“I think I’ve become addicted to making Victorian Cat Ornaments!” These were probably not the words B.O.B. Bob ever wanted to hear come out of my mouth. Why? Well, let’s just say it means adding another themed Christmas tree in the house, which means not only buying another tree, but also finding a place to store it after Christmas. I got the idea last year, after buying an ornament at The Old Lucketts Store, located in Leesburg, Virginia. I paid way too much for it, but it was so cute, and it had a cat on it, and well, it doesn’t really matter why I bought it, stop judging me for my crazy holiday purchases! After reading about The Pintester’s (Sonja Foust’s) Pintester Movement: Ho Ho Ho Edition, I became super excited. Finally, an excuse to sit down and play with glue; it’s been way too long since I’ve played with glue that didn’t come out of a glue gun, otherwise known as the “Skin Burning Death Gun.” For those of you who have no idea who the Pintester is, check out her blog here, you’ll definitely be amused by her attempts at crafting and baking. Her epic fails are always fun to read about!
The Pintester Movement: Ho Ho Ho Edition required making an ornament from instructions found through Pinterest, a pinboard-style photo-sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme-based image collections such as events, interests, and hobbies. Users can browse other pinboards for images, “re-pin” images to their own pinboards, or “like” photos. Earlier this year, through Pinterest, I noticed these St. Patrick’s Day Cat Ornaments on Etsy and decided they looked fairly easy to make, and could be changed to suit any holiday.
I also started looking on Pinterest for more Victorian Ornament ideas, and discovered Dresden Star Ornaments Tutorial for One-of-a-Kind, Handmade Victorian Christmas Ornaments. So, now all I needed were some Victorian cats. Luckily, Pinterest came to the rescue, yet again. Here are the Victorian cats I finally decided to use, mainly because they looked like they would be the easiest to cut out.
I copy and pasted them into a Word Document, changed the size to suit, and then printed them out onto white card stock. After using double-stick tape to adhere them to another sheet of white card stock to make them more durable, I carefully cut out the cats’ bodies and/or heads. Next, I just had to make the chenille bodies, or glue the miscellaneous Christmas details on. Glue, yes, we’re finally getting to the glue part. I’m still overjoyed at the fact that I finally did a craft project that didn’t involve burning my fingerprints off. I did somehow manage to cut myself with scissors during the process though, so I guess no project is perfect.
Ready to see the finished ornaments? Drum roll please…da-da-da-da!
This is my main Victorian Cat Ornament. I wanted something a little fancier to send to Jodee Rose at Cheeseblarg. After all, she’s having her first ever Christmas tree this year; I had to make her something just a little bit more special. Thank goodness cats were mentioned on Jodee’s list of favorite themes, or I have no idea what I would have ended up making, although it would have been interesting to do something with Beetlejuice. The base of this ornament uses a laser-cut wood ornament picture frame, which took forever to scrape the price tag off of. Why can’t someone create price tags that actually come off of products? I’m pretty happy with how this ornament turned out, but I think I prefer the simplicity of the Chenille Victorian Ornaments.
There are just so many possibilities for “dressing the cats.”
Its funny, even paper cats look pissed off when you put them in clothes!
I can almost assure you that I will be working on a Brenna line of Victorian Cat Ornaments as well, so don’t be surprised if you get a little something special in the mail this holiday season.
Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck
-Colleen
YOU CAN CHECK OUT JODEE’S CHRISTMAS TREE HERE.
