Twelve Days of Christmas 2016 - Day Nine

Cookies! Cookies! Cookies! I spent the day yesterday baking with my youngest daughter, who is having back surgery on Monday, and who needs to get her holiday stuff done before then! We'll be baking some more tomorrow morning before her dad and I head to St. George, Utah, to celebrate our birthdays. His is tomorrow and mine is Monday. We'll both be 62 years old, and we are both starting to feel every year of that! But Christmas is a time to feel young again, at least for a little while, so that's what we're going to do. 

Day 9 is kind of a continuation of day 6, only different. It's a holiday hanging, but this time it's made with cork coasters. They are inexpensive to buy, and easy to use. I have a lot of scrapbook paper, so I didn't have to buy paper and I also keep a stash of ribbon on hand, so I had that too! What I don't have is a Cricket or Silhouette or one of those fancy-shmansy machines, so I do all my lettering freehand. I started with bubble letters when I was a kid and I've just never stopped. I've added to my repertoire, though.

You need to pick out your papers first. This is a totally subjective thing. If you are of the red and green for Christmas philosophy, then you'll want red and green. But if you are of the pink or purple or blue or ANY color but red and green, go for it! After you choose your papers, you need to trace your coasters on the back, and be sure to keep each coaster with the paper you traced it on, because they are not all the same sometimes. Cut out your papers and glue them to their coasters. You can have just one layer or multiple layers. You can also use a gold leaf pen, like I did here, to frame your coasters.

I used sheet music on mine, but you can use all different papers. So, I traced the coaster and used it to make my letters the right size. I had this lovely candy cane sparkly stripe and I thought it would look so cute for the letters. and it does except for one thing....if  all your letters are red, then all the decorations have to be green!

So I choose to decorate them all with holly. Except the O. And I had this pretty snowflake that I got last year at the Dollar Tree and I thought it would make a really cool decoration for the O. The circle for the O is made from chipboard, and I wanted the snowflake to stand out a little more, so I used a nice, bright Christmas stripe.

I glued them all to green grossgrain ribbon, leaving a loop at the top to hang it. Such an easy project! And if you don't have or can't find cork coasters, all the backers can be made from chipboard. Here are some more examples of these holiday hangings, or whatever you want to call them.

I wish I had used a red candy cane,
but I didn't have one at the time.

Lots of ideas, lots of fun. You can spell out whatever message you like and go mad! These would be great gifts for kids to give grandparents, teachers, etc. They're easy enough for even small children to make with a little help. 

Give and receive love this holiday season and you will surely have a joyous Christmas!  Love to all,