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Friday, December 9, 2011

Trimming the Tree

Fiiiiiiiiiive goooooooooolldd riiiiiiiiings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ehem....sorry 'bout that. I just get so carried away with the holly-jolly-ness of things. I can't help it. I look forward to this month eleven months of the year. I'm fueled by the thought of Christmas. The baking. The music. The smell of Jo-Ann's when you walk in and are inundated by Cinnamon-scented pine cones. And the decorating and tree trimming. Oh yeah. All of it.

I decided to make some ornaments this year and I thought I'd share a few of them with you.

The first I made is a super beyond simple glass ball dipped in loose glitter.



All I did was to buy pre-packaged plain glass ornaments, remove the tops, paint them with a thin coat of Mod Podge, and then pour glitter over them. I used two different types of glitter - fine gold and coarse clear. I used a metal frog and some skewers to help them dry, then sprayed them with a coat of Gloss Finish Mod Podge to seal the glitter in.


The second type of ornament is also based on a clear glass ornament.

 

This time, I coated it in a layer of Mod Podge, and then covered it with "antique" tissue paper. To make the tissue paper I just spread out sewing patterns and stamped with music notes and script stamps. Be sure to use an alcohol-based ink like Staz-On or Versafine so that it doesn't smear when you go back over the top with another coat of Mod Podge. You can stop there if you like, but if you're me, you just can't leave well enough alone. Nope. If you're me then you coat the wet ornament in another layer of coarse clear glitter. It's perfect. Dry these the same way as the first ornaments.

The third ornament is made entirely of paper.



Make an accordion-folded paper circle, coat the outside edges in coarse glitter - of course! Cut a strip of tissue paper a little narrower than the width of the circle and about twice the length. Accordion fold the tissue, staple in the center, and then fan out. Glue to the center of the the circle. Make a banner that is about as wide as the tissue, doodle around the edges and glue to the tissue. Spray the wood snowflake from the pack of Pink Paislee Wood Shapes in the Mistletoe & Holly kit with the Mister Huey's Calico White Spray, also from the kit. Once the snowflake is dry, spray with a coat of Mod Podge and cover (of course) with some coarse clear glitter and glue over the center of the banner. Cut the prongs off of one of the tiny enamel brads from the kit and hot glue it to the center of the snowflake. Punch out a small pink star from the sheet of punch-outs and a small striped star from the 3-D stickers and glue to the snowflake. Now the base of the ornament is finished and all you have to do is make a hanger. I cut an 8 inch piece of baker's twine from the kit, fold it in half, and glue it to the back of the ornament.

How about another paper ornament?



Cut 8 strips of paper, .75"x6" and staple in the middle. Put a glue dot on the inside of the top of the first strip and fold into the center of the stack. Repeat with all of the rest of the strips. You can stick your finger in each loop you make to make them a little fuller if necessary. Use some iridescent glitter glue on the edges of the top of the ornament. Once the glitter is dry, glue a 1.5" scalloped circle to the center, and then layer a Santa sticker from the Melissa Frances sticker sheet over the top. To make the hanger, punch a small hole into the top loop of paper. Cut about 8" of baker's twine, fold in half and tie a knot, then slide up through the bottom of the hole you made.

And the final paper ornament is so simple it's ridiculous.



Punch out the blue ornament from the sheet of punch-outs and doodle around the edges. Stick down some red gems over the little blue circles, and then stick down the "Seasons Greetings" punch-out with a couple of foam dots. Punch a small hole in the top of the ornament, cut 8" of baker's twine, fold in half and tie through the hole.

Voila! Lots of ornaments all hand-made up special for your tree, or to give to friends and family for theirs. OR you could use the paper ornaments as gift tags - they'd be great for that!

For more detailed instructions, be sure to hop on over to the message board and check out the Holly Jolly Week thread. Lots of fun stuff in there!!

xoxo
Britt

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