Christmas Notebook » ornaments

decoupaged ornaments tutorial

~~Rhonda — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 03:16:29 +0000

In my last post I shared some of the decoupaged ornaments I’ve made over the past few years. This post is a tutorial to explain how they’re made in case you want to try them yourself.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Clear ball ornaments

Paper

Scissors

Mod Podge (or white craft glue, mixed two parts glue to one part water)

Paint brush

Cup of water for cleaning paint brush

Paper towel or paint rag for blotting/wiping paint brush

Clear acrylic sealer

Ribbon (optional)

I use old glass ball ornaments, but you could use anything that can have paper glued to it. Craft stores have paper mache ornaments that would work. I just use what I have on hand. And old ornaments have nice toppers which give the ornament a finished look.

Because I was making ornaments with family pictures on them, I used Print Shop to compose sheets of pictures to use. Here’s one I made for ornaments made with cookie cutters. Lots of little pictures on one page.

Here’s the ornament I made from that sheet of pictures…not a decoupaged ornament, but the page I used is the same as one I would make for decoupage. Of course, you don’t have to use your own pictures. Any paper can be used, as long as it is thin enough to conform easily to the curve of the ornament. Magazine pictures, newspaper, tissue paper, napkins, printed pages from old books, etc. For inspiration, google < decoupage ornament >, click IMAGE and peruse all the possibilities.

For ornaments that require a lot of little pictures right next to one another, I start in Print Shop with a blank page, divide it into 1″ squares with guides, then import pictures. I crop the pictures to just the portion I want to use. The guides help me place the pictures right next to one another and also help me size them. I like to keep them small, not more than two inches square. Most are one inch square. Once the page is filled (pictures can be duplicated, as it won’t take an entire page to make an ornament), I print the page on regular printer paper. It’s thin enough to mold around the ornament. Heavier paper and photo paper are more difficult to shape and also leave bigger ridges under the paper when overlapped.

For an ornament that will have a large picture on it, like the ones I made of my parents’ high school pictures, I use print shop again.

I divide the blank page into two inch squares, import the pictures I want to use, crop them to circles, then put them in the two inch grid. They can be right next to one another. They will be cut on the edge, so there is no need for a margin. This way, I can get 20 picture to a page. As you can see in this sample, I duplicated photos, but each one can be different, of course, if you have that many to use.

In the same file, I have the image I used for the neutral background on the ornaments of my parents. I print a full page of it and cut it into pieces the size I need.

To begin, prepare the paper. Scissors can be used to cut the paper or the paper can be torn. For the ornaments with my parents’ pictures, I used deckle scissors to cut the paper/pictures. For this ornament, I used a decorative scallop scissor.

When the paper is cut into different sizes, snip the bits of paper all around the edge with regular scissors so they more easily form to the shape of the ornament.Here’s a picture of my Mom, snipped all the way around. When snipping pictures like this, try to cut in a way that won’t compromise the picture itself. In this instance it was pretty easy.

Sometimes the picture has parts that shouldn’t be snipped through. Try to cut so those parts are left whole. Like this example of my parents in high school. I cut between their heads and along the lines in the photo across the bottom.

Bits of clipped papers…the oval one has my parents’ names and high school graduation dates printed on the other side.

Remove the topper from the ornament and use small pieces of snipped paper to glue around the top of the ornament. Larger pieces won’t fit very well around the sharper curve of the top of the ornament.

When the topper is replaced, it will cover the top of the paper where it is pulled apart.

When gluing paper to the ornament, I first apply glue to the space to be covered, apply the paper, then glue over the top of it. I use the end of the handle of my paint brush to roll over the glued picture which helps remove air bubbles and flattens the paper. If I’m not reusing the paint brush immediately to apply more glue, I immerse it in the cup of water to keep it wet. Otherwise the glue will dry and the paint brush will be useless. Just blot the water before applying more glue to the ornament.

It’s helpful to work on more than one ornament at a time, because you can go back and forth between them, letting one dry before you continue. Some kind of holder is helpful. I use small paper cups.

