle on his belt. Use the peach to make his cheeks look rosy.

Cut a small rectangle of red felt and roll it into a cone to be used as the Santa hat, then glue it in place. Glue on a bit of white felt for his beard, and use a little more white felt for trim on santa’s hat.

Using a bit of red thread and a needle, sew a loop onto the Santa hat. This will be your ornament hanger.

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Christmas Decoration Crafts - Part Four

Put the mixture you created (see previous blog) into a paper bag along with the orange and roll the orange around inside until it is totally coated in the spices. Leave the orange in the bag in a cool dry place for about a month. Each day roll the orange in the spices again.

The orange may finish curing in as few as three weeks if you live in a very dry climate, and if you live somewhere more humid it may take up to six months. You’ll know your pomander is done when you tap it and hear a hollow sound and the orange feels light in weight. When the pomander reaches this point you’ll want to shake off any extra spices before displaying it in your home.

I find that because you need to remember to roll the orange in the mixture at least every few days for a month or more, it makes sense to make more than one of these at a time, especially since they last for years. You could even make a whole batch and give them away as holiday gifts.

Pomanders look good displayed in pairs in a decorative bowl or on a decorative plate on a bed of cloves or potpourri. If you feel like getting creative, insert the cloves into your pomander in a pattern or add ribbon to your finished product.

If your pomander starts to lose its scent you can simply mix up a batch of spice mixture and re roll the orange in the mixture.

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Christmas Decoration Crafts - Part Two

Wreaths are commonly used for Christmas decorations. They are usually quick to make, and there is a large variety of types to choose from, many more than I’ll list here.


I think the cutest one is a wreath made with dog bones. You can hang it over your dog’s bed inside and when the season is over, you can give most of it to your dog to eat. Start with a Styrofoam or cardboard shape. Secure a piece of ribbon to it, and then wind it around the circle on a slight diagonal, like stripes on a candy cane. Make sure the ribbon totally covers the cardboard or Styrofoam. Next, you’ll tie the dog bones onto the wreath using more ribbon. Get creative with the types of dog bones you use if you want a more colorful end product. Rubber dog bones come in bright colors, it looks cute to use red and green rubber dog bones. If you want to add more to this wreath tie evergreen sprigs around it also.

This next wreath is very elegant and pretty, it looks almost like light snow gathered into a wreath. You’ll need to form a wire clothes hanger into a circle using some wire cutters and needle nose pliers. Next, you’ll need to tie plastic sandwich bags around the wire using a simple knot. Tie them around until you’ve filled the circle. Add a shimmery bow around the finished wreath.

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Christmas Decoration Crafts - Part One

Now that Thanksgiving has passed it is time to take down your fall decorations and start putting up your Christmas decorations. I’m going to focus on decorations that you can make yourself for a cheap price.

One of the easiest and cheapest decorations is painting bricks to use as bookends or to display on tables throughout the home. This is a fun decoration for kids to do too. All you need are a few bricks, paint, and paintbrushes. Look online for inspiration and ideas of what to paint. Paint a snowman, Santa Clause, or a reindeer on the front of your brick.


Wrap your design around the sides of the brick too if they will be seen where you choose to display them. If you are not very good at painting, you could just paint alternating red and white stripes on a brick, or green with red polka dots, any pattern really. If you want to get more detailed, use some felt or other material to glue onto the brick as clothing for whatever character you painted. It is a good idea to glue felt on the bottom of the bricks so they don’t scratch up the furniture you choose to place them on. These cute bricks can be displayed anywhere by themselves, or in groups. They make wonderful door stops, table decorations, or mantle decorations.

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