How to make Pie Ornaments

 

I think these diy pie ornaments are some of my favorite things I have made in a very long time. Not only are they really cute, but they are pretty easy to make, and the items to make them are inexpensive.  

I had a lot of positive feedback at our recent holiday market, which made me happy.  

The main items you need to make the pies are styrofoam circles from the Dollar Tree, and cubes of polymer clay. I got mine from Walmart for 96 cents each. I found each cube is enough to make the crust of three pie pieces.  I also used about a half of cube to make several pecan pieces. 

I cut each styrofoam circle into six pie pieces.  I then rolled out the clay and cut it to fit each of the pie pieces. You will need clay for the bottom crust and the outside crust.   One thing that I did not do this time, but will next time is to prop the outside crust with foil to keep it upright. A few of the outside crusts came apart with out it.   Before baking the clay you MUST remove the styrofoam before putting it in the oven.  (see the first picture)  Bake at 275 degrees for 15 minutes. 

I used lightweight spackling to give each of the pie pieces some texture, and make them look more realistic.   Dollar Tree will sometimes have spackle for $1.25, but if you can't find it, I found this brand at Walmart.  It is a little bit bigger than the DT container and ready to use.  

Once I glued the cut styrofoam to the clay crusts and covered the pie pieces with spackle.  I painted each of the pie pieces with acrylic paint. I also painted the crusts to look more crust color. Since I was at my friends house, and had limited colors with me, I blended several colors I had on hand to look like pumpkin pie. 

When the paint was dry, I placed a little bit of spackle in a plastic bag, and added whip cream to each piece of pie.  

I only had enough clay to make cherries for one piece of pie. They next time I make cherry pie, I will add some clay pieces on top of the cherries to make it look a little more realistic.

I had enough clay to make three pecan pieces I added the pecans on top of the spackle and once it was dry, I painted it a caramel brown. 

I used screw hooks and ribbon to hang each of the ornaments on a mini Christmas tree. 

In addition to the pie ornaments, I sold pie shaped cookies, and gingerbread faces. My friend sold flavored bread which was well received as well.  

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Countdown to Christmas - Easy Ball Ornament DIYs

When we got some of my Christmas boxes out of storage the other day, I found some of my items I have not seen in awhile. I did not have space to use them in my apartment, but I was not ready to get rid of them either. It has literally been just like Christmas (LOL!!)  opening the boxes and finding the treasures that are inside them. 

The Christmas before moving from my house to an apartment, I did a craft show. In the boxes from storage, I found several ornaments that I had made for the show. When I was looking through them, I thought they would make a great Christmas countdown DIY post.  They are easy to make, and would make great gifts.

Buddy was very happy I found his favorite elf inspired ornaments again.  It's been awhile since he had seen them. You can see them in this post, Elf on the Shelf Ideas and Dollar Tree accessories.

It is a dreary, overcast day here in Ohio, so it was hard to get good photos.  I tried to use different types of lights, but since these ornaments are glass, I kept getting weird reflections.  

**these are affiliate links 

If you would try to make these ornaments yourself, the Dollar Tree has clear plastic ornaments in a 2 pack of smaller ornaments, a 4 inch, and a larger 5 inch ball.

The first thing I did with this ornament was fill it half way with faux snow. I then took a thin paintbrush, and painted on white birch trees and a few cardinals.  I also added a red ribbon to hang it on the tree.  I now have them on my Woodland themed Christmas tree.

This melted snowman ornament is very easy to make.  I pulled up my original photo from 2012, because you could see it better than the ones I took today. In my original ornament, I used craft foam for the nose, eyes, and buttons.  In the updated version, I used a little bit of orange air dry clay to make the carrot nose. I then used peppercorns for the rest, because they look more like tiny pieces of coal.  In both, I used a small piece of red felt fringed on the ends for the scarf. Fill the half full with faux snow before added the snowman pieces.  

All you need to make the elf inspired ornaments are some red ball ornaments like these currently available at Dollar Tree in small quantities, and a wooden or paper mache stocking.  Paint them red, and add white felt. 

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When we had the craft show, the movie Frozen was still very popular.  At the show we sold a lot of snow wands, a few tulle skirts in Anna and Elsa colors, and these hand painted Olaf ornaments  I filled the ornament completely full with faux snow and then painted Olaf's face. If you prefer not to paint it, you might be able to make an Olaf face using a Cricut machine. 

I also sold hand painted Christmas Tree ornaments.  If you would like to see how to paint one of your own, here is my step by step tutorial from a post in 2013.  It is easier to do than you think! 

