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. 

Our Annual Christmas Ornament Exchange

I couldn't resist starting off with this adorable photo of Miss Molly.

I worked really hard on these birdhouse ornaments and enjoyed every single minute. The basic wooden birdhouses have been in my craft stash for a few years, and each year I took them out, wanting to do something with them. Well, this was the year! I love how they turned out. Be sure to click on the images for close-ups.

There were 12 of us this year, so I made 12 plus one (just in case someone came unexpectedly).

I painted each one with a coat of gesso, two coats of white and red acrylic paint, then decoupaged patterned tissue paper on the front.

I splattered white and black paint (hoping it didn't turn out looking like bird poop!), glued a sparkly pre-made wreath in front of the tiny hole, and topped each one with a snow-like mixture and sprinkled it with two different types of glitter

I also put sparkly glitter-glue (Stickles) on top of the little perch to make it look like frost or a light snow.

I made a plain one and didn't even paint white paint on it, just left it the original color then painted the red highlights and added the snow. I'll keep this one.

I glued two magnets on the back of each one and dated them. Guess I should have signed them.

Here are the ornaments everyone made. I'm so tickled with everything and can't wait to hang them on our tree.

Dawn made the silver ornament, Valerie made Joy.

Below is a necklace that's made of fabric and marbles. So clever.

The packaging is always so pretty!

Valerie also made the round wooden ornament. She woodburned snowflakes on them, so adorable.

We have such a talented group!

Next up, our annual cookie exchange! 120 cookies.

Not worried one bit.

Christmas Ornament Exchange

 

My daughters and I signed up for an ornament exchange and this is one of the ornaments we came up with. I'm having a lot of fun with the new Tim Holtz snowflake die!

 

I cut them all out, the girls folded them and attached the ends, and I pulled my hot glue gun out of its holster and went to work. Dawn made the finishing touches since these were actually her project. (She had another project half-way done and the epoxy didn't set right, so they were ruined. Que Plan B.)

  

Dawn also ordered wooden snowflakes and had them drill a hole at the top for ribbon.

 

She sprayed them with pearly and blue colored mist and attached them to the outside of her packaging.

 

Here's a shot of her bags tucked amongst some of the other fabulous ornaments that were brought. Mine are right in front of hers, the envelopes with the rosette and Washi tape.

 

Valerie's ornaments are in the green boxes with ribbon.

She made the most adorable yarn balls with knitting needles on them!

She started with a paper mache form that came with a gold hanger attached to it already, which was a great help. She painted on the glue a little at a time and wrapped the first layer of yarn over it in a circular pattern. The second layer was applied by putting glue directly on the strand of yarn and winding it around. This was very time-consuming, but well-worth the results.

The knitting needles were made with skewers cut in half. It took a bit of searching, but she found beads to fit the tips and glued them in place.

I already posted about my ornaments, but here are the stars I made in case you missed it.

I cut my stars from natural-colored card stock using a die and gave each star 3 layers of embossing powder and hit them with my heat gun. (I may have a few fingerprints left!) The center star was so tiny, though, I couldn't hold it to emboss it, so I cut it from some pretty sparkly paper, the same I used for the backing.

I wrapped each one with tissue paper and tucked them inside little gold office envelopes I had inked up to give it some age. I put Washi tape around it to make it look like a gift then added my handmade rosettes as a finished touch. I also put a strip of Washi tape on the back. At the party everyone was more interested in the tape than anything else because they had never heard of it...can you imagine? hahaha! It was neat to be able to be excited and tell them all about the wonders of this magical thing we are all hoarding nowadays.
Here's a photo of the other ornaments from the exchange (I stole it from my niece's Facebook!). So much talent!

Reindeer, two glass ornaments with curled paper, elf, snowman, little felt Russian doll (what a lot of work! I mean, they all were, but this was pretty intricate), ceramic critters, plastic form filled with snow, and then ours. It was a fabulous ornament exchange with some pretty fabulous women.