i was looking around for baby's 1st christmas ornaments, and all i could find were really cheesy ones that were available at all the big chain stores. i really didn't want to buy ornaments that were also going to be purchased by grandparents and other family members, and as someone with a december birthday, i know that happens!
i realized i could machine embroider ornaments, and once i started thinking about that, i though how cool would it be to have an ornament for EVERY year until the kid's an adult? it would be like those back to school frames that people hang in their houses, with every single school year's photo, but less cheesy! they could be hung on the tree, or they'd look really cool hung on a garland all together!
i started trying to figure out what kind of ornament to do. i wanted a round image, with a hole in the centre for each year's picture. i kind of obsessed about wreaths for a while, and digitized a really pretty wreath design.
however, and this is a lesson that i totally need to learn, i didn't think to check how many stitches it was, and it took FOREVER to embroider! i set my countdown for 30 minutes, and it took well over that. not such a big deal if i was only making one ornament, but i knew that i didn't have time to make 2 sets of 20 or so ornaments that each took 40 minutes just for the embroidering!
i did end up using the one i stitched out though, since my mom had a friend who also had a baby this year. it turned out really pretty.
the centre is cut out and then thin vinyl was sewn in, to protect the photo, and there's a slit in the back to slide the photo in. making this one, i realized that not only was the embroidery super time intensive, it took forever to stitch it together, what with going around each holly leaf carefully!
so i looked at the ornaments i'd already made, and realized that the short one was round as well. i removed the decorative aspects from it, and created a frame in the centre. i played around in photoshop, adding some fanciness around the circle.
i used the font options in PE Design Lite to add writing around the circle.
and this is what i ended up with!
two of my friends had babies this year, angie and jean. i sent them sneaky messages telling them that i'd been asked to forward some questions from a friend who wished to stay anonymous, asking about the colours they use for christmas decrating. they may or may not have seen through me!
it ended up that the colours they replied with were the same ones i would have chosen for them anyway, but it was still good to check.
here are the sets!
i made a baby's first christmas ornament for each of them, and then a yearly ornament for every year until camden and warren are 19 years old. and then i made them two parents ornaments as well. sets of 22! (see, i'm crazy!)
for angie, durin and warren's set i used a mossy green with a burgundy thread.
for jean, justin and camden's set, i used a burgundy felt, with a gold thread.
they turned out so well, and i was so happy with them. they liked them too, angie even cried! however, i'm seriously reconsidering my original plan to make them for all mod babies!
after i'd made those, i realized it would be super easy to change the wording and make a gothmas 2008 ornament for dev and torrin, to go with the baby's 1st gothmas ornament i made them last year.
i made dev a set of 3 of the polka dotted ornaments in the same white and black as well.
see what i mean when i said i'd been doing a TON of machine embroidery lately?
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