Last year, I was inspired to make these toothpick manger scene ornaments after seeing something similar at a local craft show. Since I keep all greeting cards that have been sent to us, [I usually separate the cards at the fold, and keep the main side for future crafts/gift tags and the other part people write on is put into our scrap paper pile…] I just needed to dig out the Christmas themed card fronts, some toothpicks, glue, old beans, & sunflower seeds from the boys’ baseball “stash”, lol.

So I began, but quickly learned that this was going to take waaaaay more toothpicks than I had & it was also pretty tedious. While my 3 boys do not really like to come up with the ideas for crafts, they are usually pretty good with assisting when I have an assembly-line type setup. I really could not see much hope in their assistance with this version, so the manger scene ornament then “morphed” into this:

This was much easier to make – just needed canning lids (which we had LOTS of), construction paper, a couple matchsticks, spaghetti noodles, and stars. I had a cheap plastic necklace in my craft box that was made up of a bunch of green stars, so I cut it apart, and it worked perfect. 🙂

Every year, we try to make a new ornament to go with our homemade gifts. Made these light bulb snowmen in 2006. I had been saving all our old lightbulbs for several years prior, so I had quite a stash, lol! 🙂

First we spray painted the bulbs white. Then we attached wire around the metal part of the bulb to act as the “hanger”. Next we cut hats out of scrap fleece from other projects and hot glued them to the metal part – trying to hide most of the wire part with the hat. Used permanent markers to add faces & buttons and noted the year on the back. Topped it off with a spray glitter & that’s it! 🙂

Thought I’d try to get some posts up of past craft projects we’ve done over the years.

Did this one about 11/12 years ago. Yes, I saved all the baby food jars from when the boys were little guys…

I honestly can’t remember how I came up with the idea – perhaps I saw one in a craft show or in a magazine ?

I can’t remember the name of the paint I used, or if it’s even still around, but it was a small spray can of “stained glass window” paint found at a local craft store. Not much to it – just gave them a couple light coats & let ’em dry. 🙂

I made a TON of them! Many were used as centerpiece decorations for class reunions & anniversaries. Then I did a bunch of red and green ones that I still bring out for Christmas. A tea candle fits just right and lasts about the perfect time before burning out. A couple jars are too small for the candles, so I remove the metal around the candle & it fits snugly inside. Added bows, and that’s it! 🙂