DIY Christmas Ornament

Today I'm sharing a little DIY project because it's been awhile.

This year, more than any other, I am committed to savoring small moments during the Christmas season.  I've found that these moments can sneak up on you when you least expect them.  Here are a few from our weekend:

• Roaming through Santa Claus House in North Pole with the kids and stumbling upon a video of a lady painting glass ornaments from the inside.  Captivating! (To clarify, the lady wasn't on the inside, but her paintbrush reached inside the ornament.)
• Turning to see my two teenage sons carrying the very heavy Christmas tree box up two flights of stairs...and realizing it was no longer heavy for them.  My heart filled with gratitude and thankfulness for two strong, maturing young men in our home.  
• Watching my daughter open the first Christmas storage box and seeing her eyes fill with delight at the light-up Santa ornament on top.

Crafting is a way I savor small moments, too.  Working with my hands, 'O Holy Night' playing in the background, I find calm in the midst of busy.

One of my goals this year was to add a few large ornaments and red/white greenery to our tree before adding all the traditional personalized ornaments we've collected over the years.  But when I priced large snowflakes and tree ornaments, I was seeing price tags around $12 apiece.

As is often the case, I opted to make my own.  I found these large chipboard shapes at JoAnne's for just over $2 each (they were 50% off yesterday).

After removing the tags, I drilled a hole in the top of each one for a string.

Then I painted them white (I used a chalkpaint I had on hand so it dried quickly). I painted both sides.

Then, I took a gold paint pen and outlined around each ornament to add some detail.

I had planned to distress and paint the ornaments; however, when I held the white up to our tree, I decided I liked the brightness of the white better.  It stood out more.

To finish, I sprayed this gold glitter spray over each ornament.  I don't know how long I've had this spray.  At least ten years.  I don't know if I've ever used it before, but it worked great.  (I placed the ornaments on Safeway bags to protect my counters. I was enjoying being in my kitchen and didn't want to take them all out to the garage.  The fumes were strong, though, so I turned on the kitchen fan to air things out.)

Here's a glimpse of the snowflake on our tree this morning.  The sun was shining brightly through the window, highlighting Isaac's 2015 raccoon ornament.  It's a Coon, which is our last name :)

I took this photo with my phone so it doesn't show the glitter much, but when the light hits it right, you can see a subtle shine.  The size of these ornaments makes a nice statement on the tree.

Our family will be home this evening so we will decorate the rest of the tree then.  It's been up for two days already and we've slowly fluffed the branches, added a new tree skirt, poked and prodded flowers in its branches, vacuumed all the misguided needles on the floor......

....and patiently waited for Dad to have another day off so we can add the final touches as a family.


Savoring the small moments.