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When I saw these ornaments in the December 2011 issue of Country Magazine I went to the source online (pilo.ca) and had a closer look. I thought: “hmmm, I bet the Graphics Fairy has some good reindeer images…. I should make these!” I also happened to have a whole bunch of ivory colored material scraps that were once my sofa slipcover (remember the one that I hated because it never fit properly… that I’ve since replaced with a chocolate brown one?)… sooooo all I had to do was print up the images (I ended up choosing three – the vintage reindeer, Santa and a pine tree) on transfer paper.

I was able to fit several of the images onto one piece of transfer paper and then I cut out the images and ironed them onto the fabric.

I had never used iron on transfers before and I’m not sure I love them… a few of them are already peeling off. It seems that if you don’t iron them long enough this is what happens, but if you iron them too long I noticed that they start to look a little yellow. I would have really preferred to have used Citra Solv to do the image transfers, but apparently it’s not available in Canada right now… yup – some sort of Health Canada “labeling” issue (my sister saw a sign on the shelf of the store where she has bought it before). So, until I can get across the border, I will have to make do with the iron on method!

These ornaments are pretty simple to make.

You need:

– Images,  transfer paper (& iron) and inkjet printer

– fabric

– sewing machine and needle/thread for hand stitching at the end

– fiberfill

– twine/jute

You simply cut out each shape leaving about 1.5 inches around the image, turn it inside out with another piece of fabric and sew it approximately 3/4 of the way around (don’t forget to put the twine inside as well)… leaving enough room to turn it back the right way and fill with fiberfill. Then stitch up the remaining section by hand.

Mine certainly aren’t perfect… (sewing is not my forte), but I like them with all the imperfect corners and bends!Yes… I got a few stares when I started hanging these on a big ol’ evergreen tree at the park near our house and started snapping away. BUT in my defense, it was a really beautiful day for taking pictures AND my Christmas tree was still in the garage at home!!

Linking up to all the parties hereand WOW  Make sure you check out all the Christmas linky parties on my sidebar including the CopyCat Challenge over at Debbiedoos! Also Today’s Creative Blog