A Few More Christmas Crafts

As it seems to happen every year, I have a large Christmas project I struggle to finish before the end of the season. This year, whenever I took a break from cross-stitching the Magi, I worked on a gingerbread garland from Super-Cute Felt:
I made mine with only gingerbread people, using cookie cutters for the pattern. I had originally meant to change the garland a bit, to make it not so similar to the one in the book -- I considered embroidering the men and women instead of using "frosting," as I did for this guy, but that was more work than I had time for. Simpler embroidery and buttons were considered too, and then a mix of all the styles, including the frosting, but before I knew it I was following Howard's instructions, down to the little silver beads (left over from the beaded snowflakes). A testament to the success of her design.

I also tried to make an kitschy ornament by taking Christmasy fabric scraps and Mod Podging them on to a styrofoam ball, but that was not quite as successful:
The glue made the fabric dry darker than I expected, and the overall look is harsher than I wanted. I might try to coat it with a dusting of fin translucent glitter (does it exist?) to soften it and make it sparkly.

The lovely ornaments from SewFearless came out much better:
My ornaments were clear glass, not metallic, so I added a sheer wash of gold paint to the dried paper. I also covered up the ornament hanger doohickies with with gold floss, since they were silver-colored.

In a couple of places this year I have seen references to a "sewing tree," and I think I want to do that next year -- a small potted tree for my dining table. I have lots of ideas for the ornaments: these ones (thanks, Jodi!); beaded spools from my favorite mixed media maven, Kelli Perkins (thanks, Monika!); smaller versions of these guys:
(thanks, crafty people I don't have time to track down now!); this lady I apparently stitched all the way back in 1999 from who knows what designer:
a nicer version of this rather junky ornament:
plus maybe some new ribbon ornaments (the ones that weren't fiascos). And yo-yos and buttons of course, and rick rack . . . this could be a lot of fun!