Good morning! Welcome to day two of the Handmade Holidays Blog Hop, 2016 edition! If you are here, you are hopping one of the most amazing blog hops of the year! I am thrilled and honored to be a part of this hop! There are so many amazingly talented people and, of course, many prizes to be won!
This post contains affiliate links. I was provided with product from Deco Art, Clearsnap and 3L Adhesives/Scrapbook Adhesives/Home & Hobby to create these projects.
My contribution is a set of handmade ornaments. I am remiss, as I have not even begun to plan for Christmas this year, but here I have made 2 ornaments that can be used how they were intended, but also can be used as decoration on packages. I am notorious for over-doing my packaging.
Items needed for this project include (but are not limited to):
Deco Art Acrylic Paint, Multi-Surface Satin (dolphin, coastal waters, lipstick)
Deco Art Decou Page
Deco Art Glamour Dust Glitter
Deco Art Distressed Harlequin Stencil (12x12)
Gesso
Twigs (yes, like...actual twigs)
Twine (I used black and white and red and cream)
Paint Brushes
Paint/ink applicator
Blank Chipboard Ornament (s)
The very first thing I do with almost any mixed media project that I approach is to apply an even layer of gesso across the surface and let it dry. This will allow any medium that you use after to remain vibrant as well as it will keep you from needing more of whatever medium you choose because the gesso keeps your mediums from soaking into the surface.
Once I applied my gesso and used my heat tool to speed up the drying process, I applied 2 coats of the desired color to my ornaments. In this case I chose the color, "lipstick" and the color "coastal waters" from Deco Art. They went on like butter and I love how vibrant they stayed. I painted the very edge of each ornament with dolphin.
Again, using my heating tool, I dried the ornaments. If you don't have a heating tool, don't despair. It really doesn't take too long for the paint to dry on its own, I am just not overly patient with that process.
I used my ink applicator tool to apply color using my Deco Art Distressed Harlequin Stencil. I chose this applicator because if you try to brush color over a stencil it will bleed and smear, so pouncing the paint onto the surface actually works much better and keeps the pattern more crisp.
At this point I used Deco Art Decou Page to coat the edges of the ornament and then use Deco Art Glamour Dust to cover the edges and give it a fantastic glitter-y edging to catch the light of the tree!
You are done with the ornament for the moment. Now, it is time to use those twigs that you gathered. You are going to use the twigs to make a star for your ornament. I used my gesso to lightly paint the twigs. I didn't worry about covering the twigs completely. I was going for a more distressed look. While they were damp I rolled them in my Deco Art Glamour Dust.
Once dry, I messily wrapped the twigs with bakers twine.
Arrange the twigs into a star shape (or whatever shape you happen to choose) and hot glue the twigs together and onto your ornament. Be sure to hold the twigs until they are securely glued.
Lastly, I decided that I wanted a tassle to hang off of each ornament so, using my inkpad I wrapped red and cream twine around until I had the thickness I was looking for. Tie the center of one side securely with a knot of the same (or different, if you choose) twine.
Flip the ink pad over and cut the center of your twine mass and fold in half, being sure the top of the tassel is where you knotted.
Wrap another small piece of twine around and knot about a finger space from the top of the tassel. Tah-daahhh!!! Tassel! Trim the bottom to the desired length. I found that this tassel was a bit longer than I had intended so I trimmed about a half inch off of the bottom, which, also makes sure that your tassel looks tidy.
I am very pleased with how these turned out and I can't wait to add them to my tree....or packaging. I really can't decide which. The non-traditional colors make this project good for winter, not just Christmas, and boy do the ornaments pop on a tree!
I also decided that this year I should make a clipboard Christmas Countdown, but in truth, this could be used for just about anything you want to count down. It really just depends on how many numbers you feel like creating. ;)
Items needed for this project include (but are not limited to)
Blank Clipboard (new or old)
Gesso
Paint/Ink Applicator Sponge
Twine (shown, gold and khaki)
Metallic Packaging Ribbon
Nail File/Sandpaper
Glitter Washi Tape
Black Micro-Fine Glitter
The very first thing I did, as I almost always do, is I put a layer of gesso onto the clipboard, even on the metal clip part. I wanted to be sure that since my Decou Pages were white that the brown from the clipbard had no chance of showing through once I decoupaged the papers. I used a heating tool to speed up the drying process.
