Tuesday, November 23, 2010

12 Days of Ornaments: Day 10

 Welcome to day 10
Rhonda Merry back to show you another ornament for our awesome
12 Days or Ornaments Extravaganza.

Materials:
4x5 mini, back stapled, traditional canvas
2 paint colors
Crackle medium
2 colors of Cardstock
black wire
black upholstery nails
 red buttons

 On a 4x5 mini canvas we start with our first coat of paint. This will be the color you would like to have peeking through your crackle.  I chose Champagne for my "Under-Color".  Let that dry completely.  To speed up dry time you can use your heat gun, NOT TOO close, we don't want to burn anything.


Next, I used a product called Crackle by Behr. This give you that chipped wood look.   You can get it at most of your local hardware, paint or craft stores.  Have no fear, it's easy!! We paint on the Crackle medium using long strokes of Crackle,
no drips and not too thin of a coat. Cover your whole surface and the sides getting all the areas you would like to see that Crackle effect.
 That too will need to dry completely.  I don't recommend adding the heat to it though.  You might need a little patience here.  It takes about an hour to dry enough for your top coat of paint.  There should not be any areas tacky to the touch when adding your top coat otherwise the paint will not adhere or crackle.

(If you are not a patient person and would like to have your
 base done ASAP, then skip the Crackle and lose a paint color. 
 Choose the color your would like to have your canvas and
skip past the next 2 steps below. I won't mind at all.)


 Now for the top coat. I used Barn Red for the Top paint color. 
We again are going to use long straight strokes of paint. 
Even and steady down your little canvas. Try not to go
over the areas more than once.  This will help to get the Crackle effect we want.


COOL RIGHT!!?!
Here is what you should see once the paint starts to dry. 



 Now for the Holly leaves. 
This part is fun.
I used my Jubilee Celebration Cricut cartridge for the holly.  It has 2 leaves and berries.  The Holly is set at
1-1/2" size.  For my canvas I cut 12 of the double leaf sets.
NO CARTRIDGES??? No Problem! 
Draw a holly leaf and make a template. Then cut out.


CAN"T DRAW???
Well, then go to the computer and Google some
Holly images and print them up. There are a lot of them to choose from.


NO! on the Computer???

Then get your leaf punches and find one that
you would enjoy.
OR
Do you have a holly or leaf stamp.  Stamp and cut out the leaves. It is totally up to you.  It will turn out great no matter what leaf you use.


 We're ready to make our wreath. Draw a circle in the middle
of your canvas as a guide for placing your leaves.
I found a 1-1/4" circle to use as a template.   
 This leaf set has two different sizes on it.  I used the larger leaves
first as the base of the wreath. I glued those down using Helmar 450 Quick Dry.
 The next layer I inked the edges with some Tim Holtz Distress Inks
using the blending foam applicator. 
Then I curled up the leaves, dolloped some more 450
on the tip of one end of each leaf, and placed.

  I placed the leaves at a different angle to fill out the wreath. 
Allow the curled end to curve away from the canvas.


 Do the same with the smaller leaves.  If your leaves are the same size, just keep layering until you have 3 rows, staggering the placement for a fuller look, not stacked.

 Add some buttonsfor the holly berries.
 The smaller the better for our purpose.

Situate your berries before gluing. That way you can
move them around to your liking.
Once they are in a spot you like then glue them down.

 Would you like to add a word??? I liked JOY for my wreath. 
I cut mine from the Limeade Cricut cartridge. 
Other options would be to use sticker letters, or you
can use Chipboard words like the ones from Maya Road.

 Next I placed a Bulldog Upholstery nail at the top corner of my ornament. Use your thumb to push it in part of the way, the wood should be soft enough. No hammering necessary.

 For our hanger, I used Back Wire by Bulldog Hardware. Cut about a 12-14" length.   Wind the wire twice around the first nail leaving about a 3" tail. Then do the same for the second nail. Now push your nails in the rest of the way to secure the wire hanger.

 Using a wire curler (or paint brush, pencil, or nail)
 curl the wire tails to form a little spring off the end.



 Give the top a twist and hang on the tree.

Oh happy, happy, joy, joy!

I want to thank you for joining me for another ornament.
  I hope you will find some inspiration from this.  I am excited to have my family all home for Thanksgiving.  It will be a relaxing weekend for the most part.  NO black Friday shopping for this girl.  Instead I will be at the Little Blue House with all the girls who will be cropping there. 

 
I plan on Christmas to be the same, family home and lounging for those few days.What is the craziest Christmas you've had.  Mine was moving from Little Rock, Arkansas to Lubbock, Texas, 8 months pregnant with my 3rd child... EEK! and trying to get the movers to put Christmas boxes in the living room so I can set up the tree.  Goodness, I did the move at Christmas again when we bought our home here in Fort Worth.  NO more moving at Christmas for me!  Lounging, that sounds better.

Almost forgot to post the winner....The winner of yesterday's Ornament is....

Andra V.
Congrats Andra! Please contact the LBH to claim your Ornament!

