Silhouette Ornaments

I found a bag of drapery rings at my local goodwill a couple of months ago and immediately knew I wanted to use them to make ornaments for the tree in our library.

Fun fact: decades ago when I was in college my mom gave me a bunch of unused wooden drapery rings. I turned them into Christmas ornaments and sold them to make spending money. Some things never change.

I simply searched online for copyright free silhouette images. I decided to do images of little girls and things that Mollie loved as she was growing up - our Goldens, swinging, blowing bubbles, dolls, etc. You could choose any type of imagery that would fit with your holiday decor. They are like little framed artworks.

I also decided to back my ornaments with marbleized paper so they wouldn't be just white on the back if they turned slightly on the tree. That's definitely optional but I look for any opportunity to use marbled paper.

I sprayed my drapery rings gold because my tree is green and my library walls are black. I needed the spark of metallic. If these had been going on a flocked tree or in a brighter room I might have left them wood tone. I do love the gold. 

Then I simply cut out the paper circles (I printed mine on cardstock) and used plain old white glue to put them together. That's it. I added a silky cream bow and put them on my tree. 

To finish off my tree I gathered up an assortment of ornaments. Anything vintage and worn in cream, white, gold or silver. Then I added in newer ornaments from my stash in the same color range. All sizes. I used my faux orange slices from last year. I also thrifted a small box of chandelier prisms a couple of weeks ago for $1.99 (pretty happy about that!) and I added those in along with some gold beaded garland. 

 

I topped the tree off with a bow made from wide ochre colored velvet ribbon that I've used before! 

It just shimmers at night and we are loving the look. All of the decorations except the thrifted drapery ring silhouettes were ornaments, ribbon and garland we had used in previous years. It's amazing how you can pair things differently or use them in different spots and get a completely "new" holiday look. You can see more of this tree on my Instagram.