This morning I realized that I have exactly one week to whip up my dress for the Christmas party next Saturday. Eeek! Needless to say, everything today was about the holidays – cutting out the fabric for the party dress, making wreaths, and decorating in general.
Need a festive accent to wear with your “bedazzled” Christmas sweater at the party this week? My snap-your-fingers easy headband can be whipped up in the time it takes to bake a batch of sugar cookies, and I’m sure you have all the materials on hand in your gift wrapping arsenal…well, maybe not the headband, but I’m sure you have one kicking around the house somewhere.
Materials:
Headband
Metallic curling ribbon
Mini sticky gift bows
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Directions:
I’m not exactly a big Christmas person. I work in retail, where it’s perpetually Christmas from the beginning of October until the end of December, so I get my dose of “holiday cheer” in a big way each year. But I still like to have a little tree at home, twinkle lights, and some She & Him Christmas playing in the background. This year, my tree has a knitting theme, and yours can too with these easy-peasy yarn ball ornaments. I can see smaller ones as decorations on gift boxes, big ones in a glass vase on the mantel, a couple attached to a wreath…the ideas go on and on!
Materials:
Styrofoam balls in assorted sizes
Scrap yarn
Aleene’s Tacky Glue or other craft glue
Yarn needle
Scissors
Directions:
Step 1: Place a dot of glue in the middle of a Styrofoam ball. Place the end of yarn in the middle of glue dot to secure and wrap the yarn around the Styrofoam ball several times through glue dot.
The beauty about working with yarn and Styrofoam is that the yarn “clings” to the Styrofoam texture, making it easy to wrap the yarn around the ball and not worry about the yarn slipping from place.
Step 2: Wrap yarn around Styrofoam ball several times in the same direction, then switch directions. Keep wrapping yarn around ball in alternating directions to get a “yarn ball” effect, as seen above.
Keep wrapping yarn around until Styrofoam no longer shows through. Doesn’t that look pretty?
Step 3: When the ball is wrapped to your liking, place a dot of glue next to the most recently wrapped area of yarn. Continue to wrap yarn over glue dot to secure yarn in place.
The yarn ball should look like this afterwards, the glue is covered by yarn wrapped over it.
Cut yarn, leaving a long tail for weaving in the end.
Step 4: Thread a needle with the yarn end and pass needle underneath several sections of wrapped yarn. Repeat a few times to secure, then trim yarn end close to ball.
Step 5: To make a hanger for the ornament, use a needle and thread a length of yarn underneath a section of wrapped yarn. Tie ends into a knot at desired length and hide knot underneath wrapped yarn section.
Repeat for lots of yarn ball goodness to hang on your tree this year! So much cuter than store-bought ornaments.