Christmas “JOY”

Well, this is what the Holidays are about, right? A time of  year when we try and remember all the Joy in our lives and share a little with others. So why not say it in a fabulous way?  Hang it high for all to see!!!!  Sorry, I got carried away!

I picked up these letters from Pat Catan's for about $2 a piece. That also where I got the GLITTERY ribbon.  I found the scrapbook paper at Wal-Mart for 97 cents a pack….can’t beat that!
First I stained the edges of the letters using a dark brown stain.  I let that dry overnight.  Now comes the fun part – the part where I get to Mod Podge…yayyyyy!  I cut the scrap book paper about an inch larger than the letters on all sides, Mod Podged the hell out of the front of the letters and laid the paper down.  Carefully smooth any bubbles out from under the paper taking care not to shift the paper or rip it – that would be BAD.  Again, let that dry overnight, or over three nights, however long it takes for you to get back to it.  Having a 2 1/2 year old I sometimes have projects laying around for weeks before I have a chance to get back to them, but I digress.

Once this is nice and dry, lay the letters (paper side down) on a cutting mat and trim off the excess with an Xacto knife.  Get as close to the wood as you can, but down freak out if there are rough edges because we’ll take care of that.  Once you have all the letters trimmed, take a piece of fine sandpaper and clean up those edges.

Now it’s time to bring the stain back out.  Well, that is if you even bothered to put it away in the first place, which I can’t say I always do.  For this part you can either use a sponge brush or a cheap little paint or artist brush.  Dip your brush of choice into the stain, but do not saturate it.  Now take your brush and blot it onto a folded up paper towel, getting as much stain off as possible.  It’s time to dry brush people!!!! Take your blotted brush and starting from the edges of the letters dry brush the stain toward the middle.  How far into the center you dry brush is completely up to you.  I stopped about a half inch from the edge, but that’s just my preference.  When I was done with my brush I just threw it away because I didn’t want to put the work into cleaning the stain out of it – that why I used a 25 cent sponge brush.

Next I cut my choices of ribbon about 10 inches long.  I gathered one end of the ribbon and stapled it to the back of my wood letters.  Then I tied a double knot in the ribbon, trying to keep the length consistent between all three letters.  For me the same length wasn’t crucial because I plan to stagger them when I hang them.  If you want them to hang the same height that’s going to take some more time and patience on your part – good luck.
When I’m ready to hang all the Christmas decorations, I’ll just throw up some Command hooks and enjoy the JOY of the Season.  I just love this time of year.  Hope you enjoy and try to make some JOY of your own!

HAPPY CRAFTING!!!

Kim

Ornament Wreath Tutorial

I know, I know it’s not even Halloween yet and I’m creating Christmas decorations! I’ll admit I’m all over the place creatively lately.  I’ve got several projects going at once that range from rag quilts to Halloween wreaths to something to display the laneybug’s masterpieces.

I got my inspiration from a wreath I spotted over at ourfinehouse.com.  I had seen a lot of similar wreaths on Pinterest, but the base of the wreaths were wire hangers.  Being a child of the 70’s I had seen Mommy Dearest too many times and got rid of all my wire hangers , so I liked the idea of a foam form.

It really wasn’t until I was editing my photos for this post that I actually realized that this wreath is definitely still a work in progress.  I could see several spots where the foam form was still visible and it needs “rounded off” a bit, but you’ll get the general idea.
Here’s what you’ll need:

• foam wreath form ( I used 12” white foam from Pat Catan's)
• LOTS of shatterproof Christmas balls in your choice of colors (I hit the JACKPOT at Ollie's and scored 8 packs of the large balls for 29 cents a pack!!! I also got 30 smaller balls for just over 3 bucks). There are over 100 ornaments on my wreath already and again it’s still in progress.
• about 3 feet of ribbon (again I lucked out again and got an entire roll at Dollar General for $1)
• glue gun
• a metric ton of glue sticks (seriously, you need a LOT of glue sticks.  I think I used at least 20)
• PATIENCE

  Here’s everything!!!








First off I hot glued the ribbon to the foam base.  In retrospect I probably would not have done this again.  I think I would have been better off waiting until the end and looping ribbon directly over the ornaments.  That would have been easier and then you could change out the ribbon if you wanted.  Oh well, learn from your mistakes!



Then I popped off the little silver hangers.  The first few balls I just stuck some hot glue on the tip and held it in place.  I wasn’t happy with the results so I actually got a wire skewer to create holes in the foam that I could put the hot glue in to and then place the tip of the bulb into that.  I liked those results a lot better.


Then I started gluing away.  At first I was just randomly placing ornaments, but then my OCD kicked in and I began plotting my next move.  Either way I think you’ll get the same results and have a LOT of wholes to fill in at the end.


And then I glued and glued and glued some more.  Then I went to sleep, got up in the morning, made the bug some breakfast and starting gluing again and this is what I had made:

So, now it was time to break out the smaller ornaments and start gluing again!!!!

And when it was all said and done, VOILA
I can not stress enough that it’s still a work in progress, but I think with the addition of some more smaller ornaments to the middle and some larger ornaments to the periphery to round it out, it will be awesome.

Hope you enjoy!
~ Kim