Steampunk your Christmas Tree this holiday season with this simple, elegant, and cheap-to-make ornament! Here's what you'll need: Materials:
- Skeleton Key (salvaged or purchased from the dollar bin at Michaels. Fake keys are better to hang on your tree because they're lighter and won't weigh the branch down)
- Snowflake Sequin
- Washer (small)
- Pearl (or any other bead you desire)
- Clothing Hook
- Christmas Tree Hook
- Jump rings (2 small and 1 large)
- Headpin (1)
Materials Cost Roughly: $4-5.
Tools:
- Awl (and junk wood/cardboard surface)
- Pair of flat nosed pliers
- Pair of needle nosed pliers
- Wire cutters (or toenail clippers)
Steps:
- Using your awl poke a hole in your sequin (big enough to fir your large jump ring through). Be sure to protect your table/ work surface by putting down thick cardboard or a scrap of wood underneath where you are poking a hole in your sequin. Set aside.
- Take your pearl/bead and thread it on your headpin. With your flat nosed pliers bend the excess pin horizontally so that it is parallel to the pearl/bead. Place your pointer finger next to the pearl/bead and cut off excess pin with your wire cutters/toenail clippers. (You need roughly the width of your pointer finger.) Next, with your needle nosed pliers grab the very end of your pin and curl it into a loop. Be sure to close the loop completely. Then using your flat nosed pliers attach the pearl/bead to your washer.
- Attach your washer with a small jump ring to your clothing hook.
- Thread your skeleton key, snowflake sequin and clothing hook (on the opposite side of the washer and pearl) onto a large jump ring. Close securely.
- Grab your small jump ring and attach it to the large one you just closed. Close securely.
- Attach your tree hook to the small jump ring.
- Hang on your tree with pride!
Feel free to personalize this ornament, maybe paint your loved ones' initials on the sequin or a part of the key; or perhaps create little paper tags that say "To Santa's Workshop" or "Reindeer Stables" and attach it to the ornament as well to make it extra Christmas-y; or the ornament could also double as a gift--instead of putting it on a Christmas Tree Hook you could attach. As always, Merry Making!