Favecrafts just ran an Ornament design contest and wanting to make something different than jewelry, I repurposed and upcycled a votive holder into an exotic bohemian ornament for submission. Why did I take this route? Because decorating on a budget doesn’t have to be boring and you can make exotic pieces at no cost.
I wanted to use simple and easily available materials like felt, beads, rhinestones, alcohol inks and embroidery floss, to add color and pizazz to winter decorations. As this upcycled project can be completed in 1-2 hours max, I have included two versions of the ornament. One with a tree embroidered in the center and the other with a chunky rhinestone for more sparkle. This vibrantly colored ornament would also work well in places where Christmas is celebrated during Summer. So here is how you can turn a dollar store votive candle holder into an exotic ornament
DIY Upcycled Bohemian ornament
Materials
1. plastic round gold tone votive holder
2. Felt – in red, magenta and pink color
3.Alcohol inks – red pepper, sunshine yellow, sunset orange, green – meadow or bottle
4. embroidery floss in green, yellow and pink
5. 4mm rhinestone chain
6. half pearl beads 5mm
7.Acrylic white spacers – 6
8. Acrylic white beads – 2
9. Gold tone brass bead cap – 2
10. faceted crystal rondell – bronze – 2
Method
1. Prepare the base: Gather a square of 6X6 yellow fabric with a needle and thread and bunch it up so that it resembles a pillow and stuff it in the votive holder Knot thread and cut.
2. Color the flame part of the votive holder using alcohol inks. Let it dry. Try mixing alcohol inks to come up with different shades as I have done in the variations. A blender or a sealant can be used to get the consistency right
3. Make the bead tassels
a) Loop 1 seed bead, white acrylic bead, beadcap, 1 rhinestone spacer sandwiched between 2 acrylic spacers, 1 crystal and one seed bead. Connect it to the lower end of the votive holder using a jump ring
b) Loop 1 white acrylic bead, beadcap, 1 rhinestone spacer sandwiched between 2 acrylic spacers, 1 crystal, 3mm gold bead and one seed bead. set aside
c) Loop a rhinestone bead sandwiched between 2 white spacers using an eyepin. Loop it to the component made in step 4 on one side and to the lower end of the votive holder using a jump ring on the other end
4. Embellish a) The tree variation:
Embroider a simple tree using green embroidery floss on a 1 inch circle of yellow felt. Embellish with gold seed beads and pink thread. Glue the yellow circle to a circle of red felt of 1.5″ and both the circles to a 2″ circle of magenta felt
Join all three layers using green embroidery thread and tack the circles to the holder using magenta pink embroidery thread. Glue Rhinestone chain around the tree and tie up a piece of thread to the holder to help you hang the ornament.
b) Rhinestone focal version:
Glue a circle of red felt on a circle of dark pink felt and join the layers using green embroidery thread. Without cutting the thread sew the rhinestone focal in the center and glue the rhinestone chain around it.
Tack the circles to the holder using magenta pink embroidery thread and tie up a piece of thread to the holder to help you hang the bohemian ornament.
After decorating during Navaratri with lots of color, I thought why not do the same thing with Christmas and I think I have succeed to an extent with this ornament. Please do tell me what you think about it and your comments on upcycling objects into ornaments.
I hope you found it interesting
Cheers
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