Project #10: Book-themed Christmas Ornament

December sees the last challenge of The Little Book Adventure hosted by Jackie from My Little Bookcase. This month's challenge involves creating a book-themed Christmas ornament.

My family and I have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in each and every challenge and I am a little sad at the thought of it coming to an end. This Adventure has been a wonderful opportunity to share the joy of reading and wonder of books with my children and has encouraged us to look at books in new and exciting ways.

My thoughts are also with Jackie and her family at the moment. She recently announced the birth of her beautiful baby boy, Issac. Unfortunately, little Zac will spending Christmas in the hospital while he waits for surgery for a bowel disease. So please drop by My Little Bookcase and read some of her amazing posts on inspiring young readers. Or perhaps consider taking part in the final challenge of The Little Book Adventure and make a book inspired Christmas ornament of your own. Let's make this the best challenge yet!

So without further ado, here are my book inspired ornaments:

I found some Styrofoam balls in our craft box and knew they would look wonderful covered in old book pages. Then include some pictures from our favourite children's books and you have the perfect bookish ornament. I chose a Roald Dahl book of course! Using the same damaged copy of The Giraffe, The Pelley and Me that I have used in other craft activities, I found some small illustrations from Quentin Blake that would fit perfectly on the ornament.

We have become paper mache experts over the past year, so James and I covered the balls in small pieces of paper taken from an old travel guide book. We then placed our cut out illustrations on the ball and when the glue was dry, we covered the ornaments with mod podge to protect them and also give a lovely shiny finish. 

We also made a Richard Scarry inspired ornament. James thoroughly enjoys reading Richard Scarry books and I recently found a variety of pre-loved Little Golden Books by Richard Scarry. One was a little worse for wear (ripped pages and a scribble), so out came the scissors and we made a second bookish ornament! 

I also thought I would take this challenge a little more literally and create ornaments out of the books themselves! I have had some mini books stored away in my gift box for a quite a while now and when I was sorting out the box for Christmas presents I knew exactly what I was going to do with them.

These little books from Pixi Books are the perfect size to use to decorate the Christmas tree. I wrapped them in clear plastic and then added some ribbon, including a little loop so that I can hang them on the tree. Voila! An awesome book-themed ornament! On Christmas day we can unwrap and read them.

My tree is becoming more and more eclectic as the years go by and I love every new addition. It is starting to look very full and certainly very bookishly festive!