"Merry" Crafting!
Rhonda

22 comments:

  1. Rhonda,
    You clever little girl!!! What a great idea to use a canvas! The crackle paint totally made this ornament. Love, love, love it!!! My crazy Christmas was also a sad one. I got the flu the day before Christams Eve. My daughter was just a little girl when Christmas is really fun. By Christmas morning I was running high fever and could not get out of bed. It was left up to daddy to fulfill all Christmas morning duties. Well, you know, that is where all the crazy part comes in. Hehehe!!!

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  2. I love love love this Rhonda! What an amazing tutorial you did! I cannot wait to get my hands on some of that crackle paint!

    I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving sweet friend!

    I have not really ever had a crazy Christmas (but that 13 inches of snow we got last year was pretty awesome)!

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  3. Rhonda..so glad you get to be with family for the holidays...and what a very cute little addtion to the 12 ornaments...and what a great idea....

    my most crazy Christmas was the year my new little kittens found my tree to be a playland made just for them...hahaha! funny looking back on it now thou...

    happy holidays...

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  4. Rhonda this is so super cute! Great job! My craziest Christmas was the year my mom bought my son a puppy. We had a fantastic time trying to keep the puppy hidden from him until Christmas morning :) Not only was it one of our craziest Christmases it is one of my sweetest Christmas memories of my now big boy!

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  5. I don't usually like "crackle paint" much - but I have now changed my mind! This looks really great, Rhonda. I like the way you made the little holly wreath too and all the clever ideas you had for finding holly leaves!
    A great little project - I may have to try this...
    Poor you, moving at Christmas, AND 8 months pregnant... I moved at 8 months pregnant - I drove our removal van (a Transit!) back and forth all day long, on a 40-mile round trip on country roads... I don't think I was ever so exhausted before! But I haven't managed to move at Christmas yet - August, September, November and April seem to be our favourites!
    I can't think of a crazy Christmas. Some have been stressful because of badly behaved relatives, but not crazy in other ways...
    Anyway, have a great Christmas this year, with only as much craziness as you would choose to have!!

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  6. How beautiful and fun! TFS! Hadn't thought to use crackle on a canvas---hmmmm

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  7. I love this ornament Rhonda, is awesome, going to give it a try, have everything except black wire!
    Crazyest Christmas when parents came & brought my 2 kitty sisters & awoke at 4am Christmas morn to a huge crashing noise! Sisters had been playing in tree & knocked it over! What a mess that was LOL

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  8. Rhonda, great use of a mini canvas. How do you and the other LBH gals keep coming up with new and unsual ideas? Not sure you classify this as crazy but....the year I was away from my family for the first time. My new husband and I had moved to Oklahoma and had to spend the day with his brother's in-laws. I was twenty years old and miserably homesick.

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  9. Rhonda, another great ornament!

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  10. This is really cute! And looks like I could do a bunch of them in stages if I needed to!

    Believe it or not....I've never had a crazy Christmas..I guess the craziest thing was it being about 85 one Christmas in Dallas and my Dad and I driving my gifts back to my apartment in shorts with the top down on the convertible...just seemed weird, even for Dallas!

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  11. Once again, you amaze me! All of the ornaments are beautiful. I'm thankful for the ladies at LBH, and extremely grateful that they share their talents with us. Happy Thanksgiving!

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  12. This ornament is even cuter in person!! My crazy Christmas also included moving! From Boston to Texas The packers arrived the day after Christmas so I did not decorate:(. We had to be out of our house in Boston but couldn't move in to the new Texas house until January 3rd. We spent Christmas-New Years in various hotels between there and here.

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  13. Love this idea! Thanks for helping inspire us

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  14. simple and beautiful....love the crackle background too.
    Liane :-)

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  15. I love the crackle. Thanks for teaching.

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  16. Rhonda, such a beautiful ornament!! The crackle makes all the difference!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

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  17. Gorgeous ornament Rhonda! You outdid yourself!

    Craziest Christmas??? Like you, I've moved several times at Christmas too! 1st time was the craziest - I so desperately wanted to be in our new home for Christmas that I promised to buy & deliver beer for the workers if they had it finished by the Friday before Christmas! They did finish & we started moving in that night & Christmas was the next Tuesday! I wrapped all gifts w/no bows, just tags & packed in boxes. I also decorated & packed just the top of the tree & pulled it out of the box Christmas Eve, stuck in a bucket stuffed w/packing paper & laid the gifts around it. The pictures show 4 zombies sitting around that little tree Christmas morning - I don't think any of us remember anything else about that Christmas!

    Happy lounging to you & your family this Turkey Day! We're heading to the Cowboy game - a 1st for us to do on T-Day!

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  18. Just dropping by to let you know that I linked to this post in a round up today from the Home & Garden channel at Craft Gossip. :) This will appear in the main Craft Gossip RSS feed, on the main home page and can be found directly here
    http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/9-christmas-holly-craft-ideas/

    If you would like a "featured by" button, you can grab one here!
    http://homeandgarden.craftgossip.com/grab-a-craft-gossip-button/

    ReplyDelete

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