When gluing down a larger piece, I apply glue from the center out, in four places, like a plus sign. Straight up and down, and across from side to side. Then I finish gluing the remaining bits down. Doing a large piece this way helps the whole piece fit more precisely.

When finished with the decoupage, I topped the ornaments with some tinsel, by hot-gluing it down around the topper. The ornaments can also be finished with ribbons.

When finished, the ornaments can be sprayed with a clear acrylic sealer to prevent tackiness.

The Graphics Fairy is an excellent source of vintage images and would be a great resource for a decoupage project.

~~Rhonda

two more sleeps till Christmas…

~~Rhonda — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 04:14:02 +0000

Christmas card putz houses

~~Rhonda — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:08:57 +0000

Putz houses, also called “glitter houses,” are little houses that make up a Christmas village. Popular from the 1920s on, they can be made from cardboard, card stock, and even old Christmas cards.

I drew the pattern for this house based on the pattern for the Stone Cottage on the Little Glitter House site, which has patterns for different kinds of buildings. I made it a bit smaller than the given pattern and made a few minor changes to it.

To make a house, using a Christmas card, choose a card that will accommodate the pattern. The card should be large enough, when open, to cover most of the pattern. Some fudging of the pattern can be done. An additional piece of Christmas card can be added to the side of the pattern, if necessary, or the roof section can be cut a bit shorter than the pattern because, after the house is assembled, another piece will be glued over the roof section of the pattern to make a roof with an overhang.

I open the card and place the pattern over it, then hold it up to the desk lamp so I can move the pattern to best fit the picture on the card.

Sometimes I change the pattern by switching the door and the front windows to accommodate the picture on the card.

Cut the windows and doors first, then cut the pattern, using an X-acto knife and a straightedge. On this card, I adhered the pattern to the front of the card, but I found as I made more that it works better to adhere the pattern to the inside of the card.

After the pattern is cut, score the fold lines, then remove the pattern from the card. Oops, I forgot to cut the windows and doors before cutting the pattern…

I glue the bottom and sides of the house first, then, when the glue is dry, I glue down the roof section.

When the house is assembled, I work on the roof. Following the size given on the pattern, cut a rectangle for the roof, crease it down the middle and glue it to the top of the house. This piece is usually from another card, as the cards I have aren’t large enough for the house pattern *and* the roof piece.

I cut a small piece (1.25″x1/4″) to make a roof over the door and glue it to the front of the house. The windows and door are outlined in glitter glue. The house stays on its back until the glue and the glitter glue (I used Stickles) is dry. Then the side windows are done, one drying before the next one is done.

After all the glitter glue is dry, the house is ready for the next step.

I use Mod Podge to paint a snow design on the house, then glitter it with a white glitter.

When dry, the Mod Podge will be clear and glossy under the glitter. I did totally glitter a few houses, but like the snow patterned glitter better. I also used a very coarse glitter on a couple of houses. Which do you like better?

Fishing line made good hanging loops.

I used my vintage ivory sewing stiletto to make holes in the roof for adding the loop to hang the ornaments. It worked better than anything else I tried.

The line went right through.

Knot it and it’s ready to hang.

Here’s a link to the ornament pattern. When it opens, click 100%. It may not print to scale, but the proportions should be OK. In that case, the roof, which is supposed to be cut 4.25″ x 2″ may have to be cut down by an 1/8″ or so. Cut it, place it on the house, and see what you think.

And here are the houses I made.

~~Rhonda

a special ornament

~~Rhonda — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 03:21:07 +0000

In the early 40′s, when my mother was a young girl of about eight years of age, her father took her and her siblings to visit his mother at Christmas time. Grandmother’s house was small so she decorated a tree in the yard rather than the house. They didn’t find her at home, but my mother’s father told the children they could choose an ornament from the tree. My mother chose this small elephant.

It hung on the tree in our home for all the years of my childhood and after. A few years ago, my mother gave the elephant to me and now it hangs on our Christmas tree each year. It will be passed on one day to my daughter Sarah Jane who is named after her Great-great-grandmother, the original owner of the elephant.

I’ve shared this memory at Picture My Memories.

~~Rhonda