I recently had someone email me asking me about this  ornament.  I looked through the entire blog (11 years worth) looking for it.  I could not find a post, nor did I remember making it. Fast forward to a week later, I find the box of forgotten ornaments.  Now I understand why I could not remember it, they have been in storage since 2015. 😀 This Santa themed ornament is very easy to make.  I filled the ornament with red metallic basket filler. The belt is make from a strip of faux leather, which you can now find in the Crafters Square aisle of Dollar Tree. Santa's belt buckle is a rhinestone that had been glued on with hot glue. 

While looking for older pictures, I found a BONUS ornament. 

This ornament is probably still packed away with some Christmas decorations we did not get out yet.  I added blue glitter to the faux snow and painted on some snow paint on top that looked like real snow when it dried.  It turned out so pretty.  

Happy Crafting! 

 

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Countdown to Christmas- Snow Owl Ornaments

A few years ago an ornament I made back in 2013 went viral.  It was so interesting seeing my post everywhere for about a week.  Yahoo even picked it up, and made my photo a cover to one of it's posts.  On my own Facebook page, I saw several people share the post, even without knowing it was from my website. 

These snow owl ornaments are now special to me and the stars of my Woodland themed Christmas tree, which you can see in this post Woodland Christmas DIYs. 

All you need to make these ornaments are cardboard tubes, paint, glitter paper, cardstock and hot glue.  

The first thing I did when making the ornaments was to paint the cardboard tubes white.  

 

Once the tubes were dry, I folded the tops and bottoms in to form points on both the top and the bottom of the owl.  

This is what it looks like when you are folding the tube.  Fold one side over first, and then the other.  

The best way to make the eyes and feathers of the owls is with a  hole punch. I think I got mine at one of the local craft stores, I did find these set of three sizes over on Amazon.  The  two biggest circles you need for the owl is for the whites of it's eyes.  

Using a smaller hole punch (I think this was 3/8"), I cut out two black circles for the eyes, and several circles for the body.  I layered 15-16 circles made from glitter cardstock and glued them the body.  I also cut out the wings out of the glitter cardstock, and glued them to the sides of the owls.

I used half of a gold pipe cleaner to hang my owl.  I folded it into a loop and then added some hot glue to the back of the owl. 

The last step to finish up the owl ornaments is to add a small triangle beak, and the small white dot on the owl's eyes. 

Don't they look pretty on the Christmas tree, and they cost very little to make since all you need is cardstock. 

Now for my money saving tips of the day.. 

Have you checked out any of the Cyber Monday deals yet today?   I have been watching for some new craft items to add to my Christmas wish list that I could really use in my craft room.  

Have you seen these handy heat guns used by DIYers on crafting reels on Instagram and Tik Tok.  Well they are perfect for you want your paint to dry quickly or when you want to shrink wrap a gift.  I would love to have one for when I am painting projects. 

If you like to create gnomes like I do, you might be interested in this 36 pc gnome kit , with nosed and faux fur beards of different colors. I like that the beards the little gnome noses are ready to use. 

Probably the most useful item on my Christmas list is this Chandler Full Size 60W glue gun with stand. Several of the crafters that I watch on YouTube have this glue gun, and it is a best seller on Amazon. Not only would it do what I needed it to do, but it looks really pretty too.  

What crafting items are on your wish list?  

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Easy Ornament DIYS

Recently I had a large Facebook page share my snow owl ornaments on their page.  This happened a few years ago as well, and that time it went viral. It was quite exciting to see something I made on the front page of yahoo and a few other sites. I would see my post several times in my feed as it was been shared by people who didn't even realize it was mine.   Having my ornament being shared again got me thinking.  I have a several ornament DIYs I have shared over the years that many of you might not have seen, or if you had its been quite awhile ago.   

** This post also contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Along with the snow theme, I made a few easy snow themed ornaments. 

In my post snow ornaments  I shared three different snow themed ornaments.

I found the clear ornament balls on clearance several years ago. I'm not sure how much they are currently in stores. Dollar Tree does have some this year if you can find them.  If you are not able to find any in the stores,  DollarTree.com currently has the available online in small quantities. 

If you like to paint I also have a painted Christmas Tree ornament tutorial. 

I used to the same painting technique to make both the Santa heart ornament and the Santa gift box.  They used to be big sellers back in my craft show days. 

One night after my daughter went to bed, she remembered she had to bring in something for a class gift exchange the next morning.   What they brought could be handmade so we went to work right away and at the last minute made these handmade ornaments.  She got a fun pickle ornament in return which we still put up on our Christmas tree each year.  

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