Ornament Challenge: Christmas Crystal Ball

Whew!  Are you as worn out as I am?  7 ornaments in 7 days! Not as easy as it first sounded when my good friend Gen from Cabin Fevered Gem challenged me to a duel in the craft room.
This won't be my last Christmas post but it just might be my last ornament for the next 360ish days~

Here's what you need:

I had a few variations of this ornament, mostly just because I picked up a boatload of these clear glass ornaments a thrift shop, but I ran out of time so I've just got one variation to show you for now~

Steps
1) Start by making your own glitter tape!  Gently place a piece of double sided tape down on some aluminum foil, coat it with glitter, and set aside.

1) Pop open the top of your clear globe ornament and throw in some glitter.

2) Using a funnel, fill your globe with water about 3/4 of the way full.  Don't lose your train of thought and fill it all the way like I did, you'll just end up with a wet glitter mess~

3) Gently remove your glitter tape from the foil, cut very small incisions along the bottom about a half inch apart so that it will bend easily.  Place the top of your ornament back on and secure with your lovely glitter tape.

4) Shake it up baby!

 Oooh! Aaaah!  It's like a mini crystal ball.  Hang it on your tree, and hope and pray that your cats don't find your new ornament as fascinating as you do~

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If you look really closely,
you just might see 2012 in there~

Really, there's no limit to what you can throw inside there as long as it fits through the top.  I may do a few more, but for now, my tree needs a little break.  It's never seen so many ornaments in all it's life!

Head on over to Cabin Fevered Gem to see how she ended up the challenge.  And don't forget to add your creations to the Make it Great linky party.

Well, that's it for now!  It was fun, and my tree has more handmade bling than ever before.  I hope you enjoyed it and are inspired to decorate your tree with some of our fun ideas.

I'll post a recap of all the ornaments soon!

Today is the last day to enter the Surprise Giveaway!  Did you get your comments in yet???  I can't believe I hit the big 400!!! (That means an extra gift thrown into the giveaway for one lucky Etcetorizer!)  Check back tomorrow to see who won~

Have a great weekend everyone!

Ornament Challenge: Shabby Jars

Most of you probably know that I usually do my regular crafting tutorials on Fridays, so I've been saving today's Christmas ornament project especially for today.  I'm so excited about this one.  If you're new here though, make sure to go back through this whole week because every day my friend Gen and I have been trying to outdo one another making Christmas tree ornaments.

Here's what you'll need for today's big ornament extravaganza!

Steps:
1) Make sure your jars are clean, both inside and out.  You can use any size jar you want but make sure that a votive sized (battery operated) candle can fit through the top opening.  Measure the side of your jar to figure out how wide to cut your cloth.

2) Cut a piece of cheese cloth or other light weight cotton fabric (muslin would be an excellent alternative) to fit snugly around your jar.

3)Find some great Christmas images or family photos to use as graphics (I got mine from the Graphics Fairy) and print onto T-Shirt transfer paper. (don't forget to reverse it if there's any writing on your image)

5) Following the manufacturer's directions, iron your image onto the fabric.  If you're using cheese cloth make sure to put something underneath or else you'll stain your ironing board cover.

6) Sew a seam so that it will allow the fabric to sit tightly on your jar.

And now you can jazz it up with a bit of hemp cord or raffia if you like, add a tea light, and display on your mantle.

I can hear you now..."That's very pretty Tamara but it's not an ornament!" Yes, you are right.  So, let's make it into an ornament with just one extra step.

7) This time, shrink it all down and use a baby food jar, do all of the steps above and then add a cute little wire hanger by wrapping lightweight wire around the top of the jar.  You can even string it with beads or use yarn.  Whatever you like~

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So pretty!  I really love these.  I thought it would take a lot of time and effort to put these all together, but the reality is that they are sooooooo easy~

I'm in a bit of a rush today but normally I'd add more bling and then these could make wonderful gifts too!

Please, please, please, only use battery
operated 'fake'votive candles
if you are putting this in your tree!

You would not believe how gorgeous this silly little thing looks on the tree when it's lit up.  The crapola picture above really does not do it justice.  I can only imagine what a showstopper it would be if you covered your tree in these.

