Each year I like to create a batch of ornaments that I give out to whomever stops by my home during the holidays. For example, I like to give one to our mail carrier, the UPS delivery lady, the Fed Ex gal. After all, they deliver a LOT of Amazon.com boxes! I also give an ornament to each of the nice helpers at the post office when I mail my stack of Christmas cards. This year, I also gave an ornament to each member of my Quilt Group along with their Christmas cards. I make one for each member of my family. And then I have a few extra for any friends that happen by, etc.

It's fun to try and find a simple and cute ornament to create each year so that I can make them en masse in an assembly line manner. This year I made about 35 of these little puffy tree ornaments. I used two different Christmas fabrics — one fun and one more elegant. This year's ornaments were more cut-and-glued than stitched. Here's how you can recreate them.

Find a nice holiday fabric. I looked for one with a green background, a very small print, and some type of leaf design. The two fabrics I chose are both 100% cotton calico. The darker fabric is a mottled background with a metallic gold holly print on top. Very pretty in real life. Cut three squares for each tree. The first is 1.5 inches, the second is 2 inches, the third is 2.5 inches. Put a small bead of white glue down two sides of a square. Take a small wad of fiberfill and place it in the center of the square. Fold the square point to opposite point to form a triangle with the fiberfill tucked into the center to make it puffy. Do this step with each square. Finger press firmly along the edges. With pinking shears, trim the edges of each square after the glue dries. Assemble the triangles, points facing up, with the largest triangle on the bottom and smallest triangle on the top. Glue them together at the top point. Cut a rectangle of brown felt about .5 inch wide and 2.25 inches long. This is the tree trunk. Put glue on all but about .5 inch. This non-glued part is the part of the trunk that sticks down below the tree. Glue the trunk to the back of the tree. This trunk helps to hold the triangles together. Here's the only stitching part of this project. Thread some thin string (or #8 perle coton) on a needle and make a single stitch through the very top of the tree. I stitched it from back to front, then front to back. This way the flat part of the stitch was hidden behind the star. Tie the string into a loop about 3 inches long. Glue a star-shaped piece of confetti to the top of the tree. You can also us star-shaped sequins, stitched on with a bead. Or you can use a star-shaped charm. I already had the confetti on hand, and it was extremely cost effective to use for a large batch of ornaments. For a final touch, I put "For [name], 2002" on a piece of paper and glued it to the back of the tree trunk. Of course, you can use your imagination to decorate your tree in any way you wish. Glitter. Beads. Buttons. Glitz. Whatever. These trees can also be made into pins by stitching or gluing on a pin back. Or they can be made into refrigerator magnets by gluing a strip of magnet on to the tree trunk.