Hand Made Ornaments

Every year the ladies in my church have a Christmas ornament exchange so I decided I wanted to try and make one this year. These are not the best photos of the ornaments, but the best I could get they are tricky to photograph.

The first ornament I made in a circular shape but it got a little misshapen so I knew I would keep it for my tree and try for a nicer looking shape with another ornament.

The first ornament I used red velvet and made white spiderweb roses with Swarovski crystals in the centers. I added fine gold metallic thread in fly stitch fern, and a few larger Swarovski crystals. Then I hand sewed the ornament together, with a large round Swarovski crystal at the top with the loop, stuffed it, and beaded with tiny clear size 15 seed beads, and various sizes and shapes of Swarovski crystals. This photo doesn't really show the bit of misshaping that was happening but I whip-stitched around the edging so it looked more like puckering all around and giving a nice gathered result. Still not perfect roundness, but good enough for my tree. I love it and I learned from it! On to the next ornament!

For this ornament I used a dark green satin that has a heavier feel too it and I chose a square shape, since I felt I could control the outcome of a square better than a circle this time. Again I chose 3 white spiderweb roses with AB Czech glass beads in the center, then I added the fine gold fly stitch fern thicker this time. Then I used some larger red beads in 3's for berries and created bead and sequin "holly" leaves by putting sequin, bead, sequin, bead on the needle then coming back down skipping the first bead and going through sequin, bead sequin. I thought it gave a nice sparkle and 3D effect and looked a little like holly leaves. Next I added a red bow and couched it on with size 15 clear seed beads, hand sewed the ornament together using the same red ribbon for the loop with a large round Swarovski crystal at the top. Then I stuffed it, sewed it closed and then beaded the bottom with clear size 15 seed beads and various shapes and sizes of Swarovski crystals. I love the result and feel it's worthy of the exchange! I made a little tag that says how it's made so the recipient knows it's not a generic run-of-the-mill ornament. Also on both ornaments I embroidered a small MA '07 in the back side in the same fine gold metallic thread I used for the fern.