Christmas is in full swing around here. So much crafting, baking, and get togethers. I am sure you know the feeling. It is so much fun celebrating this time of year with friends and family. This year, I held a Ladies’ Christmas craft at my church again. The ladies made this beautiful Christmas angel! Now I want to share this craft with you. I will show you how to transform this larger shelf sitter Christmas angel into a smaller ornament as well. Here is a picture of a few of the angels that the ladies made!
What have we been up to?
For those of you who know me, you know that December is crazy for me. I personally enjoy hand crafting most of my Christmas gifts to give to friends and family. It makes Christmas a bit more time consuming for me, but I feel that it is so worth it.
This year, however, a joyous friend has put a hamper on my crafting time. For the first time ever, I have a kidney stone. It has been taking its own sweet time passing too. I have been dealing with this on and off for about three weeks now. Praying that it is almost over. When I feel fine, I am creating Christmas gifts and teaching my children. The world kind of stops when I don’t feel fine though.
December gets very busy for my little dancer as well. She has many parties and playdates as her public school friends get breaks from school. Then her dance team had a secret sister sock exchange party, which was quite fun for her. With her first dance competition just a little over a month away, practicing her dance has become much more important and time consuming as well. We will definitely be focused on her dance a lot these coming weeks.
As with everyone I know, December is always very busy, but so much joy can be found in the chaos. One place that I find that joy is in crafting with my wonderful church friends. I am so grateful that I get to put a craft event on each year. It is something that I look forward to.
Christmas Angel
This Christmas angel was created by digging through my mother’s craft supplies in my attic. My mother passed away from lung cancer about 4 years ago now. She loved crafting and going to craft nights. I decided what better way to use all of her craft supplies than to share them. She would have loved going to the Ladies’ Christmas craft at my church. I love being able to find inspiration through all the craft supplies she left behind. Let’s get started on this Christmas angel!
Supplies
- Corks
- Wooden skewer
- Wood Beads (That can fit on the skewer)
- Ribbons and Lace
- Twine or gold cording
- Large Wire ribbon
- Tapestry needle
- Thread
- Larger bead for head
- Scissors
- Hot Glue Gun
Step 1: Cork Base and Beads
Start by taking your skewer and and driving it into the center of a cork until it feels secure. You want the skewer to stand straight up and down when the cork is flat on the table. Using a hot glue gun, glue 6 more corks around the cork with the skewer in it. This will be the base of your angel. If your are worried about the corks coming apart, tie a small ribbon around the base. Then you will add 5 beads to the skewer.
Step 2: Tying Ribbons
For this step, you will need 5 different ribbons. I cut 8 pieces of each ribbon at 10 inches long. When you are done cutting ribbons, you should have 40 pieces total at 10 inches long each. Start tying the ribbons in a pattern on the skewer just above the beads. Try to center the ribbon when you tie it, so that the lengths are close to the same on each side. Continue this pattern until you have 3 or 4 ribbons left. Then tie twine or cording around the ribbons to form the waist.
Step 3: Wings and Arms
Next, take the wide wire ribbon and create a large bow out of it for the Christmas angel wings. I like to make two loops and tie them around each other. It makes a quick and simple bow. Then take one of the smaller skinnier ribbons left to tie, and thread it through your tapestry needle. You can then pull that ribbon through the knot of the large bow. Tie the skinny ribbon around the skewer with a knot so that it is secure.
For the arms, tie the rest of the ribbons onto the skewer. Split the ribbons into two sides, so that you have the same ribbons on each side of the skewer. Make sure to include the ribbon that was used to tie the wings on. To emphasize the arms of the angel, I took thread and tied a knot around the ends of the group of ribbons on each side. I did this where the wrist might be. For this, you may need a friend to hold the ribbon and thread as you are tying, so that you can get it nice and tight. In my case, being by myself, I used a clothes pin to hold everything as I tied.
Step 4: Head and Halo
For this final step, I found a larger wooden bead for the head. It wasn’t quite large enough for what I wanted, so I used hot glue to wrap white rope around it. Then I hot glued the head onto the skewer, making sure to trim of any excess skewer from the very top. To finish it off, I cut some gold beads from a string and hot glued them in a circle on the head to make my Christmas angel halo. This step is very personalized. You can really do whatever you would like. I provided many different options for the ladies at craft event. There was hair, paint, sharpies, pearl beads, wire stars, and more. Each Christmas angel was so unique by the end of the evening.
Christmas Angel Ornament
The Christmas angel ornament is made just like the large Christmas Angel, with a few differences.
To start the ornament, you only need one cork with a skewer driven into the center of it. Keep the length of the skewer in tact until you reach the head of the angel. For wooden beads, you only need to add 1 bead to the skewer just above the cork.
Now it is time to start tying the ribbons. For the ornament, you will need 3 different ribbons. I cut 6 pieces of each ribbon at 6 inches long. When you are done cutting, you should have 18 pieces of 6 inch long ribbon total. Tie these ribbons until you have 3 left. Then you can use twine or cord to create the waist.
For the wings, I found a smaller wide ribbon to create the bow and tie it on with a thin ribbon. The arms will then be tied the same way as the large Christmas angel.
Lastly, you need to glue the head on. For this, I took a loop of twine and thread the ends through the wood bead head (as seen in the image below). I then put hot glue on the skewer and slid the head down into the glue. To finish it off, I trimmed the ends off of the twine at the neck, cut the excess skewer off, and then hot glued a small circle of gold cording onto the head for the halo.
It is just like the large Christmas angel, but smaller!
Angels in the Bible
Throughout the Bible, news is brought by angels many times. This is very significant around the birth of baby Jesus. These moments are explained quite well in the different Advent books I read with my children during December. If you are interested in those, you can find them in my blog post https://homelovedmama.com/fun-simple-advent-calendar-ideas-for-your-kids-this-december/.
First, Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel, who shares the good news with her that she will have a child. It is then that Mary finds out that she will bring into the world the Son of the Most High. Can you imagine as a mother, being told that God wants you to bring His Son into the world and raise Him? How incredible! It is a difficult task just raising your own children. I feel like there would be a lot of pressure on the mother raising Jesus, but Mary responded to the angel willingly, accepting what God has asked of her.
Another time in the Christmas story, an angel appeared to shepherds in the fields taking care of their sheep. The angel brought them the good news of the birth of Jesus Christ. It would be so exciting to receive such wonderful news in this way. What a gift and a blessing to those shepherds. Then my favorite part is when the angels fill the sky praising and rejoicing God.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” Luke 2:14
This sight must have been amazing! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season, and rejoice in the wonderful birth of Jesus Christ!
Merry Christmas friends!