I was surfing through some sewing blogs on the 25th of October, and came across this one. PamperingBeki was having an ornament swap, but you had to sign up by midnight, Oct. 25th. Since I love a good swap (crafting, people, crafting!) and it was only 11:15pm, I decided to give it a try. Nothing like waiting till the VERY last minute.
The idea is to send an ornament of $10.00 value to your recipient, whether homemade, store bought, etc. You also needed to check out their blog and try to find/craft an ornament that would meet their interests/design aesthetic.
My recipient is an interior designer who LOVES wrought iron, and likes crafting things out of found objects. (Check out her blog - its fabulous!) I checked everywhere for something with wrought iron, and found nothing small enough to be an ornament. Then I saw some iron picture frames on-line and an idea was born in my sleep-deprived addled brain.
I purchased some supplies, and some I had lying around. The great thing is that even with buying a small amount of items, I had enough supplies to make 2 ornaments, and quite possibly a third (although I will need a 3rd frame).
The process went roughly like this:
Armed with sales flyers, coupons and cash, I checked out the frames, scrap-booking and beading sections of Joann's and Michaels. I wound up buying most of my purchases at Michaels, as they had a better frame selection.
Assemble your supplies (I used a nifty wooden tray I got for $1.00 in the clearance aisle to hold everything. It is going to be part of a future project):
We have the following: 2.5 x 3.5 frame for $3.99, (the ornament pictured at the beginning of the post is 4x6 inches in size, which is maxing out in size for an ornament), scrap-booking paper scraps (roughly $.54 a sheet at Joann's), rubber cement for $2.99, glass beads on a branch for $2.99 for a bunch of 6 (bridal dept. at Michaels) and miscellaneous Josie's 3-D scrap-booking stickers ($2.99-4.99 per pack).
The ornament I am working on here was made almost exclusively from the leftovers of the previous ornament assembly.
First you remove the back piece that helps the picture to stand up, and unscrew the holding bits.
Save the paper with the frame information for use as a template, as well as any interior cardboard, etc. Next you need to thoroughly clean the glass. Make sure the glass is dry before assembling, as the ornament will be sealed, thus capturing water inside and making a lovely gift a moldy mess next year.
Note SCARY Halloween paper towels purchased by my 11-year-old. Also note the marks on my white melamine desktop - I grommet on there, and it is an unsightly mess. Creativity is not always pretty, folks.
Next you need to get the festive (or not) paper you plan on using as your background, and place the frame information paper upon it, and trace around it. After you cut it out with your craft scissors (DO NOT mix up your sewing and crafting scissors, I beg of you), you are ready to decorate.
If you are amazingly gifted and are able to freehand everything, then just wing it and cut out your tree and glue it on. If you are not as gifted and instead spend many hours cutting out tree after tree, leaving tiny little bits of green paper everywhere, and finally wind up with something resembling a green zig zag and think "SCREW IT, I AM DONE HERE," you should then affix said tree to your background paper using the rubber cement.
Yes, I should moisturize more, and I could use a manicure. Moving on.
Cut out your tree skirt either freehand, or using the method mentioned above. If using the above method, make sure to have plenty of Halloween candy available. Then glue the tree skirt down as well.
Note the mix of textures and patterns. This was merely accidental on my part, but it does look nice to have different textures within the same item.
Now the fun part! Start sticking on the 3-D stickers, wherever you want them to go. They will generally peel off again if you handle them gently, thus giving you the option to try different designs.
Do not worry if things are sticking outside of the box. You can trim the finished product down to size at the end.
Although I am a big fan of the "More is More" approach, I am also a big fan of Coco Chanel. Her famous saying is (in relation to clothing, but it can apply to any design project) to put on whatever you want. Then when you are done, look at the finished product and remove something. Always edit yourself.
This is what the project looked like after a bit of editing:
Its getting there.
Next I used a sheet of sticky-back rhinestones to create tree lights. I had originally planned on using them as snowflakes, but the lights seemed like a better idea.
Then I tried to decide what should go in the corner. I tried probably every last 3-D sticker I had, and settled on this:
Madame Chanel might not have liked the additional bling I added to the wreath, but oh well. I was feeling sparkly.
Next you take your frame information sheet and cut out a piece of paper just slightly larger than the information sheet. This will be the backing of your frame.
It would appear I lied about the supplies you would need. (Sorry.) You should also have a glue gun available and a pair of wire clippers. Use the glue gun to put drops of glue in the four corners of the glass on the BACKSIDE of the frame. This will be used to hold the design in place.
Turn your design over and press it into place against the glue. Let it harden for a second until it does not come off.
Next determine the depth of the back of the frame. If you have a very deep frame, you may need that cardboard insert to fill up the space. If you have a more shallow frame (as I have here) you will only need to affix the paper to the back of the frame. Do this by running a bead of glue along the back edges of the opening:
and pressing your backing sheet into place:
Now unplug your glue gun so you don't burn yourself or catch something on fire. Let it cool down in an area where small children and pets can't get to it. I used Super Glue on the back of the first ornament as I am forever losing glue guns (apparently I put them someplace SO safe that even I can't find it) and did not have one at that point. My new glue gun cost $2.99 at Joann's, and the glue sticks cost $3.49.
The back should now look something like this:
If you are fussy, you can scrape off the glue bits. I am anal, but not that anal.
The front should look like this:
Not bad.
I chose a frame with scroll-work, as it lends itself to all kinds of accessory embellishment. However, you could use a plain frame and put ribbon along the outside using your glue gun, etc. Its all a matter of personal taste.
Since we all know that I appreciate a little bling, I have decided to add a tasteful amount to the corners of the frame. You take one branch of the crystal beads and affix it to the corner. I wind it around twice, twist the back, and snip it closely to the frame. I then bend the snipped part down so it is not poking up. I then take the leftover bit of wire and tie down the other end of the branch in the same way, so it cannot get caught and bent away. This causes the beads to lie nicely against the frame.
In process:
Finished, with beads on both corners:
If you were feeling particularly festive you could run ribbons through the scroll work, a la the ornament above. Or you could swap out the beaded branches for 1 or 2 simple ribbon bows. I am thinking this one is pretty well finished, so I run a ribbon through the top for hanging, and knot it. Be sure to write the date on the back of the ornament.
Here are the first and second ornaments for size and design comparison:
Fun, easy, and a good use of leftover items. Hopefully your artistic cutting skills are better than mine.
Stop back this week for a pillow project involving monogramming, ribbon, appliques, a pillow form and some place-mats. Its more exciting than it sounds. Really.
Thanks for stopping by. I am off to run water on my fingertips. Don't play with hot wax people. It never turns out well.
