Dollar Tree Dupe Of $50 Dept. Store Christmas Ornament-REALLY-L👀K!

GeorgiaBulldogsFan
by GeorgiaBulldogsFan
9 Materials
$2
3 Hours
Easy

I was cruising several department store websites recently and found this ornament. It was originally priced at $50.00! After I caught my breath, I was thinking, “Who in the world would pay that price for one ornament?” I noticed it was on “sale” for $26.99. Well, I wouldn’t pay that sale price either.

I remembered seeing little birdhouses at the Dollar Tree and I got inspired. The Dollar Tree offers 4 different birdhouse versions. I bought several of each version and this is the first one I used.

I drilled a hole in the center of the roof on both sides with my Dremel. I then threaded a strand of remnant jute rope through both holes and tied a knot tightly on top of the roof and then another knot about 3 or so inches above the roof and cut off the extra. This made my hanger.

I then clipped off both perch pieces and sanded any roughness smooth. I found this ribbon in my stash that looked similar to the inspiration ornament. This is what I used.

For convenience, I made a pattern to cut the ribbon by using note paper. I cut it to size and then glued it to a piece of an old file folder to make it more substantial. I drew the pattern pieces onto the ribbon one by one matching the plaid all the way around the piece. Wanting to match plaids comes from years of sewing. Lol. I then gave a diluted wash of the roof with sienna umber acrylic paint. I did this in case my “roofing” would show some of the raw wood. I got a pine cone from our yard and used my floral shears to cut pieces off the pine cone. I also painted the underside of the roof too.

I then began using a combination of hot glue and super glue gel to cover the roof. I also gave a coat of red paint to the base of the house. It gets a second a second coat later on to make the color more vibrant. I used a small piece of plastic to fashion a “window”. Then used a small piece of a garland twist tie to make a tiny wreath to put around the window. This is how half of the roof looked when covered.

After the second coat of red paint dried, I used a Christmas tree sticker that was in a set of miniature stickers I got from Dollar Tree. It had a sponge adhesive piece on the back but it would not adhere to the ribbon. I took the sponge off and used super glue gel to hold it. The star for the tree I had at home and have had for a long time. No clue what it came off of. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Here is the pack the tree came in.

Made the door from a piece of popsicle/craft stick. I painted it using sienna umber paint. The knob was a metal piece I found in my stash. No clue when or why I have it. 🤪. This is the finished piece. I’m very pleased with the results. It’s not a perfect match to the department store ornament but not bad for my first try. I’m putting a $2.00 cost to make this because I only had to purchase the pack with the Christmas tree in it and the birdhouse. Using Dollar Tree supplies is the way to achieve the best results at the lowest price. On to another birdhouse. Many ideas going through my mind. I plan to have a Christmas house themed tree upstairs this year.

FYI. The department store ornament is 4-1/4 inches high. The DT version is 3-7/8 inches high. Not much difference in their sizes. The biggest difference is definitely the PRICE! Forgot to give a shot the of finished roof so here is one. Get creative. I do lots of crafts watching SEC football.

Let me know what you think. Would love for you Hometalkers to check out my other projects and see what I have done with more unusual items. UPDATE: I absolutely forgot to put in my tutorial that I used tacky glue to glue the ribbon onto the birdhouse. After it dried, I used Mod Podge and brushed it on top of the ribbon. This was not intentionally done to leave out this info. Sorry. PLEASE NOTE: When putting the shingles onto the roof, I made a circle of super glue gel a little smaller than a dime on the roof and then added a dot of hot glue in the center of the gel. I then placed the shingle onto the roof. The hot glue held the pine cone tip in place until the super glue gel dried.

Resources for this project:
See all materials
Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Hometalk may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.More info
Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
  2 questions
  • Nandini Nandini on Oct 29, 2021

    Sorry to ask you one more question, I don’t quite understand when you say you used both. Did you glue some of the “ shingles “ with hot glue and some with super glue

  • Rachael Rachael on Oct 30, 2021

    Maybe spray some 'spray gloss with glitter' on the roof? Or something to look like snow?? I don't know what you would use but there's gotta be something out there, right?

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 92 comments
Next