Our second annual ornament exchange transpired last weekend. To see how our exchange works you can read my post from last year. A dozen ladies make a dozen handmade ornaments, then we come together to exchange after chatting over salad, rolls and desserts.
This year’s hostess made these amazing felt owl ornaments.
This Santa key is tied to a poem explaining how the magic key opens the door on Christmas Eve when there is no chimney to come down. It fits into a hand stitched burlap envelope.
This salt dough star was stamped with the tree image, then baked and tied with a blue ribbon.
This “honeycomb” ball ornament is made by sewing circles, then hot-glueing ends and middles together.
Buttons strung on wire make this wreath very sweet.
This ornament was made with vintage church art sandwiched between tiny glass panes and soldered together, with a little bling at the bottom.
This is a Norwegian elf – complete with long beard and red cap, perched on a pinecone.
This wire ornament was made using a jig to get the basic shape of the letters, than free formed to get the loops.
A dozen of these scrabble-inspired ornaments were pieced together from multiple game sets found on ebay – with different Christmas sentiments expressed on each one.
The cupcake is made by gluing a red ball ornament to a cupcake liner, then applying caulking “frosting”, bead sprinkles and tiny cherry ball on top!
This snowman is covered in glitter, with puffy paint features and an orange sculpey clay nose. The hat is a finger from a mini glove, snipped and rolled.
My ornament was also a key – and goes with a poem and “Symbol of the Innkeeper’s Key”. I made velvet pouches to store the keys, and stamped the words, “Let Him in” to an antique brass round which I attached to the key. It is a reminder that Jesus is waiting at the door, but we need to let him in.
Following is the poem I wrapped around the key:
A Prayer For December:
Dearest God, Please never let me
Crowd my life Full to the brim.
So like the keeper of Bethlehem’s Inn,
I find I have no room for Him.
Instead, let my heart’s door be ever open,
Ready to welcome the newborn King.
Let me offer the best I have
to Him who gives me everything.
-author unknown
Each of us is an innkeeper which decides if there is room for Jesus
-Neal A. Maxwell
You can download the printable I made here.
Very cute! Where did you get the keys and round plate to stamp on? LOVE the idea!
I got the keys from Oriental Trading (but I think they are clearanced out now)
and the stamping blanks from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Vintaj-Natural-Rustic-Altered-Pendants/dp/B001VJ3PJM/ref=pd_bxgy_hg_img_y
AWESOME Gift to give to anyone for Christmas…….Great project for my Sunday School Class….God Bless!!!!!
I LOVE this so much!! I’m going to make these for some special friends and my kiddos this year! Thank you for such an inspirational & meaningful gift idea! Way to keep Jesus in Christmas – thank you!!!
I absolutely love the key ornament and poem. Love, love, love. Thank you for sharing.
Merry Christmas.
fantastic ornaments!
I really love this!! Is there a way to down load that poem like on the paper you have for the Innkeepers Key?
Thank you very much for the download . I am going to give it to my family for Christmas 🙂
I LOVE your key and poem!! I would also like to get the down load of the poem if you are willing to share it. Your font is beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing this idea!! Do you think Oriental Trading will have the keys later on? It would be nice to know the item number for them, if you have it. Merry CHRISTmas!! =]
Same as Holly- Would love to be able to find the keys, maybe an item number or somewhere else you have found to get something similar, and download the poem in your font. Thanks so much!! Cant wait to give this to our Young Women!
Hey guys. I’ve added a download link for the poem and quote at the bottom of the post. Also – this is the item number for the (now discontinued) key I bought from Oriental Trading: 95/3412. Another option are brass skeleton keys found at hardware stores. Here is an online source: http://www.houseofantiquehardware.com/old-fashioned-keys-pair-brass-plated-skeleton-keys?partner=shpzla
I would love a copy of the poem of the poem as well!!!! I LOVE this idea and want to make one for each of my children!
What size letter stamps did you use? would a 1.5mm stamp be too small?
Cate – I think, but am not sure, that is the size that I used.
What a wonderful ornament idea! I have never stamped metal before. What kind of stamp does it take?
These may be the stamps I bought: http://www.harborfreight.com/36-piece-1-8-eighth-inch-steel-letter-number-stamping-set-800.html
I also got a small metal anvil base to use when stamping. They’ve been fun!
I love these keys so much. After searching for keys I found ones that I ordered from Etsy that seem like they’re going to work great, http://www.etsy.com/listing/110697081/bulk-skeleton-keys-antiqued-copper-68mm?ref=sr_gallery_19&ga_search_query=bulk+skeleton+keys&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=all
They are flat on one side but they still work. Now I just need to find some matching circle’s and punch them with my stamping kit 🙂 my YW are going to love this!!
Kristin, I just discovered you from pinterest. These are all lovely handmade ornaments. I will be complementing you and your friends by borrowing some of your ideas for gifts and additions to our tree in the years to come. Thank you for sharing your talent. Just a note…I searched on ebay for antique bronze keys and there were tons of them at very reasonable rates.
Greetings! Very useful advice within this post! It’s the little changes that produce the largest changes.
Thanks a lot for sharing!
Hi Kristin,
This is such an awesome project. Where might I find the download of the poem? Thanks so much for sharing it.
Lori
It’s at the very end of the post.
What size keys would you need to purchase? I’ve looked at several but cannot get a good feel for what’s required. Thank you for sharing your creativity.
You could use anything – but mine were 3 inches tall.
Thanks for the great idea for my ornament exchange. I am sorry to be a pill, but I just wanted to point out an error in the printable to go with the key. It is gramatically incorrect to say “Each of us is an innkeeper WHICH decides….”. The correct phrase is “….an innkeeper WHO decides…” I also checked the quote on lds. org. Neal A. Maxwell did say it correctly. It is misquoted in your printable. Unfortunately, I had to make my own version since I couldn’t edit yours.
Oops. Typo…”grammatically”….also, my spell-check doesn’t seem to agree with me that the “which” is incorrect, but the grammar information I have checked does. At any rate, it didn’t sound right to me.
I forgot to mention, for anyone who wants to find keys, here is a great site:
http://aniknition.com/
They have several different types of keys in three different metals. The keys are 3D, not flat on the back, come in varying lengths, up to over 4 inches, and they are willing to customize if you want a particular key in a differnt length or metal. The prices are reasonable. I got my keys there and I am very happy with them.
Thanks so much!! This is a great site.
Thank you so much . I have been looking for something for our exchange that would stop me when I saw it…we’ll yours definitely stopped me. Not only will this be for the ornament exchange, it will be for family gifts. This brings tears to my eyes and will become a great gift with significance. Thank you again. Now to make a list
What a lovely message with the lovely key. I think I will have to try stamping metal, as that does make all the difference instead of just a key. Thank you for sharing.
This is one of the most special ornaments I have ever seen!
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