Thanks ya'll! I made the pattern, the quilt pieces were cut into heart shapes when my sister bought them for me, so I just made a tree pattern from that. I was thinking of star shaped buttons, but I didn't have any. I could go buy some:D I have some heart shaped beads, pink or blue, but I didn't like them. I want to make angels from the hearts,too. I have a collection of doilies and hankies, and wings I bought at a yard sale. My scanner/printer broke down,I'll offer it free on my blog as soon as I'm able. Kudzu

AHHHHHHHHHH....memories! And what a journey it has been! I remember all the things mentioned here. Each time I thought I had another one...someone came up with it. I'm more "hippy" than hippie...LOL! Scarlett, I know the feeling! Those hipster jeans just don't fit right anymore! One thing I did learn to do back in the 60's and didn't see mentioned here were "Christmas Spiders". From the small glass Christmas balls and pipe cleaners, with sequin eyes. They looked like this...of course you've got to remember this one has been around for a good number of years now! LOL..ugly thing, isn't it? With new products and vintage jewerly, they now look more like this example. I made dozens of these every year..and sell most of them these days. We still use the Christmas ornaments like this. I'll never forget the year we decided to make this the family Christmas project! Neither will our 2 daughters! We all had such sore fingers. But, they treasure these ornaments now, and like myself use them every year. Let's not forget Santa and Mrs. Claus made from dish detergent bottles. With the dime store (then Ben Franklin) faces and hands, etc. They are still part of my Santa collection but I don't seem to have a picture of them anywhere in my on line albums. I still make a few of the old things...most often with a bit of a modern twist...using some of the easier to use products. The pasta angel is a good example of evolving pasta art. I do have problems finding the metal thumb tacks used for the candle in these. Someone mentioned the crochet covered clothes hangers. I'm just old fashioned I guess...I still do them. Along with little sachet bags to go with them. I love collecting the old crochet patterns and making stuff from them. These are the vintage pattern projects that I have recently finished. The shaded pansy thread colors are almost impossible to find these days. You can see some of my spiders in this basket...they are not Christmas Spiders. I call them my illusive, almost extinct pansy spiders! I wanted some really pretty silk pansy to put in this basket and couldn't find any...so I used the next best thing. LOL I think I should stop now! I don't think the "old" crafts will be completely lost...they will just evolve. Be Safe, Rach Here is a link that might be useful:

We have a pre-lit artificial tree that we've used now for 10 years; however I don't turn the lights on much therefore it's probably getting less use than most. It's 9' and came in two pieces (separates about half-way up the tree). The lights are tightly wrapped around the branches. The biggest challenge is finding what gets plugged in where from year to year. Our is a 9' and I love the height; however at the age of 52 the next time we get a tree I'm not sure how big we'll go--it's getting heavier every year! Our church has a 12' pre-lit tree that we just replaced after maybe 8 years (can't remember when it was purchased). They also had a problem finding what gets plugged into what and they think they shorted out part of it. You can remove all the old lights but you would have to be extremely patient, allow a lot of time and it would be a PITA. Then you could either re-wrap (very,very time consuming)or just string lights. We opted to buy a new tree after debating for awhile.

You can get a paste-like flocking at a craft store like Joanne, and I think there's a spray, too. I've used the paste on the tips of the branches of small green trees to simulate snow and found that it doesn't go far but it's easy to apply and dries reasonably quickly. The paste I've used is gloppy. It wouldn't be possible to neatly coat each needle.