diy christmas decorations

It's been a wonderful year and I've wrapped it by doing what I do best: creating; painting with watercolor, illustrating more people in their cute, creature-ish selves, designing and illustration fashionable costumes and hand-crafting with felty colours. I've also decorated an entire house this year and finally made it a home I feel most comfortable in. And since it was an amazing year for "nesting", I thought I'd finish it just right and make those DIY Christmas decorations I've been sketching and making notes about for quite too many years now. So grab your hot coco, sit in your comfy chair, and I'll tell you the story behind a crafty Christmas.

This ornament was an idea I've had since last year, I wanted to make something that would incorporate everything the holiday season means to me. Since I can remember, Christmas was always family time, it was about decorating the tree and our house, crawling with my sister under the tree to see all the lights and make funny faces in the globes, baking cakes and cookies, preparing food, sharing stories, tea and candle-lights, carols, snow and free time. And in my free time, I would always draw. I remember taking my crayons and drawing the "perfect" winter landscape as I envisioned it, or just redrawing what I would see on TV, books and on Christmas cards that we received. It would always be that snow covered scene, with a warm-lit house, trees and firs, Santa and his deers flying in a clear moon, stars and snow-covered night sky. And so I wanted to incorporate all that into one ornament that I could hang in my home to always remind me of those times and what Christmas is all about. And it's all hand-made and recycled, using left-overs from my craft projects and by my little scissors to cut-out each shape from a plain felt circle.

A Christmas Story - home ornament - felt | ○ 25 cm 

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This next ornament was actually my first idea in creating something wintery. Remember my master's degree collection, SkeletOn - SkeletOff? That's where I've explored the magic properties of felt. And since I'm not much of a wasteful person, I couldn't just throw away those cut-outs from my clothes. And so I've kept them, for a couple of years, in the back of some closet, moving them around as I moved from place to place, knowing one day I'll remake and reuse them into making, yet again, something special. I wanted to add a bit of texture to the all-white decor and since painting them was not looking so great, I remembered I had some glittered moosgummy left from my last Christmas DIY project and that worked perfectly. And it's copper coloured, which is my all time favourite metal. So I've made two of them and with the left-overs I still have left, I think I could still make some more. It would be re-recycling, which I always find amazing.

 Christmas Wreath - felt, copper-glittered moosgummy | ○ 30 cm

You can check out the WIP photos on my facebook page.

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