LBH 12 Days of Ornaments: Day #6

Hello,

 Rhonda Merry again...

 I'm back with another wonderful ornament for you!
It is "snow" easy to create!!

Glistening Snowflake

 Here is what you need to gather:

1. Vintage Wood Doilies by Maya Road
2. Folk Art Acrylic Paint, Champagne
3. Viva De Core Pearl Pen: Transparent or White
4. Spray adhesive
5. Craft Decor Diamond Sugar Dust
6. "messy mat" or "messy box"
7. craft mat

You can do either one side or both. Doing both will take a

little longer because you want to make sure your 

pearls are completely dry before working on the 

other side of your snowflake.

We are going to start with the decorating.

I just used dots and a few lines,

this will give some texture to our snowflakes.

set in a safe spot to dry.  It will take about

2 to 2-1/2 hours.  If you have large dots dry time 

will be a little longer. I noticed that the Transparent Pearl Pen

was milky looking when starting and dried to look clear.

 Next turn over and repeat for the second side of the snowflake.

Now paint your snowflake with the

Champagne paint and let dry completely.

Here is a little tip:

Do NOT overload  your brush.

Too much paint on the brush will clog up

the cut details of your wood doilies.  

Instead, dip your brush into the paint and swipe the
excess onto a clean spot of your paint palette. Do this
each time you need more paint and you will only have a few
if any holes to unclog. Also, paint using a circular motion which
will help to cover the raised areas evenly.

Now we are going to give our snowflake a good
spray with the spray adhesive. Do one side at a
time and spray in a well ventilated area, away from

anything that could get hit with the castoff.

(I usually take my projects outside.

I also spray over a "messy mat/box)

Move sticky snowflake to your craft mat and give 

it a generous coating of Diamond Sugar Dust.
By using our craft mat we can later make a funnel
to put the excess glitter back into the bottle.

Tap off excess Sugar Dust. 

 Add an ornament hanger using one of the 

many holes already on your snowflake and...

 hang on your tree.

See how easy that was...and the result is

a beautiful Glistening Snowflake.

With all of these new ornaments you might need an extra tree.  Remember
to become a follower and leave me a comment for your chance to win this Glistening Snowflake by

telling me what's your favorite snow day activity?

Mine is when the school day has been canceled and the kids and I
sit down to watch a marathon of movies with hot chocolate
and our heavy quilts.

 Merry Crafting!
Rhonda
The WINNER from Day #5 is.......SARAH!
Congratulations Sarah! Please contact the LBH to claim your Ornament!

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!