I know! The official definition of cabin fever refers to irritability or depression when confined indoors during the winter...but, why wouldn't the same thing apply if one is confined during the summer?!
That is how I am feeling during these excruciatingly hot and wet days of this summer! Everything is wet, drippy and depressing! I did manage to get in a bit of gardening yesterday. I even stayed out there in the rain because it was a pleasant relief but once the lightening came around, I was back inside.
Just a side note. I actually wrote this post over two days with a quick shopping trip to HL in between...hope it's not too confusing. I think I write as I talk-a bit all over the place or whatever happens to jump into my brain at the time. Lol
And so today, I knew I had to have a project! There is always lots of cleaning to do but for some reason, nothing ever seems to look fresh and clean on a gloomy day...so, what's the point? I've already got my Halloween gifts done so where do I go next? Almost every year I come up with some kind of a handmade Christmas ornament that I can also use as a package tie so off to Pinterest I went and found this:
I found this at vicki.blogspot.com and it has been on my Pinterest Christmas page for awhile because I remember wanting to make it last year and not being able to find the rusted jingle bells locally. I figured since I was starting so much earlier this year, I would just go ahead and if I still couldn't find the bells now, I had more than enough time to find them online.
Lucky for me being such a craft
The first thing I did was to download and print some sheet music. I actually found "Oh Christmas Tree" and it was already aged so the tea staining step was saved. Then, I fed it through the machine putting adhesive on the back.
I put the sheet music on to a piece of thin cardboard and then cut some Kraft paper type cardstock and adhered it to the back. This gave me 3 layers which were still able to be cut with scissors but gave a decent weight to the ornament.
Then I found a clipart image of a tree. I wish I could have used a more Victorian shaped tree but I had to stay mindful of having to cut it out and getting into all of those nooks and crannies. I traced the tree onto the backs and cut them out. If I had a tree for my Cricut machine, I definitely would have done that instead but I figured 8 paper ornaments probably didn't justify buying another Cricut die-cut set!
Then, I did a bit of experimenting with which glitter I wanted to use. I knew I was going to distress the edges and I wanted to make sure you could see that through the glitter.
So I did manage to find tiny, rusted bells at HL this year. They only had the size I need in a garland, but with my 40% off coupon, they are less expensive than ordering online ( with S & H ), so I just got them. Now I have extras to use in other ways as well. And, then I went to find rusted wire. That was no where to be found but, did you know that you can do that yourself? Yep, 2 parts bleach to 1 part vinegar. Just cover the wire and wait! I'm going to use the wire to hold on the bells as well as make a hanger. And, of course, nothing but rusted wire would work for me!
I can't believe that something so silly could make me so giddy! My grand daughter was with me for the day and even she was a bit surprised that someone could get so excited over rust!
Look at all of that rusty liquid! I will say, the one precaution in this method is that you must use a metal that WILL rust and since most of my wires no longer have their labels for me to tell what metal they are, I went with the one that seem the roughest meaning little or no shiny finish. It was a bit thicker than I wanted and in a perfect world, I would have waited and bought another. But, since I was so close to the finish line I went ahead with what I had.
I cut 8 of the smallest bells off of the garland and twisted them on to the wire making a loop at the top and adhered them with a drop of hot glue.
And then I attached the bows. In my inspiration piece, the ribbon was definitely a dark red vintage, French silk binding ribbon. Since that stuff is so hard to find, I used a similar ribbon that I had used for silk ribbon embroidery many years ago. I used it to make stuffed ornaments. It is not as wide as I would like but I think I can live with it.
Tomorrow, I'm heading off for the day with daughter #3 and grand daughter #5. We're going to do some fun things before picking up grandson #2 from a week at his science camp. Looking forward to a change in scenery! Stay tuned.
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