25 Days of Hand Made Ornaments - Day 1 - Lace Snowflake/Star

Woo Hoo!!

25 Days of Hand Made Ornaments is set to begin!!!

Now first I wanted to tell you I never even thought of Tim Holtz's 12 days of Tags when I started thinking about this in October. So, no...I didn't do this to copy him or anything. I actually thought of it while I was looking back at some old Christmas tree photos I ran across while moving things around.

So, now that you know how it came about let's begin...

I wanted to start off with a really striking ornament that is REALLY easy to create.

Lace Snowflake/Star Ornament

To begin you will need the following pattern:

You will need to print this out 5-6 times per ornament (5=star, 6=snowflake). You can print this in whatever size you would like just remember that whatever size you print it out your finished ornament will be twice this size. Say for example you print out 2" squares ~ your finished ornament will be approx. 4". I am using 6" squares so they show up better in the example photos so I end up with a whopping big snowflake!

Also, I wanted to mention one other thing before we begin. This ornament looks like it takes a long time to make but once you get going it doesn't take long at all. I chose to ink and stamp my cardstock. You could cut your time way down by simply printing the pattern on pattern papers. Just a thought if you're short on time but still would like to make them.

Supplies:

Pattern

Cardstock (plain white or pattern paper)

Ink Blending Tool

Distress Inks

Archival Inks

Rubber Stamps

Exacto Knife

Glue Dots

Thread/Ribbon (for hanger)

Instructions:

1. Print out 5 or 6 of the squares on cardstock if you plan on decorating it yourself or pattern paper for the quick version. I printed the pattern out at 50% tint so it wouldn't show up as well on the finished ornament.

2. Ink the unprinted side with a light color ink and the printed side with a dark colored ink. The contrast of light and dark make for a more striking finished ornament.

3. Stamp both sides of the cardstock. For mine I used two different colors of ink as well as two different stamps.

4. Using the exacto knife, cut along all of the dotted lines on all of the squares. Now, these lines don't have to be perfectly straight or anything so you don't have to worry about perfect cuts. I just used the exacto knife like a pencil and traced over the lines.

5. Fold both of the the center flaps up ~ place a glue dot on one side and secure the second flap to the first as shown.

6. Flip the cardstock over and fold the second set of flaps over, add a glue dot and secure.

7. Continue alternating sides, securing each set of flaps to each other until you have finished each set. It should look like this...

8. Repeat with the remaining 4 or 5 squares.

9. Now it is time to assemble the star or snowflake. Place a glue dot at the two points shown in the following images....the point and the center -

10. Place the next section of your star/snowflake beside the first and secure with the Glue Dots.

11. Continue adding sections until you have added the remaining sections.

Here is what the 5 section star will look like.....

and here is the 6 section snowflake....

Now of course you can dress this up in all sorts of ways...

-try embossing the stamped images with a tinsel or glitter embossing powder.

-use a variety of inks to tint the background.

-instead of inks, mist the squares with Color Wash or Glimmer Mist.

-apply Stickles Glitter Glue or Dimensional Pearls for added sparkle and shine.

-add a vintage image to the center of each star or snowflake.

-use twine, raffia, ribbon, gold thread, etc. for the hanger.

-transfer the pattern onto vintage sheet music or pattern paper.

So there you go,

Hand-Made Ornament #1 ready

and set to go!

Be sure to check in tomorrow for Ornament #2!

See you then!!