Faith, Trust, & Pixie Dust: How to make a tree topper bow...and a few decorations

This year we got a new tree...it was actually given to us by David's parents because they decided to get a real tree this year. This tree is much bigger than our tree from last year so the topper that we had 1. would not fit on the top of the tree, and 2. looked way to small. I looked around for a topper that I liked but couldn't find one. I had already gotten new mesh ribbon to go down the tree so I decided to just get some ribbon to match and attempt to make a bow. I also got some cute little red and green decorative pieces to go in the bow (see picture).

I got 2 types of ribbon of the same width. Put them flat on top of each other. When you make your first loop leave about a foot or so free. I used this piece to tie the ribbon in place on the top of the tree when I was done. If you want tails for your ribbon then you will want to leave more than a foot for your tail. (I didn't want tails because I had the other ribbon already going down the tree)

Next comes the tricky part. Each time the ribbon is looped back to the middle you must twist it once. This way you keep the same ribbon showing on the outside (in my case the green ribbon).

Keep looping and twisting until you get the amount of loops that you want on each side. (I did 5 loops on each side).

After you get the number of loops that you want, take a piece of floral wire and wrap it around the middle where your fingers are. Then start fluffing your ribbon. Once you get your loops pretty close to how you want them, place it on top of the tree and use your little ribbon tails to tie it in place. If you are wanting ribbon tails to go down the tree then you can use floral wire to hold it in place. Once you get it up on the tree you can continue to fluff your loops and get them EXACTLY how you want them. (I'm OCD about it so I couldn't stop until it was just how I envisioned) Then I used these little twirly pieces and stuck them in and around the ribbon. Here's how it turned out:

And here's a few other decorations:

And here's one of my favorites - my Disney tree! My Aunt Edie is just as big a Disney fanatic as I am and she had boxes and boxes of Disney Christmas stuff sitting in her garage. When she moved a couple years ago she didn't have room for them so she gave them to my mom and me. We split it up and we each have enough to make our own Disney tree!

The Mickey section (with the not-so-breakable stuff on the bottom for Raley)

The last 3 years we got the ornaments with the year on them from our trip to Disney World. And Derek sent us a "Baby's 1st Christmas" Minnie ornament last year. I love it!