I've always loved Christmas decorations, even just baubles. I get drawn in by the colours, the glitter, the shapes, even the sizes! If it's huge or absolutely tiny, I want them. So, naturally, I have a few too many. Despite about 7 trees of varying sizes going up in the house, I have more baubles than I can fit onto them - and even after stringing them along twine and hanging them everywhere else as well.
In an attempt to finally de-clutter my house I went through a lot of storage spots and got rid of things - I am a hoarder, big time - and I've made a lot of new space in the house. I decided I'd take what remained of that motivation and frame of mind and attacked my Christmas decorations, too, getting rid of quite a few things. Of course, my motivation dropped after looking at all the glitter and I'd already gotten rid of quite a lot, so I wondered just what else I could do with them. Gift toppers, stringing decorations and table ornaments. I always do that. What else?
I looked at them for a while and then I had it! Little bauble people! I figured that, with the varying sizes of baubles I had, a little hot glue and some felt, I could probably put something together!
I'm loving nordic and neutral tones this Christmas, so while shopping around for felt, I decided to buy a grey mix pack from Dovecraft. 4 shades and 8 sheets, it came to £3 - perfect.
Don't they look great? So simple but so cute!
I gathered up some good sized baubles and paired them up, then removed the little caps. I kept them both turned the right way up so that the neck of the large bauble acted as a neck for the little villagers to give it a little more height around the top of the coat, and the neck of the smaller bauble would be hidden beneath a hat anyway. I used a little bit of hot glue at the bottom of the top bauble and stuck them together - the beauty of hot glue is that it dries and hardens really quite quickly so you don't have to stand around holding it together or trying to find some way to prop it up!
To make the clothes, I cut some felt and wrapped it around like a little cloak and used a little more hot glue to stick down the edge of the overlapping felt beneath, and a dab at the top corner where the two join.
I gathered up some good sized baubles and paired them up, then removed the little caps. I kept them both turned the right way up so that the neck of the large bauble acted as a neck for the little villagers to give it a little more height around the top of the coat, and the neck of the smaller bauble would be hidden beneath a hat anyway. I used a little bit of hot glue at the bottom of the top bauble and stuck them together - the beauty of hot glue is that it dries and hardens really quite quickly so you don't have to stand around holding it together or trying to find some way to prop it up!
To make the clothes, I cut some felt and wrapped it around like a little cloak and used a little more hot glue to stick down the edge of the overlapping felt beneath, and a dab at the top corner where the two join.
I rolled some felt into a little hat and secured it with more hot glue, placed it on the head and applied a little dab of hot glue at the front centre and back centre of the hat, then cut a strip for a scarf and just wrapped it around. Felt tends to gently stick to itself so I didn't bother gluing the scarf down.
I ended up making a few, and I scavenged a smaller bauble from a set I kept that didn't have a cap for one reason or another to make a smaller one instead, and used one of the 'head' baubles as its body instead.
Entries for Preloved Advent are open until December 18th and the winner will be announced that very same day on Twitter between 12 and 1pm in their chat with Eco Create.
It's such a fabulous idea, and even if you don't get involved with the competition, it's still well worth upcycling your old decorations into something new!
Preloved also have an advent calendar with loads of prizes from Zavvi, LookFantastic and MyGeekBox, so its' well worth bookmarking for December 1st!
I really love how these little bauble villagers turned out, and best of all is that it only cost me £3 for the felt to make! They're bigger than I expected them to be, too, but I think that's a good thing. I've made small hanging ornaments into much larger home decorations!
Preloved is hosting a competition this Christmas to win a wonderful piece of upcycled funiture, and I think that these little bauble villagers will fit in perfectly. The idea is to create a Christmas decoration for under £5, and at £3 for the felt, I'm pretty comfortable! I urge you all to participate in Preloved Advent because these kinds of challenges are really fun all on their own, but when you throw in the possibility of a prize, it suddenly becomes that much better!
Entering Preloved Advent is easy enough, just email your entries and their cost to social@preloved.com, tweet @Preloved and tag with #PrelovedAdvent, post the image on their Facebook wall with #PrelovedAdvent or tag @prelovedofficial on Instagram.Preloved is hosting a competition this Christmas to win a wonderful piece of upcycled funiture, and I think that these little bauble villagers will fit in perfectly. The idea is to create a Christmas decoration for under £5, and at £3 for the felt, I'm pretty comfortable! I urge you all to participate in Preloved Advent because these kinds of challenges are really fun all on their own, but when you throw in the possibility of a prize, it suddenly becomes that much better!
Entries for Preloved Advent are open until December 18th and the winner will be announced that very same day on Twitter between 12 and 1pm in their chat with Eco Create.
It's such a fabulous idea, and even if you don't get involved with the competition, it's still well worth upcycling your old decorations into something new!
Preloved also have an advent calendar with loads of prizes from Zavvi, LookFantastic and MyGeekBox, so its' well worth bookmarking for December 1st!
Cute :)
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