string ornaments (with step by step photos)

My Christmas tree holds a treasure trove of memories. Memories of time past spent crafting with my children, of laughter, creativity, and love. Each year we would tried to find a new kind of handcrafted ornament to add.

These string ornaments were the ones we chose to do about 10 years ago.

To make these ornaments you need: cotton thread (like for crocheting), a water balloon, Aleene's original Tacky Glue, water, bowl, spoon, a washable (or disposable) work surface, damp rag, and a hook or hang ornament from.


Place about 1 tb. of glue into bowl, then add about 1 tb. of water. Mix well. Mixture should be "pourable". It's always nice to have help with these kinds of projects. ;)


Inflate the water balloon until it is rounded in shape and then tie it.


Spool off a good length of thread (about a yard) and dunk it in the glue mixture. Don't cut the thread!


Now start wrapping the thread around the balloon. As you wrap, try to remove the excess glue mixture. Add more thread to the glue mixture as needed. Doing this in small increments will lesson the likelihood of tangles/knots forming in the thread.


Once you've wrapped all the thread you want on the balloon, cut the thread. Insert the hook in the nozzle of the balloon.


Use the damp rag to remove any excess glue then hang the ornament to dry overnight. If the glue mixture you used is too thick, it will still make a lovely ornament. However, if you don't remove the excess before it dries, you will end up with "windows" of glue between the string. Some of these windows will look beautiful, but most of them will be torn and ragged.

Once your ornament is dry, pop the water balloon. I always pop it form the bottom so that the balloon will retract to the nozzle and come out in once piece.


You can call the ornament finished now and hang it from a hook or decorate it.


We used bell caps hot glued to the top of the ornaments to finish off the original ornaments.


Have fun!

Bread Dough Gingerbread Men ornaments (step by steps)

My grandson was here today and we kept ourselves busy making old fashioned bread dough ornaments. For once I remembered I had a camera in time so step by step pics were taken. When my children were little we made them too. I still have them 15 years later.

To make 3-4 three inch gingerbread men you will need:
2 slices of white bread (old bread is fine as long as it's still pliable with no hard spots)
2 tablespoons Aleene's Original Tacky Glue (rule of thumb - 1 tb glue for each slice of bread)
1 teaspoon brown acrylic paint
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (or pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice)
bowl to mix, spoon, rolling pin, cookie cutter, flat surface to work on, butter knife, paint to decorate. (small beads, fabric paint, glitter, and ribbon can also be used to decorate the ornaments)


Start by removing all of the crust on both slices of bread - either discard crust or eat it like my grandson did :)


Tear the bread into small pieces and toss into your bowl.


Add the glue.


Now add the paint and cinnamon. (leave the cinnamon out when you make ornaments that are not brown) The cinnamon scent lasts for a long time. I remember the second year my children and I hung the ornaments on the tree, there was still a faint cinnamon smell.


Use the spoon to do the initial mixing... unless of course you don't mind paint and glue under your fingernails. ;)


Then kneed the dough in your hands until it is smooth, evenly colored, and no longer sticky. It will feel almost like Pay Doh. (For ease of clean up, wash the bowl now.)

Roll the dough out flat until it's about 1/8" think but no thicker than 1/4" thick. You can tell the dough has been kneaded enough if it does not stick to your work surface.


Use cookie cutter to cut out gingerbread man.

Peel away excess dough.


Then use your butter knife to lift the gingerbread man off the work surface.


Place the gingerbread man onto a plate or lid and begin decorating. I have found that it is easier to mark the places you want the eyes and buttons with the end of the paintbrush first. Then when a child goes to paint the ornament all they have to do is "fill in the dots".

