Thursday, December 2, 2010

Sleigh Bells ring, Are you listening?

In the lane snow is glistening.... I love hearing the sound of jingle bells, not constantly mind you, but a subtle jingle here and there, when a door opens or closes, I think thats nice. I wanted to create a jingle bell door hanger, just as if it were right off Santa's sleigh. I created it out of repurposed items that I think you could easily thrift, or might even have around the house.
Here is what you need:
Thrifted {real} leather belt
Jingle bells
Thrifted metal embroidery hoop
Christmas greenery pick.

This particular belt has an embossed design on the front which was a little too western looking, so I flipped it over and used the raw leather side, I think it looks better anyway. I cut off the buckle, and cut the belt in two, making one side a little longer than the other.
Round off the blunt end of the belt using heavy duty scissors, I used the original end of the belt as a guide. Initially, I was going to put holes in the leather and tie on the bells, but I didn't have the right type of tools to use and the leather ended up being too difficult to get through. So I decided just to hot glue the bells right on the belt, and it worked out just fine. If you've got leather tools, I would use them instead, punching holes and tying on the bells with jute. I used 5 bells on the long side and three on the short.

Next, glue the two blunt ends of the belt onto the embroidery hoop, the hoop is what it will hang from. This is a 4" hoop, if you can't find metal I think the wooden ones would be fine too.Then it's time to wire on the pine. I also used pine cones and cedar and a little bit of red berries.
Here it is on the back door, I love how it turned out. It would also look great on a wreath. This is a great project, I hope you'll give it a try! If you have any questions, or if I've explained it a little too vague, let me know.
...in the meadow we can build a snow man..... :)



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12 comments:

  1. Gorgeous. You always have the most creative ideas. Love it.

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  2. I would never have thought to make my own with a belt! Great idea...thanks for the inspiration!

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  3. soooo cute, girl! Merry Christmas, look forward to seeing more of your talented ideas!

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  4. I love this project. I always love anything with green around the holiday. I have some bells on a belt that could use some gussying up.

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  5. Love this!! I posted a similar tutorial on a jingle bell garland.. but this takes the cake! Yours is simple & elegant!!

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  6. Genius Michelle! Now I need a belt too! Thanks so much for linking to the party - I greatly appreciate it! I featured these today. Hope you have a lovely week! ~ Stephanie Lynn

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  7. Fabulous idea. I just love jingle bells at Christmas.

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  8. Thrifted and FABULOUS! I love the use of greenery, cones and items easily thrifted to make this. Who doesn't like jingle bells?

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  9. LOVE IT...and it shouldn't be too hard to find an old leather belt. I just may have to recreate this!

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  10. Just wanted you to know I found you on houzz!
    Love the place setting I saw on there with the red plaid throw & the jingle bell door hanger on the back of the chairs. :) too cute

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  11. What a great idea - thanks so much for sharing! Take care, Laua

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Thank You for taking the time to comment! Because of the insane amount of spam comments, I had to stop anonymous comments-sorry for the inconvenience.
Michelle