Pin #4 was Tomato Cage Christmas Trees. Simply turn the cage upside down and wrap with Christmas lights - instant tree. To make them with varying heights, Dave stacked 2 cages together for the tree on the right. If you want them to look more "tree-ish" during the day you could wrap with artificial greenery along with the lights and add bows or ornaments.
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| Original Pin from nedesignbuild.com My version |
Pin #5 was another felt ornament - this time a snowman. As usual, I did things my own way: I glued the nose on rather than stitching; and, rather than assembling the hat separately and sewing it on as instructed, I glued the stripe pieces to the hat front then glued it to the front of the snowman. I left the hat back plain and glued it to the snowman back - making sure it lined up with the hat front - and stitched around the entire thing - snowman and hat. I would like to say that stitching in black rather than blue was an aesthetic choice, but honestly, I just didn't pay attention to the instructions and had it half done in black before I realized it was supposed to be blue (to look like snow - duh!) I also added some beads as buttons, just for kicks, and glued a ribbon loop to the top of the hat for hanging.
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| Original from Better Homes & Gardens My version |
One final note: The pattern, when printed from the BHG website says "enlarge to 133%", which I did on the copier at work (why they didn't just make the original that size is beyond me - it easily fits on one sheet of paper). The finished snowman is about 6" tall. For use as tree ornaments, I think I would like them slightly smaller, so will try the next one without enlarging the pattern.
Have fun - and please come back and leave a link to your versions if you give them a try.
OMG Tami! I had thrown 3 tomato cages in the garbage just this past fall because I didn't know what to do with them. This would have been perfect.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, we didn't have enough crap to take a load to the dump before it snowed, so they were still in the yard.
Unfortunately, they were under several inches of snow.
Luckily, though, the snow didn't completely cover them so I dug them out.
Unfortunately, we threw them in an old wheelbarrow and it rained before it snowed so they are frozen together in a very heavy block of ice. We moved the whole thing into the unheated, but considerably warmer garage. My husband said it should melt eventually...maybe a couple of weeks. I'm thinking March. :(
Thanks for this anyway. I'm definitely going to make these...one day. The funny thing is that we've had these things for 5+ years. We used them a couple of times for staking plants (not tomatoes), but mostly they were in the way. This was the first time they were actually going to be useful.
By the way, those snowman are cute. ;)
What a cute idea for the trees!! You could make a forest of them at a reasonable price!! Darling snowman too!
ReplyDeletebetty
Very nice, Tami and I have about 6 tomato cages sitting by the shed waiting to be put away! Wasn't going to decorate but this is so simple I may have to!
ReplyDeleteMy MIL (who happens to live in Nebraska...) told me about the lighted tomato cage trees! so cool. We don't have any elec outlits outside front so it is a pain to put anything outside and it makes me a little sad.
ReplyDeleteTami, you crafty gal you. These came out great!
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