Place the hole in the ornament now so that you can hang it later. My grandson is still a bit too little to handle painting so he rolled out the dough and cut more men as I painted. Note to self: Move to a different work area to paint otherwise rolling motion from grandson makes it hard to paint. :)


Together we made 3 gingerbread men. I was ready to do more but that's about all his attention span could handle (1 hour, start to finish). This photo was taken after they had dried for about 3 hours. That's not nearly enough dry time but it's enough time so that you can handle them without leaving fingerprints and even hang them on your tree if you are careful. When I did this with my children years ago, we put them in the food dehydrator for a couple of hours to speed things up. When the ornaments are fully dry, they are quite hard and durable.


These are the ornaments my children and I made 15 years ago. Every year after Christmas, I place them in a zip lock bag, then store them in a popcorn tin.

The gingerbread men were decorated with fabric paint and glitter.


The teddy bear on the left has cinnamon in the dough. The one on the right doesn't.


This train was made using silver paint in the dough. Except for a hint of sparkle here and there, regular ole gray paint would have worked just as well.


My children and I made many of these ornaments that year. The children gave them as teacher gifts and gifts to their friends and grandma gifts.


One last hint: Even though 'plain' dough is white, it's not a pretty white all on it's own. If you want a pretty white dough, then white paint is needed in the mix.

I hope you have fun making your own ornaments!

Melek Designs - Stylishly fun jewelry!

Melek Designs' studio is one that is very hard for me to look through... I want so many of her jewelry items!!! lol I really admire her stylishly fun, very feminine jewelry! Like this Wavy Chain Necklace with peach and green glass bicones:

You can tell at a glance that her jewelry is made with carefully selected materials and is made with great attention to detail. Like with this Spanish Rose wire wrapped necklace. It's just amazingly beautiful!


I reeeeally love these Sterling Silver Swarovski crystal earrings!

And this Turquoise Necklace... just stunning!!

For those of you who love jewelry as much as I do, Melekdesigns is a "must see" studio. She also does custom orders! Too cool!!

Moving the Dresser

This weekend my son, with the help of a friend and my 3.5 year old grandson, came over to pick up a huge dresser and a nightstand from my home to take to my son's home... Now before I tell you what I witnessed, I need to point out that while I get to see my grandson and son quite a bit, I don't get to see them "together" that often...

So anyway... My son and his friend start the arduous process of moving the huge dresser out and I hear my son say, "Son, why don't you stand over there so I don't step on you?" I thought to myself what a nice way of phrasing "get out of the way" so I start to pay attention to what else is being said between the two of them.

"OK, Daddy", my grandson says. "I'll get the door for you Daddy."

"Thanks Son. I appreciate it," my son grunts as he hefts his end of the dresser.

"Boy! You are doing a good job Daddy! I'm so proud of you!"

"Thanks Son."

"Daddy, watch your step. I don't want to see you fall."

"OK, Son. I'll try."

The dresser is now loaded and my son comes back for the nightstand. He picks it up without taking the drawer out and sure enough, the drawer falls to the floor. My grandson rushes to pick it up.

"I'll carry this for you Daddy 'cause I'm a good helper."

You can hear the smile in my son's voice as he replies, "Yes you are Son." My grandson beams with pride as he marches behind my son carrying a drawer almost as large as he is.

The nightstand loaded, my son turns to take the drawer from my grandson, "Thanks for the help Son." After the drawer is placed back into the nightstand my son picks up my grandson, gives him a big hug, and a kiss on the cheek - which my grandson laughingly wiped away. They grin at each other.

After the goodbye hugs and kisses and the obligatory "drive safely", I came back inside and couldn't help but think about what I had witnessed; about how proud I was of my own son and the way in which he dealt with my grandson.

As I sit here writing this, I'm wondering if my son is parroting what he heard at my knee all those years ago. The years have dimmed my memory and all that remains are the highlights, the special occasions, the glimmer of times past when mother and son worked side by side on all sorts of projects. The everyday sort of conversations are long since forgotten but maybe, just maybe, what I overheard this weekend is the echo of them. I certainly hope so.

A Special Touch - handcrafted greeting cards

In an age where e-cards and e-mails predominates, it's refreshing to find a shop devoted to selling good old fashioned greeting cards - cards that offer tangible expressions of caring for the recipient. A Special Touch studio is just such a place. Angela Mazalic, owner of A Special Touch, has been making these lovely greeting cards for over a year now but has been a crafter since her teens.


