Oh by gosh by golly, it’s time for mistletoe and Ask Holly!

Cheesy, I know,  but I couldn’t help myself.  Looking for things to do with the kids before Christmas? These jingle bells crafts are fun and easy with fantastic results. They can be used to trim your own house, used as package toppings, ornaments for the tree, hair clips for girls and all make fantastic  homemade…..did she say homemade? Yes, HOMEMADE GIFTS!

I became inspired by a craft my grandmother bought 35 years ago at a craft bizarre very much like the holly above. The Poinsettia and small holly are both hair clips that can be made into pins as well.

Here are some of the things you will need:

• Jingle bells in assorted sizes and colors
• Red and green felt
• Silver and gold metallic paper
• White  acrylic paint
• A paint brush
• Fabric scissors
• A low temperature glue gun
• Hair clips
• Brass wire (I used 28 gauge)
• Super fine crystal glitter
• An X-Acto knife
• An iron

(All available at AC Moore or Michael’s. Hair clips are from CVS)

FOR THE MISTLETOE:

TO MAKE THE BERRIES – First paint assorted sized silver jingle bells (I used 6mm, 9.5mm and 19mm) with 2 coats of white paint.  Directly after painting on the second coat of paint, sprinkle with glitter. CRAFTERS TIP: Put a twist tie through the back of the loop to get a grip on the bells while painting and hang them to dry.

FOR THE LEAVES – Cut about 10 different sizes of teardrop-shape (about 1 1/2″-2″ long) leaves from moss colored felt, fold in half and iron at a medium high temp (felt may melt so watch your heat). Then pierce with a large needle at the base (shown above). Take the smallest bells and string them through a 5″ piece of wire and give a twist at the back. CRAFTERS TIP: group the bells in clusters of three. Two smaller and one bigger or vice versa as shown above.  Then string about 3 leaves per cluster through the hole at the base made with needle. Mistletoe leaves droop so I hung them crease side up. Lastly, wire them to a small branch and tie with a  ribbon.

FOR THE HOLLY – Take 3 red jingles bells of different sizes and string with a 3″ piece of wire. Cut out 3 holly shaped leaves from dark green felt about 2-3″ each, fold, iron, pierce and string leaves through wire as with the mistletoe instructions. Curl the ends with a pencil as shown above.

FOR THE JUNIPER – Follow instructions for holly with blue and silver jingle bells. To make the needles cut 2 leaf shapes from dark green felt. Cut  slits down sides at an angle about an 1/8″ apart  leaving the middle uncut, fold in two down the middle and iron. Glue the two together at crease with a warm temperature glue gun or white glue. If you like paint some of the ends white and sprinkle with crystal glitter to give a snowy effect. Attach needles to  berries as with holly.

FOR SILVER AND GOLD – Wire bells as above. Cut out leaves from metallic paper, crease by hand or score with an x-acto knife down the center and then fold. Pierce the base with a need and string through the wire. Curl the wire ends with a pencil.

These are so easy to hang as they have wire attached to the backs.

 FOR THE HAIR CLIPS:

I cut out 3 small holly leaves and 2 small Poinsettia leaves from dark green felt and glued them on the front of the clip with a low temperature glue gun. For the holly, I wired three 9.5mm red bells with a 2″ piece of wire, then wrapped the wire around the back of the top side of the clip (make sure you can open clip). For the Poinsettia, I wired five 6mm gold bells together, then wired them to the clip like the holly. I cut out six red petals of different sizes about 3/4″ to 1″ long and ironed them to give them a crease down the middle and glued them around the bell.

Questions? Just Ask Holly in the comment section.

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• A Craft Even I Can Do
• Introducing Mr. Jingle
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