Christmas Notebook

Two of the {many} things I brought home from my mother’s house after she passed away last Christmas were her button and spool collections. I love them both and have been using them in my crafting. With the spools and some small bottle brush trees, I made these ornaments.

Supplies needed:

• 2″ – 2 1/2″ bottle brush trees, bases removed
• wooden spools
• strips of text cut to fit the height of the thread area of the spool and long enough to go all the way around (use pages from old books, magazines, wrapping paper, or type your own phrase and print it)
• ornament hooks for making hangers
• wire cutters
• scissors
• star shaped beads for the top of the tree
• miniature ornaments and beads to dangle under the spool
• strings of small beads or tinsel pipe cleaner to wind around the tree as a garland
• fine point tweezers
• small beads to glue to tree as ornaments
• glitter
• white tacky glue or mod podge
• silver glitter glue
• paint brush for applying white glue and glitter glue
• hot glue gun

To decorate the spools, paint each spool with white glue, all the way around where the thread would be. Place the strip of paper over the glued area and wrap it around, adding glue if needed. When the strip of paper overlaps, tear the remainder off, then paint glue under the end of the paper and over the entire top of the strip of paper. Smooth out any bumps that may appear by rolling the handle of the paint brush over the paper.

When the glue has dried, paint glitter glue over the entire spool, including the text. The glitter glue I used leaves a thin film of glitter over everything and doesn’t hide the text at all. Don’t use a thick coarse glitter that will cover the text and make it hard to read. If you don’t have glitter glue, just add some fine silver glitter to white glue and paint it on.

This is the glitter glue I used:

No, I didn’t squirt the glue right onto the counter. The glitter glue is actually in a plastic container, though that is hard to tell in this picture.

Prepare the dangling ornament for the bottom of the spool by adding a bead to the string of a miniature ornament.

When the glue is dry on the spool, thread the beaded miniature ornament through the spool from the bottom, checking to be sure the text is right side up. Glue the cord of the miniature ornament to the top of the spool, using the hot glue. Be sure you leave enough room for the little ornament to hang freely below the spool.

To make the hanger for the top of the tree, use needle nose wire cutters to make a loop in one end of the ornament hook. Wind the wire tightly around itself so it will fit through the hole in the star bead. Be sure the star is right side up. Trim the tail of the wire to about 1/2″.

Glue the star to the top of the tree, sliding the tail of the wire down into the tree so it sits along the center wire of the tree. Glue the tail to the center of the tree.

You can use strings of beads or tinsel pipe cleaners to decorate the tree as garlands. Either way, start by using the hot glue to glue the end at the bottom of the tree. Set it so it will slowly slant up and around the tree.

When the glue at the end is hard, continue around the the until the top is reached, using dots of hot glue to hold it in place.

When you get to the end, wrap the tinsel pipe cleaner just under the base of the star and trim it with the wire cutters so it is flush with the tree. If a sharp end sticks out, push it into the tree so it won’t catch on anything or scratch anyone.

When finished, use tweezers to pick the hot glue “spider webs” off the tree.

After the garland is done, use fine point tweezers to add small beads to the tree as ornaments. Believe me, the right tweezers make all the difference! I use “parade” bead necklaces and cut the beads apart for the larger ornaments. Don’t worry about the tiny “tail” of string. It’s easy to turn the bead to hide that. For smaller ornaments, I use colored and metallic beads.

Fine point tweezers make this job easier than it would be otherwise.

When done, use the tweezers to groom the tree of hot glue “spider webs.” It will look much more professional and finished if you eliminate those glue threads.

Using hot glue, attach the finished tree to the top of the spool. The ornament can be done at this point, or you can spread it with glue and sprinkle on some glitter. Personally, I lean toward “can’t have too much glitter.”

This is a variation of the ornament, using strings of very small beads as a garland on the tree and also as a trim on the spool.

I plan to make more of these ornaments. They were fun to put together.

Update July 26, 2016 / Click this link for another post on making these ornaments. A few helpful tips. spool ornaments

Similar spool ornaments I have made can be found in my Etsy shop. ChristmasNotebook

~~Rhonda