Now head on over to Cabin Fevered Gem to see what she made.  And if you're crafting along with us make sure to link up to the Make it Great linky party.  I'm leaving it open extra long this week so that you can add your ornament creations!

One more day left!  Come back tomorrow to see Ornament # 7!

Guess what?!?!?  You've made my Christmas wish come true!!!  Over 400 followers!  THANK YOU!  You know what that means....I get to throw in some handmade jewellery into the Surprise Giveaway, make sure to get your comments in! 

Ornament Challenge: Beaded Icicles

OK, I've been playing it pretty simple in the great Christmas Ornament Challenge that my good friend Gen from Cabin Fevered Gem has challenged me to.  I thought because she's fairly new to crafting that I would take it easy on her, but she has proven to be a worthy opponent.  So, now there's no holding back!  Let's make some ornaments!

Today I'm going to draw on my jewellery making skills, and huge stash, to come up with something really special.

Here's what you'll need:

Steps:
1) Cut different lengths of wire from 3" - 5" inches long.  You only need as many as your jewellery finding can hold. (Note, I would normally use monofilament instead of wire but I didn't have any crimper beads.  You can substitute whatever works best for you, just make sure it fits through your beads and findings first.)

2) String one end of the wire through a hole in your finding and loop.

3) String various beads onto your wire.  Use different colours and shapes to add some special interest.

4) At the end, use your round nose pliers to make another small loop to secure the beads.

5) Repeat until your finding is full.

6) You can use ribbon, beaded monofilament, or more wire to add a hanger to the top.

Tah dah! How's that for some sparkle and pizazz for your tree?


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I think it's the prettiest icicle I've ever seen~

 Head on over to Cabin Fevered Gem to see what she made today.  And if you're making ornaments along with us make sure to link up to the Make it Great linky party.  It's open all week.  I can't wait to see all of your beautiful ornament creations!

Only a couple of days left to enter the surprise giveaway...get your comments in before Saturday!

Ornament Challenge: Christmas Cone

Well, it's Day 4 of the ornament challenge and our trees are really starting to fill out now.  Gen over at Cabin Fevered Gem challenged me to make 7 ornaments in 7 days all in the name of Christmas crafting fun.

Today's ornament proves that the more glitter you throw on something, the more it looks like you put loads of work into it...even when you didn't~

Here's what you'll need for today's ornament:

Steps:

1) Using a small plate or other handy circle, trace and cut out a circle from your glittery scrapbook paper.  (The only reason I went old school on this and didn't use my Silhouette was because this paper is soooo thick that my machine doesn't do a very good job with it, even on double cut mode).

2) On the back of your paper find the centre of your circle and mark it.

3) Cut out a wide mouth pac-man type shape, making sure not to go past the centre mark.

4) Use hot glue to stick the edges together to make a cone. (If you're using lighter weight paper you can use some other type of adhesive, whatever works for you).



I held it together with some clips just until it dried.


5) I swear I was going to make my own rosette, with tea dyed book pages and everything.  Then I remembered that I had these beautiful pre-made rosette's from K&Company.  Why go to all the trouble when you have something this pretty just waiting to be used???

6) Cut about 6"- 7" of ribbon and adhere to each side of the cone at the top.

~I completely forgot...I was going to add some pretty decorative trim along the top of the cone...oh well, maybe I'll remember on the next one~

7) Once you're happy with how blinged out your cone is, fill it with candies, small pine cones, or other fun christmassy stuff.

Tah dah!

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Now just add it to your tree and enjoy how the glitter catches the Christmas light!

Don't forget to go check out Cabin Fevered Gem to see what she made today!

If you're making ornaments with us, make sure to link up at the Make it Great Monday linky party!  It's open all week~

Just a few more days to enter the Surprise Giveaway !  Get your comments in by Saturday and you might win some handmade buttons~

Ornament Challenge: Floral Ball

By now you probably know that my friend Gen from Cabin Fevered Gem has thrown down the gauntlet and issued a challenge for me to make 7 ornaments in 7 days while she does the same.  It's getting pretty serious, the paper and ribbon are flying, and the ornaments are going up on the tree faster than Santa can say Ho Ho Ho!

So let's get on with Day 3!

