"And this shall be a sign unto you; ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." -Luke 2:12
For a nativity themed tree how would you represent a manger? I could use cloth or hay or wooden cradles. I didn't want it to look dumb or chunky. I decided hay would be something I could work with, but it is so messy.
I don't have pictures of the process of making these ornaments because I forgot. But I bought a few clear plastic ornaments. They were two for $1 at Dollar Tree. You can find them during the Christmas season. I got a bunch of these ornaments.
My mother supplied me with hay. You can also buy hay at Dollar Tree during fall. I filled the clear ornaments with hay up to about halfway. I added gold glitter to them to add just a little bit of sparkle. I can't have enough gold or sparkle in my life.
It was beautiful but I didn't feel like it was enough. As always. So I racked my brain on what else I could do to them. The idea came to me about scriptures. I wrote out different scriptures the tell of Jesus Christ's birth and strips of paper. Next, I used a candle and burnt the edges a little bit. I just have to be a little extra. I cut up the strips and twisted them individually around a pencil to make them curl.
Finally, I stuffed them into the ornaments. I used tweezers to spread the curl out a little more. They look great and will add some fun texture to the tree.
The ornaments are cheap and the tops kept threatening to come off. I was worried that the hay would just end up everywhere as soon as my son got ahold of them. So I had to add one more thing to make them perfect.
I hot glued a white ribbon around the top, sealing it and adding just a little more to the overall look. I think it ended up representing a manger pretty well.
Comments