A Special Touch offers over 170 different styles to choose from.


And cards for all just about any occasion.

If you find a card that you just love, but the greeting isn't quite what you want, Angela will gladly customize a card for you.


Today's the day to let someone know how much you care and what better way than to send them a greeting card? :)

I've been tagged!

I was tagged by ShineLikeCrazyStudio and The Blue Daisy Designs! Thank you! Now it's my turn to share 10 facts (hopefully interesting ones) about myself and then tag 10 other blogs.

1) I've been single for the last 5 years. Hubby discovered we had a neighbor lady and I discovered I didn't like to share. I'm extremely grateful to that neighbor lady. :)

2) I'm the mom to two grown children and a grandma to the smartest, cutest, little boy ever.

3) I've been supporting myself for the last five years by twisting balloons. I don't go to the grocery store during day time hours in order to avoid my "groupies". It's not that I don't find it flattering to have children run up to me and give me a hug or to peek around a corner and stage whisper, "Mom! It's the Balloon Lady!". I just don't think it's right for these little fans of mine to catch me with tampons in my shopping cart. Can we say, "so not cool"?

4) I was doing "handmade and/or handcrafted" before it was cool. For me it's always been a way of life. I was raised in large family with very little money to go around so we made much of what we needed and wanted.

5) I did my first wood carving at the age of 6. It was a rooster. Wish I still had it.

6) I won my first art contest (best artistic ability in the first grade) at the age of 7 and still have the check for $1 that was my prize.

7) I decorated and sold cakes my sophomore year in high school.

8) My senior year I made crocheted animals, first with instructions, then with my own designs and sold them to keep gas in my '72 Ford Torino so I could go cruising on Friday and Saturday nights.

9) I love all kinds of jewelry but rarely wear more than rings and earrings. I would wear the necklaces more often but I can't wear them with my balloon entertaining outfit. Rings - now those I wear a lot of - 3 on each hand whenever I'm "The Balloon Lady".

10) When I paint, I swipe the brush on my right hand (lefty here!) to remove excess paint from my brush and/or to make sure the paint is the right consistency.

Now for the hard part: Tagging only 10 others. :)
1) http://cherilynnfineart.blogspot.com/
2) http://gpwood.blogspot.com/
3) http://aspecialtouchangel.blogspot.com/
4) http://thecandle-shoppeblog.blogspot.com/
5) http://vitta-ofbrushandneedle.blogspot.com/
6) http://tindlebears.blogspot.com/
7) http://delightfulstitches.blogspot.com/
8) http://fo-shizzledesignstudios.blogspot.com/
9) http://inspiredpink.blogspot.com/
10) http://lonesomeroadstudio.blogspot.com/


Consider yourself OFFICIALLY TAGGED. YOU'RE IT!!!!

Now it's your turn to select 10 other Blogs whom you choose to promote...AND PLEASE...tell us a little about yourself!!!

If I needed an ego boost...

... this weekend sure would have done it. :) I made the 4 hour trek up the mountain (No, not on foot! I drove.) to the place of my birth to help celebrate the 100 year anniversary of The Ozark Cafe' (managed by my nephew). I took with me this 5+ foot T-Rex (added the chef after I arriving.)

I had planned on arriving the day before my Saturday shift around 3:30pm and work on some decor balloons to help "set the stage", but I slept right through my alarm. Then I had one delay after another (including being stuck behind every friggin' driver out there wanting to travel at 45mph in 55mph speed zones!) so didn't arrive until a little after 5pm - right before the Friday night dinner rush.

