Mailable Ornaments

I accidently took this awesomely cool picture above of the paper ornaments I'm about to show you. I'd like to print it out and do some mixed media with it!

At the last minute (of course), and after I had already sealed up a few envelopes (of course!), I decided I wanted to include paper ornaments with our Christmas cards, mainly to my on-line peeps. I did this last year and it was very well received. I thought I'd have them done in a matter of a few hours, but it turned out to be a much bigger project than I anticipated. Aren't they all?

I used the two Spellbinders dies above with a variety of patterned paper, some with a metallic finish, others with a shiny embossed surface and a few, just plain. I liked digging out paper I haven't seen in awhile and actually using it.

The main thing I learned from this is never pile die-cuts like this. This should have been a no-brainer. It took me forever to untangle the dern things. Not only did the swirly ends get tangled up together like a linking puzzle, the fine silver embroidery thread made one big crazy web!

The back of the ornaments

The ornaments were quite easy to make, but they were quite fussy because of the tiny pieces that had to be removed. I cut two "snowflakes," one large (about the size of my hand) one small, and then glued them back to back. I wasn't going to put anything on the back, but I decided at least a small something would better than nothing. Plus, it gave the thinner card stock a little more strength. And I liked the way the white added to the design on the front.

Wha-la! Thin, mailable paper ornaments. I could have gone all inky and glittery on them, but easy was the goal of this craft, and easy is what I got.