love birds

Christmas has come early this year (or late - depending on how you look at it). My husband and I started a tradition a couple years ago that involved naming our Christmas tree. We got the idea from dear friends of ours...and since we name everything else in our lives (I drive a car named Betty White) we knew that we could keep this tradition alive.

For the past 7 months, I've had a chunk of "Belinda" hanging around my craft room waiting to be transformed into something neat. I had a few ideas in mind, but settled on an ornament - it seemed like a pretty easy project to start with considering I had never crafted with a Christmas tree before.

[1] I started by asking my husband to kindly cut me a few discs. I knew I wanted more than one (in case I messed up and had to start over).

[2] Next, I warmed up my wood burner. I had gotten it at Michael's (with a 50% off coupon) when I was planning our wedding. I used it to make table numbers and other little decorations. It works great and is nice to have on hand for random projects (such as this).

photo by heather brincko

[3] Then I free handed a little "love bird" design onto my best disc. I thought this would be cute to symbolize the Christmas tree from the year we got married.

[4] I was nervous to start, so I practiced a few techniques on some scrap wood to figure out the best way to go about burning my design.

[5] After practicing for a few minutes, I started on my actual piece. Before I knew it, I was done! I added a little eyelet hook and some twine to finish off my new ornament.

Now all I have to do is wait for December to roll around. In the mean time, I'll start thinking of "C" Christmas tree names...