Toothpick ornaments

Supplies needed:

Old Christmas cards or Christmas themed cardstock

Glue

Scissors

Assorted Christmas themed accessories

Brown acrylic paint (optional)

Step 1- pick out a card you would like to cut up and use as a back ground, then draw out a house shape and cut out shape.

Step 2- glue toothpicks around cutout, stacking one on top of the other to form a roof.

Step 3- once it dries; add more detail by adding little mini trees, pine cones or anything else you want.

I also added glitter to mine and pipe cleaners to the sides.

This craft project made me think of my neighbor Rita’s back yard shrine to the Virgin Mary when I was a little girl. It was so beautiful with all the candles lit up everywhere. I will never forget Rita, a sweet lady who lived behind my nana’s home when I was a child. She was like another grandma to me. I would always visit her, knocking on her old screen door in the back of her house. I can still hear her voice very cheerfully calling me Mija as soon as she saw it was me in her backyard, she would open that squeaky screen door, and always greet me with a hug. We would go can collecting in the desert next to the mountain we lived on, “It’s good for the planet Miha” she would say when I found cans and ran up to put them in her bag. She taught me the kinder side of religion and her home was always filled with love. I still have the little Jesus statue she gave me when I was 7. It is sitting on an antique dresser with family portraits now. This craft also reminds me of Catholic vacation bible school and all the beautiful churches my husband and I visited when we were visiting his family in Italy.