Here's what you'll need:

Steps:
1) I wasn't crazy about the paper I had for this project.  I just felt like it was missing a little pizazz...sparkle that is.  So, instead of using loose glitter and covering me and everything else in my studio in sparkly bits I took the easy road and got out my Sparkle Mod Podge.  Yay!  I love Sparkle Mod Podge.

Just lightly brush it on your paper.  It dries fairly fast but your paper may curl up a bit on the sides.  Just flatten it out and it'll be fine...and sparkly!

2) While you're waiting for your new Mod Podged paper to dry, cut a piece of ribbon about 8" long to use as a hanger.  You can glue or use a pin to secure it to the top of your Styrofoam ball (or egg).

3) I used my Silhouette to cut out a couple pages of these shapes:

When you stack them they make a tiny little hydrangea flower, so cute!

3) Gently curl the edges of the shapes and stick a pin through the centre of each little stack.

4) Starting from the bottom of the ball just stick your flowers in and try to cover as much of the Styrofoam as possible.  If you find you have a lot of gaps either re-insert your flowers, stacking them slightly, or you could even give your ball a quick coat of paint before you add your flowers.

I really wanted to use red pins in the centres of the flowers to look more like holly but I didn't have enough.

If you need more bling add  more sparkle or pearls or other embellishments all over to make it shine and stand out on your tree.

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And that's it!  Another super easy and oh so simple tree ornament that hardly takes any time and helps you use up those bits of pretty paper you were saving for who knows what.

Make sure to head over to Cabin Fevered Gem to see what she came up with for today.

If you're participating in our fun challenge make sure to link up your beautiful creations on the Make it Great Monday linky party.  It's open all week!

Don't forget to enter the surprise giveaway Here!   Only a few days left to enter~

Ornament Challenge: 3 Turtle Doves

If you checked in yesterday you'll know that my friend Gen from Cabin Fevered Gem has challenged me to a Christmas Ornament Challenge, produce 7 ornaments in 7 days.

Today is day two and I'm making not one, not two, but THREE bird ornaments.  I have no clue what turtle doves look like but I'm calling these things turtle doves~

Materials

I don't have a pretty picture of the supplies because my original plan for this ornament went awry pretty quickly, but here's what you need:
-scrapbook paper
-glue
-scissors
-ribbon
-pencil
-embellishments
-paper doilies

Steps:
1) Print out or draw a bird shape similar to below to use as a template.  You can use regular old printer paper.

2) Use your template to cut out two birds from your pretty scrapbook paper.

Remember to flip your template so that you have two facing opposite ways.

3) For this first bird, I used Alene's tacky glue to stick the two bird pieces together, wrong sides facing.

4) Set your bird body aside and cut a small sized paper doily in half.

5) Coat each doily half in glue, one at a time or you glue will dry too quickly.

6) Coat your doily half in glitter.

7) Add a bead of glue along the top of the bird's body.

8) Line up the edge of one of your paper doily pieces with the bead of glue.  Your glue strip should be slightly narrower than the doily.  This allows you to scrunch it up.  Don't worry about wrinkles, just scrunch it on there and press down. 

5) Cut a piece of ribbon about 4"-6" long and glue to the wing (the paper doily).  This is what you'll hang your ornament with.  Then you can just add some glitter or rhinestones for the eyes.

So, that's one down.  But I wasn't totally over the moon with the result so I thought I'd make another one using Mod Podge instead of Tacky glue...so much easier to put together.

I still used the tacky glue to adhere the wing to the body but to attach the bodies together and to add glitter I used Mod Podge.

I love how this one turned out!

Not sure if you can tell but, it's a sort of iridescent white glitter on the wings.  Oooooh la la~

So, even though I was happy with two turtle doves I thought I could probably kick it up one more notch.

This time I used Dimensional Mod Podge on the right side of the bird body to get a really shiny and slick finish on it.

Once it dried it was super shiny!

Love it!

You can use any shape, any colours, and any embellishments to really personalize yours.  The sky is the limit.  They're so simple but I think they're so pretty.

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Don't forget to head over to Cabin Fevered Gem to see what she came up with.

Are you participating in the Christmas Ornament Challenge? You can link up your creations on the Make It Great Linky party.  It's open all week!

And don't forget to enter the surprise giveaway HERE .  Good luck~