Handmade Christmas | Art Elements Dec. Theme

When I saw that the December theme for the Art Elements monthly challenge was Handmade Christmas, it barely took split second for me to decide to sign up for the blog hop. I knew that I would likely handmake at least a few items for the holidays and that this challenge might even push me to make a few more than I had anticipated. I was right!

From the start, I knew that I was going to make some cookies for a Christmas party early in the month as I been assigned dessert for the Pot Luck gathering. I'd long wanted to make Chocolate Crackle Cookies as I just love anything with a touch of crackle to it. 

They were a bit more time-consuming than I had realized, but they were AMAZING and beautiful!

After that, I started working on a few gifts for the season. Unfortunately, I can't share them all with you because some of them haven't reached their recipients yet. But, I did create this jellyfish assemblage piece for my husband.

I'm sorry this picture's not so great - and it's not even of the actual finished piece because I was anxious to get it wrapped before he discovered it. This was before the chains and bubbles were glued down, but gives you an idea of what the final product was. And, it's already been taken up to Pat's recording studio. The studio's called Jellyfish Studios so that's why I made the piece for him.

I also worked on ornaments for our Christmas Tree. It's been years since we had a tree in the house for one reason or another. Once we got the tree up, I realized how lacking I was in handmade ornaments. Some inspiration that my brother-in-law shared with me had me pulling out the buttons. 

I made a little forest of Button Christmas Tree Ornaments.

They came together so quickly!

I wanted to make several other ornament styles but stayed too busy to make more than one that came to me while I was wrapping presents. It's actually one I've made before and also super simple.

It's a little jingle bell wreath that I used to accent a gift. 

The materials needed are minimal.

I bought the packages of jingle bells at the dollar store last year and found them while I was pulling things out this year. The wire is just some cheap floral wire, and I used basic wire cutters with it.

The steps are as simple as cutting the wire to a manageable length (about 12 inches) and stringing on the bells in whatever pattern you want. The bells have little loops on the top of them.

Once the ornament is as big as you want it, cross the ends of the wire and twist them to secure the bells.

From there, pull the wire together and wrap it around your finger to make a loop, then quickly create a wrapped loop to finish the wire before clipping off any excess.

From there, you can add a ribbon or an ornament hook so it can be hung from your tree.

If you make it large enough, it could even work as a bracelet, but you might want to use a piece of stretchy cord instead. 

My final handmade Christmas contribution was helping my mom make gumbo on Christmas Eve for our Christmas Day dinner.

Living on the Alabama Gulf Coast means we are fortunate to have local seafood freshly available most of the year. But, it's especially nice to enjoy it on Christmas. 

And, that was about it for my holiday creations. I hate that I didn't get more made, but I was able to take some time to enjoy the season. I hope you were too. Make sure to hop through the list of other creative contributors as I'm sure that they have created some beautiful holiday wares. (If I don't have the list up yet, head over to Art Elements where you should be able to find it.)

Art Elements team: Lindsay, Jenny, Sue, Karen, Claire, Niky, Cathy

Guests: Sarajo, Kathy, Mary, Hope (that's me!), Tammy, Evie and Beth, Divya, Merja, Sarah

I hope you've had a wonderfully creative holiday season!