Next, I broke out some Decou Papers. These are from Deco Art/Americana. I have to say, these papers are for sure the best and easiest papers to work with when thinking about decoupaging anything. They are the perfect weight, and are able to easily be re-positioned if need be. Additionally, I used the Decou Page medium and it really does go on like butter and dries with no streaks from the paint brush!
I unfolded my Decou Pages and while you do see a few seams, once you are finished using the Decou Page medium those all but disappear. I made sure the paper was pulled all the way to the top of the under-side of the clip on the board. Don't worry about the strip of bare board; we will take care of that in a later step.
Flip the board over and proceed to trace and cut the paper down to the proper size. You will most likely end up with a bit of over-lap but that is no problem and easy to fix.
Now comes the magic. Cover the bare board in Decou Page medium and then carefully place your Decou Papers onto the clipboard. If you need to re-position, do it carefully and quickly. I chose to stop part way down the board and add a second coordinating pattern to the bottom to add visual interest. To cover the line between the two patterns I used glitter washi tape. I also used the same tape to cover the top portion of the board that wasn't covered with Decou paper.
Now, set the clipboard aside for the time being. We are going to work on a chalkboard piece for the bottom portion of the clipboard. This will allow the countdown to be multi-functional as you only have to change your message and it is good to go for another celebration countdown! Cut a piece of chipboard or thin cardboard down to 4.5 x 7 inches, and, of course, I gesso'd it, tho, I am not sure this step is important in this part of the project. Deco Art's chalkboard medium covers like a dream!!
Cover your dried piece of cardboard with a layer of chalkboard paint, dry, and repeat, covering in the opposite direction as the first layer. The bottle recommends at least 2 coats, and being an over-achiever, I used 3 coats. You can't even see the brush strokes! This is wonderful medium! I see many more chalkboard projects in the near future!
I used Extreme Double-Sided Tape from 3-L Adhesives (scrapbook adhesives) and Home and Hobby to attach the chalkboard to the clipboard. I am pretty sure that this adhesive will still be holding years from now. It is incredible!
Now, onto the eyesore that is the top of the clipboard. Cover the metal with Decou Page medium and cover liberally with glitter. I used a micro-fine glitter, but any glitter will do. Dry, and add another layer to be sure that nothing is showing through.
Now, the final touches. Of course, you need numbers and really, the sky is the limit, but for this project, I used 25 for the Christmas Holiday. Cut 25 pieces of black card-stock at 5 inches by 4 inches.
Using your ink/paint applicator (or sponge) and a stencil (Deco Art, Olde World Numbers shown) and carefully pounce white paint onto the card-stock. Washi tape is very helpful here to hold your stencil in place. While the paint is still wet sprinkle some Glamour Dust over the numbers to give them a delightful shine.
Finally, add ribbon and twine around the top of the clipboard to bring it all together! I love the way the gold is so warm! And I LOVE the chalkboard piece at the bottom and the chalkboard paint really is amazing! I wish the picture conveyed how neat the glamour dust makes those numbers look, but you will just have to take my word for how neat it really is!
I hope this gets your creative juices flowing! This project is fun, but goes quickly and really pops on the tree! Be sure to click the next link on the list below to continue the Handmade Holidays blog hop and be sure to comment on each post along the way to be entered to win the really fantastic prize package!
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I am not traditional with Christmas colors. I really, mostly, don't like red and green together as a general rule, so, reds and blues and oranges ruled this project. I stamped "ho, ho, ho" all over the tag portion of the bag. For the bag itself I stamped Stampotique circles all over the background and then doodled tops and hooks on them to create ornaments and Holly Wally then took center stage.
