Day 8 -Twelve Days of Christmas Celebration

Good morning my lovelies!

It sure has been cold here in the Finger Lakes of central NY State.  I even saw a little ice at the end of the lake this morning....brrrr.  

Today's tutorial is for

Vintage Look Chenille Ornaments

Today I am featuring a tutorial for chenille ornaments.  These are so quick and easy, and you can make many different  varieties, such as angels, santas, snowmen, and more...even animals, etc.  I had white chenille bump stems in my stash, so I used them to create an angel and a snowman.

Here's what you will need

*chenille bump pipe cleaners

in your choice of colors

*scissors

*glitter

*heavy embroidery thread

*vintage images

*miscellaneous trims, tulle, etc

*hot glue gun or tacky glue

Directions

Take two pipe cleaners and cut them in half.  You will be using three sections.

Bend two into a V shape, and then twist the middles together, as shown in the photographs below.

  Wrap the other one around your finger or a pen as shown and twist once or twice. I preferred the bigger head I got when I used my finger for this.   This is the head piece.  Clip the ends on the head piece, so it looks like the piece in the last photo on the left.

Now that you have completed your body pieces we will assemble the ornament. 

 It gets a little tricky here and confusing, but I will try to be as clear as possible. 

 Lay the head piece on top of the body piece, over the twisted section.

Now, take the ends of the head piece and pass them through the V in the legs and then up the back of the ornament, placing the ends up and over the 'shoulders' and on either side of the 'head', then back down the front.  See the photos below.

Twist and secure.

Cut out your vintage graphic head and glue to the top of the ornament.  

With needle and heavy embroidery floss, run the thread through the top of your ornament's head, and knot.

For the snowman ornament pictured below, I cut one extra 'bump' of chenille and wrapped it around his waist, to give him more bulk, and gave him a black 'belt' of fancy rick-rack.

For the angel, I gathered a piece of tulle around her waist, then adorned with trim.

You can be as creative as you wish now...using whatever embellishments you have around.

You can place a little item in their hands too.

I used a vintage graphic for each of my two ornaments.

Note:

I found that a vintage graphic head size of about 1 1/2 inches worked well.  The snowman head was a little larger.

A quick search on the internet for

Vintage angel graphics, vintage snowman graphics, vintage santa graphics...will give you many pictures to choose from.  You can also search for chenille ornaments, for lots of inspiration for your next creation!

Today's recipe is 

Chocolate Chip Shortbread cookies.

I am a real lover of anything shortbread.  I made these cookies for the first time last year and they got thumbs up from everyone!

Easy to make too!

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter softened
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
• 8 oz melting chocolate wafers

  

Beat together butter and powdered sugar until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla extract and beat until combined.  Add in flour and mix just until flour is blended in. Fold in mini chocolate chips.

Place dough between two layers of plastic wrap. Roll until 1/4 inch thick. Refrigerate on a flat surface until firm, about 1 to 2 hours.

 

Remove dough from plastic and use a butter knife to cut into equal-sized squares or rectangles. Transfer cut pieces to a parchment lined baking sheet.

 

Bake at 325 degrees for 18-20 minutes, until edges are just lightly brown.

 

Melt dipping chocolate in a small microwave safe bowl by microwaving on high for 30 seconds at a time, stirring between. Dip about 1/2 of the cookie in melted chocolate and transfer to parchment paper to harden.

 

See you again tomorrow!