Scrabble Christmas Ornaments

Oh goodness, it's the beginning of December again!  Christmas is lurking around the corner, despite my 'grinchiness'.  That's not a word, but it really should be.  It's coming, like it or don't.  I'm hoping as it nears closer I decide to like it.

Two Christmases ago I decided to tap into my crafty vein and make a home made/hand crafted Christmas ornament for my tree (and as it would turn out many other people's trees in the process).  I decided on making a cupcake version of an ornament.  And, to my delight and surprise it turned out pretty good (for a first attempt)!  Upon re-reading that blog post I have discovered a common theme (the struggle to find the Christmas spirit - I blame my Mom).  If you are looking for a couple home made ornament ideas you can also go back to the cupcake ornament through this link.

Then, something overcame me last year (Christmas spirit??) and I thought, what the heck...I'll do ANOTHER home made/hand crafted ornament.  So I embarked a little bit more adventurous project and create the best little snowman ornaments using burnt out light bulbs.  Ya, I know right.  I'm fairly awesome.  Crafty AND green!  So it you want a 2nd idea for an ornament project then click the link here to find my sweet little family of men made of snow (not really).

So as November was coming to a close I thought about the notion of doing another Christmas ornament project for 2014.  I'm hesitant to refer to this as an annual thing out of fear that I'll feel too much pressure and deem it 'work-like' and then not enjoy the process, but I think it might be headed that way.  I'd had some ideas for future prospects and I already had pretty much all the ingredients to make one (or you know an entire batch), so deciding which style to do was pretty much a no brainer.

This past summer, during garage sale season, I'd managed to pick up two Scrabble games for a buck each.  So this years ornament are Scrabble ornaments!  Easy-peasy!  Here's what you're going to need:

One or two Scrabble games (find them used, they're way cheaper)
White crafting glue (that dried clear)
Some ornament hooks
Some Christmasy type decorations (see my samples for inspiration)
Hot glue gun & glue sticks
A thesaurus (not really)

First I laid out all the tiles face up, and I compiled a list of Christmas related words (short is better than long).  Once I had a list of words to use, I started creating them with the tiles and setting them aside.

I then used my white crafting glue to glue the top of one letter to the bottom of another.  You could probably go horizontally as well, but I chose a vertical lay out.  Take your time, not too much glue or you'll just have little tiny messes to clean up.  I glued them together using a thin strip of wood as a temporary backing just to keep them in place until they firmed up.  Then I carefully pulled the wood backing off.

Once they were dry, I used my hot glue gun to blob a dab of glue at the top on the back.  I then stuck the bottom of my ornament hook into the glue and let that dry nicely.

Once all the hooks were affixed to the back, I took my curly red decoration thingamajig and hot glued it to the back so when you're looking at the ornament you just see little hints of shiny red stuff.  I didn't have enough red stuff to do them all, so I affixed little holly decorations to the remaining ones (which is like totally appropriate since my name is Holly and all...).

And low and behold my 2014 Christmas decoration extravaganza (but not annual remember) was complete!  So if you get one...act surprised!


Merry Christmas everyone.  I hope you have a peaceful and happy season with the people who mean the most to you.  Much love for all your support.