Tuesday, November 15, 2011

LBH 12 Days of Ornaments: Day #4

 Hello, Rhonda Merry here 
to bring you our 4th ornament in our...


Santa Star Ornament
Designed by: Rhonda Merry
I am so excited to present my Santa Star Ornament,
I think it turned out beautifully
I had fun playing with the paints on this one. 
Be ready there is a lot of technique.

Let's get started!

Here are the items I used for this ornament.
These items are all available at the Little Blue House :)
  • 1 papermache flat ornament
  • 1 paper mache star ornament
  • 1 small screw eye (13/16") 
  • Mod Podge
  • Ranger Distress Crackle paint,  Clear Rock Candy
  • paint brushes
  • Viva De Core Inka Gold (Old Gold)
  • Harvest Gold craft paint
  • Barn Red craft paint
  • Green With Envy Quick Quotes chalk ink
  • pencil
  • hot glue gun, glue sticks
  • heat gun
  • coordinating ribbon
  • 1 12x12 printed paper: Simple Stories- 25 Days of Christmas, Believe


First, paint the base colors of the ornaments.
 Paint both sides of the star with the Harvest Gold color.

Paint the edges and sides of the flat ornament with 
the Barn Red paint.  The  middle will be covered by paper.

Next, give the star a coat of the 
Old Gold, Inka Gold paint. The trick here is to 
go over the whole star with out completely covering the first coat of paint.
We want it to look as though it has aged and flaked  I used my
finger for this part so I could get into the creases of the star.
The Inkas wash off your hands easily.

Now give the star a thick coat of 
Ranger Distress Crackle paint.  
I used Clear Rock Candy which will 
dry clear so we can see the gold paints.

The thick coat of the Distress paint will give 
the detailed crackle you see here in the star on the right.
 Along with a thick coating is added dry time.
Be patient it will be amazing. 
(Although, the jar does say that once the crackel
starts forming your can hit it with a heat gun. Not
too close just enough heat to dry faster)

It took about a half hour for the crackle to start forming.
And about 2 hours before it was completely dry. 

 Next I picked a couple of images from my Simple Stories
paper that would fit on the ornament.
Placing the ornament over each of the images I 
then traced around the ornament, with a pencil, for a cut line.

I picked two images, one for the front....

 And one for the back.

 Cut out images inside of the pencil line so that we 
do not have to trim much. We do not want the
image larger than the ornament.   

 Plus we won't have to erase any pencil lines.

Now adhere your papers.  Coat the back side of the 
paper with Mod Podge.

Center image on ornament. 
Smooth out paper removing any air bubbles and excess glue.

 Next we are going to add some more of the Inka paint
to the edges and lightly to the sides of the ornament. 
I again used my finger to dab it down the side 
then rub it in. Do this in small sections for the best results.

Again we want some of our paint color to show through.

Now to add the eye screw.  Since the ornaments are 
hollow we need to add something to secure the eye screw.
first, puncture the ornament at the bottom with the 
eye screw to make a hole.

Then shoot some hot glue into the hole. While glue is still 
hot screw in the screw eye.  Let set a few seconds.

Now add a little hot glue around the screw eye to
secure it on the outside too.

 We are going to use the existing hanger to attach the star to 
the ornament. Snip the top and tie to the screw eye securely.

Use the ribbon to cover the screw eye.  

I cut a couple of holly leaves from the 12x12 paper.

 
The flower is from Maya Road's Poinsettia ribbon and
2 small punched flowers from the newsprint side of the
same Simple Stories paper.

Ink the tips of the flowers.

Layer your pieces and add a gem to flower center.
(Oops! where's my star? I'm a little out of order. But it all works.)

TaDa! And here we are, finished and ready to hang 
on the tree above your beautifully wrapped presents.

 Oh! Presents, Wrapped Presents... I love the wrapping! 

 Not wrapping to have loads of wrapped presents...
but wrapping with LOVE!
I love the papers (shocker), I love making the tags and bows,
and organizing them under the tree.  Making sure you can see all of them.
Large in the back to the small in the front. I don't want a single one to get lost. 
Periodically a magazine will have a tree with all its presents wrapped in
kraft paper with twine and decorated tags, or all red wrapping paper
and ornate white bows popping off the top of each package.
I love that look...So pretty!

So here is your Question of the Day:What are your favorite "wrapping" ideas or traditions?
Leave a comment and you will  be entered into a chance to win the Santa Star Ornament featured today!
Merry Creating,
Rhonda
The WINNER from DAY #3 is...Debra White!Congratulations Debra!! Please contact the LBH to claim your ornament!

15 comments:

  1. Love the ornament such a great idea.

    I am so different from you because I hate wrapping the presents. I don't do anything special, I just hope to get them wrapped with names on them.

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  2. Beautiful! Great job Rhonda, I love the Santa face!

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  3. Oh I love the crackle effect, such a good technique for this old world Christmas ornament

    My friend and I have used the same bags for gifts since I met her...I have know her 10 years now they are getting bit tattered, we need to get together and make a new set for the next 10 years...

    Love this ornament Rhonda...some great techniques too..

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  4. Beautiful ornament! I have wanted to use Tim's crackle and now I have a project on which to use it. Thanks Rhonda. I'll be in today to pick up my kit and my ornament!!!

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  5. Very beautiful ornament Rhonda!! I too love wrapping presents and how they look under the tree. It's nice when they all look alike with color ... thanks for sharing!

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  6. I absolutely LOVE this ornament! Has a beautiful antique look to it! Definitely need a kit!

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  7. Great tutorial, Rhonda. I love the effect of the new inka gold and crackle paint on the star. My wrapping secret is to let my husband do it! I hate to wrap! He gets all the presents lined up and turns on the TV. Then he writes clues for each gift on the tag and we have to guess what is inside before we open it. Provides lots of laughs and it usually takes hours for us to open our presents because we are having so much fun.

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  8. I love the vintage Christmas papers and love this idea.
    I don't have a wrapping tradition but I do try to wrap the gifts early so I'm not trying to get it done last minute,

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  9. I love to wrap presents that match my tree. The only tradition I can think of is if I don't have any presents to wrap, I still wrap some empty boxes in whatever paper matches the colors of my tree that year so there are some pretty wrapped gifts under the tree!

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  10. Great ornament :) I like the inka-gold on it! Our wrapping tradition is to pick a favorite paper for each member of the family and wrap all their presents in it. It makes for easy searching under the tree.

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  11. I need to make this ornament for my Santa tree! I like to have a theme for my paper and will diligently search for something fun, then make handmade tags to match.

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  12. Really, really like the ornament. Love all the uses of paint. Love to wrap presents and see how many different bows I can make. I always choose a theme so all the presents coordinate. Of course they do:).

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  13. This is gorgeous, Rhonda! Love the crackle...it makes it so vintage-y! My favorite wrapping tradition is actually an unwrapping tradition. My brother likes to rip the present paper off in long strips and throw each one around the room, making everyone laugh in the process. Did I mention he's 40? He's done that for years, and it's still funny. :)

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  14. I love the Santa ornament. Cute paper!!! I like to wrap in brown "wrapping" paper with big red bows. Of course, things always change under the tree. :)

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