So a few years ago as I was decorating my tree, I was disappointed in my lack of ornaments. I had only lived outside of my parents house for a few years, so I hadn’t accumulated many ornaments. I looked in stores, but we didn’t have a lot of money and I didn’t really see a bunch that I liked. My mother in law told me about the ornament parties she used to have, and I loved the idea, so my sisters in law and I decide to hold a party. Last night was our 3rd annual one.

The way it works is this: 12 people are invited and they each bring 12 homemade ornaments. Then we play Christmas games, eat Christmas themed treats (generously provided by my mother in law) and swap ornaments. I got some amazing ornaments, and had fun making mine. Some people *ahem, Kate* are way talented.

Most people get their ideas from Pinterest, but there are so many options, we’ve never had duplicates. Here are mine from this year:

They look really easy, and they are if you are good at free handing (which I’m not). My sister sent me the idea, but I didn’t follow the guidelines like I should have. Jenn at Frugal Upstate did a great job, I just wasn’t patient enough. Basically you draw your design on a circular piece of paper, then mark dots with a marker where you want the holes, then use a hammer and nail to punch each hole. Be sure to put your lid on something that can get dinged; I used a scrap of wood. I’m just not great at freehanding, so my designs weren’t very good. But I wasn’t willing to go online and find designs to use, so I winged it. I’m kind of lazy sometimes. It does come at a price. I made several mistakes and had to sack some. Here are the rejects:

And heres my setup:

Luckily I got the hang of it after a few mess ups, and a box of lids is only $2 at Walmart.

Last year I made these wood burned snowflake ornaments. They were a ton of fun. I really used it as an excuse to buy a wood burning pen. First I drew the snowflake on the disk with pencil. Then I used the wood burning pen to trace the design. The hardest part getting the disks. Wood disks like that are expensive if you need a lot, so I got two logs from Michaels and had my dad cut them for me on his saw. I wasted a little bit since we couldn’t safely cut the log all the way down, but it was still cheaper and looked great. Here’s my favorite one:

I am so excited to add my new ornaments to my tree. I love how it looks with all of these unique creations, and when I see them I am reminded of the fun time I had at the parties.

These are my new ones. I haven’t put them up yet because L loves hanging up ornaments, so I’ll let her do it.

Hapoy December!