Elf Sweater

Back in 2004 I had a rainy day at the shop with no customers coming in. I refuse to get bored, so took my little glue gun and came up with this cute little sweater.
Lay two baby socks (with heels) together and fold the tops over so that they form the sleeves. Slightly, very slightly, overlap one over the other where the buttons of the sweater would be. Hot glue the two together and hot glue the folds that formed the sleeve so they stay in place.

Hot glue two small buttons onto the front and a patch to make it look old and worn. Put a small bow on the top.

I made the coat hanger out of craft wire and used two mini clothes pins to hold it on.

Here is the poem if you have trouble reading above:
Poem on sweater:
An elf that came with Santa
last year on Christmas Eve,
Was helping fill the stockings
when he bumped against the tree
An ornament swayed and fell,
rolled underneath the chair
and the little elf was saddened
at the spot that now was bare
he tried to think of what to do
and had no idea any better
than to quickly fill the empty space
with his little elfin sweater!
©it's only words-2004

If you'd like to do it in team colors here is another poem that can be adapted:
Nick Saban came with Santa
last year on Christmas Eve,
and was helping fill the stockings
when he bumped against the tree
An ornament swayed and fell,
rolled underneath the chair
The football coach was saddened
at the spot that now was bare
he tried to think of what to do
and had no idea any better
than to quickly fill the empty space
with his Roll Tide Christmas sweater!
© it's only words, 2004

or
Tommy Tuberville came with Santa
last year on Christmas Eve,
and was helping fill the stockings
when he bumped against the tree
An ornament swayed and fell,
rolled underneath the chair
The football coach was saddened
at the spot that now was bare
he tried to think of what to do
and had no idea any better
than to quickly fill the empty space
with his War Eagle Christmas sweater!
© it's only words, 2004

If you'd like to make this, I don't mind you using the poems, please leave the © information in tact.

More little ornaments

Here is a picture of some other small ornaments that I've done. I'll put the directions up soon, but you should be able to look at them and figure it out:

the one that says "joy", I've done Joy, Jesus, Noel, Peace, Love, Laugh, etc... Any small word that will fit on the wood and will look good on a Christmas tree. Originally I did these just to hang on the small branches between my bigger ornaments so that the tree in my shop looked full. But they've been one of the best selling ornaments that I do. I get 50 cents each for them, but you might can charge higher if you sell.

Team spirit Snowmen

Ok - take a look at these two pictures and see if you can guess where I live. Yep, that's right.. Roll Tide!




These are so super simple that anyone can do them. It doesn't matter if you think you can paint or not.. they are too simple to not be able to paint them.

Start with small wooden rectangles. I get mine in the craft department at Walmart (if you still have a craft dept in yours, they should have them. ) The rectangles are about 1 inch by 2.5 inches.

The background should match the team color. Red for the Crimson and White of Bama, Blue for the Blue and Orange of Auburn. My secret to doing these quick and easily... Take an old rag, I use an old sock or sometimes and old wash cloth.. using the tip of your finger, put it over the top of your bottle of paint and tip... getting just a little paint on the cloth. Then just brush the cloth on the wood rubbing until the whole piece is covered and take a clean part of the rag and rub some more. It's like staining. You don't get an overbright color but just the right amount of a stained wood. And it dries very fast because you haven't put a huge coat of paint on that you need to wait on it to dry.

So you now have a painted rectangle. Take your white paint and paint a half circle on one end. I do these in an assembly line and do about 20-25 at a time, so by the time I get to the last one, the first one is dry and ready to move on.

Next, add the nose. This can be a simple triangle, or if you feel artsy, design it a little. It should be slightly rounded where it sits on the face and remember not to go too far out or you won't have room to paint your words. Don't worry if you can't paint a carrot, it's an optical illusion, anything orange that resembles a triangle shape will give the appearance of a carrot.



Next, using your teams other color write what you want with a small brush or paint pen.



Last - easy as pie - outline everything with a black sharpie pen. Add the eyes and dots or lines for the mouth and you are done. If you can be patient until the sharpie pen is totally dry, a day or so, you can lightly spray it with clear varnish. If you spray while the sharpie pen is still wet, the ink will run and ruin your ornament.
Add a jute or ribbon hanger to hang directly on the tree.

I sell these for $2.00 each and do the local high school teams, Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee. I've done special orders for Louisville and Kentucky. Easy to do, quick and fun! Oh - one more note: Rotate which ends you paint the semi-circle, so they aren't all facing the same way!

Pumpkin and Pears Snowmen

This is probably one of the easiest snowmen I've ever done. On an after Halloween sale, I purchased several wooden pumpkins and somehow my twisted brain immediately saw snowmen.

I removed the wire hangers from the top and painted just the sides white, leaving the middle section of the pumpkin for the snowman's "nose". Give him some blush on his cheeks and paint a crooked little smile. When the paint is dry, give it a light coat of clear varnish spray and let that dry.

Here's what it looked like as a pumpkin and one I've started, but haven't put the blush on his cheeks yet:
Take a glove, the cheap ones that are "one size fits all" and remove the finger tips (save them for smaller hats later on). Carefully cut the remaining "palm" part of the glove into strips. Cut right down to top of the band that would be on your wrist as a glove.

Place the glove onto the top of the pumpkin, use my picture as a guide. I glue it low enough that it looks as if it's down over his eyes, so you don't need to do eyes. If you want, glue it slightly higher and paint eyes also.

Now while the bottom band of the glove is glued on, the strips should all still be loose so you can see the top of the pumpkin. I take a length of string and tie a loop. Tie it long enough that it will glue to the top of the pumpkin and extend out of the top of the hat. This is what you'll use to hang the snowman on your tree. Once the loop is made and glued into place, take a strip of ribbon and gather up all the strips of hat and tie them into a bundle so that they look like a pompom on top of the hat.

If desired, place a few small bells on lengths of ribbon and tie in with the ribbon that you tied on the middle of the hat to form the pompoms.

That's it. Very simple, very fast.


By the way - these two cute fellows are done exactly the same way. These are wooden pears that were on a fall garland I bought on clearance. The only difference is you need to paint the entire face. The hat is made as above using gloves or tops of knee socks.

Welcome

Welcome to my blog spot! :)

I will be adding tutorials for some of my crafting projects. I love to share what I've done and don't mind showing how to create it yourself! I also will be sharing links to great projects other crafters have created - I hope you enjoy your visit and come back soon!