Do-it-yourself Christmas Ornament

I love my Christmas tree. It is a little $17 6ft artifical tree we got at Target a few years ago that fits us perfectly. Its a very country/rustic/primitive tree complete with strung popcorn, red and white plaid bows tied to the branches and (my favorite) a rustic, unsymmetrical wood star at the top. Since I'm a frugal freak and don't like to spend much money on items that aren't absolutely necessary (including Christmas decor) I made a lot of my ornaments, and no I'm not talking construction paper stuff. I have thin wooden shapes I got from Hobby Lobby that I painted and attached raffia to to string them up (they're in the shapes of stars, snowflakes, hearts, and trains). I think its pretty cute. One day I'll have a real tree, but for now, this works. Anyway, My tree is looking a little sad this year. Since we moved only a few weeks ago and then I had a ward Christmas party to put on I didn't have the time to string up popcorn and cranberries for my tree like I normally do, so it looks a little empty. Add to that my young son's fascination with the ornaments and desire to hide them and eat them, the bottom half of our tree is pretty bare at this point (seriously, Trev put a little glass ball in his mouth and chewed it. Chewed it! He only got upset when I took the broken shards out of his mouth!). So tonight Lynette and I made Christmas ornaments together and we had so much fun and I think they're just so dang cute I thought I'd share it with you. They're little sleds made out of popsicle sticks, hot glue, and paint (that's it) that I found instructions for on the internet years ago. They're not the best ornaments to make with kids since you use hot glue- but they sure like to help with the paint. So here's how you make them.

Glue the skinny side of two popsicle together.


Cut one popsicle stick in half at a diagonal.

Glue the longer side of the half popsicle sticks to the two sticks you already glued, one on each side.

Cut two trapezoid shapes out of a popsicle stick, one larger than the other. (The small trapezoid should not be longer than the sled's width- look at the picture below for an explanation).

Glue the longer trapzoid near the top of the sled (that's the part that's supposed to steer.) Glue the smaller trapezoid near the bottom across all the sticks. You'll notice this small trapezoid is just a tad too long, I should have cute it down more...but oh well.

Glue two popsicle sticks standing up on their skinny side to the two trapezoid pieces (this is the delicate part). These are the runners. (you are looking at the underside of the sled)

A side view of the finished product.

Paint! I like to paint one solid color and then add simple little details on the corners (like holly and ivy, wreaths, or snowflakes).

Lynette wants to inform you that this is her magic paintbrush.

I glued raffia to the backside in the loop to hang it from. I especially like it because it kinda looks like a little rope on the front of the sled. So what do you think? Cute, huh. And simple. If an art dunce like me can do them, anyone can- although their paint job would probably look a lot better.