By that time I was a little stressed from the drive (I really dislike that winding mountain highway!) so I sat down to eat at the cafe' and relax. While waiting for my food to arrive I pulled out my balloons to make the dino's food. It took me nearly an hour to make the little chef guy for the T-Rex to eat because I kept putting it down to twist for others instead. By the way, the Mushroom Swiss Burger I ordered arrived steaming hot but by the time I was able to eat it, it was cold, cold, cold. Even cold it was extremely delicious! And yes I know, if I really wanted hot food, I shouldn't have pulled out the balloons until after I ate. :)

It was these two little cuties that put the idea of doing some decor work out of my mind Friday night. I loved seeing their mom in the Spidey hat (yes it's a chumpy Spidey, but it works). Their dad played guitar and sang on stage almost that entire evening and he was both an excellent picker and a marvelous country singer.

After giving up on twisting decor pieces that night and vowing to do them in the morning before my scheduled shift started, I left the restaurant and went in search of the guest suite the cafe' owner had reserved for me. On the way I stopped in to visit my niece - just in time to watch her put the finishing touches on this huge cake to be served the next day to all the customers at the restaurant. I believe she said it was equivalent in size to 15 cake mixes and I know it was all 2 grown men could do to move it. It was designed to look like the cafe' itself. The only things missing were the rocking chairs out front:


By 6am I was back at the restaurant to have my morning coffee and a bite to eat - a full 2 hours before I was to start working. 30 minutes later, with caffeine finally running amuck in my blood stream, I make the first and only decor piece - a Don C. octopus. (I know, simple but impressive!) Even though there were no children in sight, all it took was one teen asking for a balloon to start the ball rolling.

The owner provided 5 cent donuts, 5 cent coffee (free refills), 25 cent bowls of chili (none of which I had time to sample), and give-a-ways every 15 minutes (everything from a free breakfast to free soup and salad every day for year). Our state senator made an appearance and presented the owner with some sort of certificate in honor of the occasion. There was also live music, most of which was the owner and his 'band'. The guy can sing! And he sang songs I knew! I had to be careful and not allow myself to sing along while twisting...well not to sing along with all of the songs. lol

Most of the day is a blur of twisting, laughter, and balloon hats. These were some of the most fun people I have ever twisted for! They loved my balloons; they "got" my humor; they waited patiently while I twisted my nicer designs instead of getting grumpy and forcing me to make faster, less impressive stuff; they were understanding when I said I needed a break; they totally understood why I pulled up a chair at their table instead of standing with the excessive weight of my over-packed apron dragging on my neck; and even though they wanted balloons almost all of them were happy to let me "surprise" them with my own selections.

Except for 4 breaks, one of them lasting as long as 10 whole minutes!, it was non-stop twisting until 9:30 that night. So much for the 12 hour shift I was scheduled for; a shift that was to include as many breaks as I needed and all the food I could eat. :) I knew I wouldn't take time to eat (because then I would have to also take time to brush my teeth) but for some reason I thought that there might be a lull in between breakfast and lunch and dinner shifts. I was soooo wrong. lol

At the end of the last music set, or what was supposed to be the end, the owner thanked everyone for making the 100 anniversary celebration so special. Then he called for me (I was in another room twisting away) and when I made my way into the room with the music, I was greeted with a rousing round of applause. He then stood up there on stage and thanked me and said some of the most flattering comments about my balloon designs anyone ever has, including that my balloons "made the event".

What happened next sorta floored me. I was not paid for the 12 hours I was contracted for. I was paid for the 14 hours (I fibbed a bit and said it was 14 hours instead of 15) AND the 3 hours I twisted the night before. I tried explaining that I was only "playing" the night before and hadn't really "worked" and also that I hadn't even asked if I could play with my balloons then, but it didn't matter, I was paid for those hours anyway.

I made my way back to my suite where I wolfed down a large portion of some to the best pizza ever (made just for me at the cafe'). I managed to pull off my shoes, even thought about getting ready for bed, but then I just sorta passed out right there on the couch. lol I didn't rouse again 'till morning.

Tonight my hands are swollen, very sore, stiff, have tender spots (almost blisters) and a couple of torn (bleeding) cuticles. My neck and back are almost as bad - but my ego has never been fed so well. :)