Christmas shaker ornament/card

 How many homemade Christmas ornaments do you have on your tree?  Every year I make some so the numbers are increasings and the plain glass ones are gradually staying more and more in the box as I have less room.  Maybe I just need to add another tree.  :)

My latest ornament is inspired by a friend who called me and asked me to make something to put on her mom's Christmas tree as a surprise.  She just got diagnosed with breast cancer, her grandkids won't be able to come for Christmas and she's just not feeling festive this season.  So her wonderful daughter thought of bringing a fully decorated tree to her front door with ornaments made from her family/friends.  Isn't that a great idea?

I made this ornament all with dies from Quietfire Design and then taped it to a card - makes it easier for mailing and it just completes it, you know?  It took me a while to figure this out but any die with a nice simple shape can be made into a shaker card!  And you don't even need to have foam which I never seem to have on hand.

I die cut the Flourished ornament from the Love Joy and Peace Ornament set 7 times.  I found a circle die that was bigger than the opening and smaller than the outer edge and used that for the backing of the shaker element.  You can handcut one if you don't have the perfect size because the edges of the circle will be hidden later.  I also cut a circle from an acrylic sheet for my shaker component.  Glue all the 7 layers together and on the back, the circle from cardstock.

You can add more layers depending on how thick you need the spacing.  I'm using chunky glitter so I did not need it too thick. 

Add the glitter and seal it in with the acrylic layer.  I die cut another ornament out of gold foil and put that on the top.  I flipped over the foil and die cut another ornament the wrong side up so that I could put that on on the back of the ornament.  To get rid of the edges of the die cut that is going the "wrong way" I ran just the diecut through my Big Shot again to flatten it out.

I added a tiny poinsettia from the Christmas accents and the word Peace to the front.  I liked this so much I made a few more and am sending the set below to her.  You can write on the back a message - I added some Bible verses that I thought would be encouraging.

I hope you like it and will be inspired to see which dies you can turn into a shaker card/ornament!

Love Joy Peace Ornament Set

Christmas Accents

 

Glittered ornaments

Is your Christmas tree up yet?  I've been asking people this question a lot because I think I want confirmation that since Thanksgiving is so late, I can put up my Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving.  I can still prep Christmas decorations though, right?  

If you'd like to decorate your own ornaments, I've got an easy and beautiful way you can use A Way With Words die to spruce up some plain ornaments.  All you need are the dies, double sided adhesive and your favorite Silk Microfine glitter.

I made these on Veteran's Day so I chose some patriotic colors here.  I have a friend who actually does have a patriotic Christmas tree now that I think about it.

On the picture below, you see can see that I die cut the word Rejoice out of a sheet of double sided adhesive - no card stock  - and carefully peeled off the brown layer to adhere it to the ornament.  Since the surface is round, I'd recommend starting at the center and pushing down toward the ends.  Shorter words work better also unless you had bigger ornaments.

I then peeled off the release paper and sprinkled the Bright Cranberry microfine glitter on there.  Rubbing off the excess glitter with a sheet of Swiffer dust wipes is so satisfying!  

Silver Sands microfine glitter shows up beautifully on the blue ornament with this snowflake die.

Joy is a short and sweet die that works really well also.

Heart Ornament

I honestly have a hard time using those really little ribbons but I collect them because I'm such a ribbonaholic! And it pays to hoard (sometimes) because they were perfect for this little ornament I made using ODBD Ornate Heart Dies.  This sentiment is also really great for mommies with kids, don't you think?  :)

Recipe:

Stamps:  ODBD Heart of Joy

Dies: ODBD  Ornate Hearts  and Spellbinders Standard Ovals

Accessories:  White Ribbon

Challenges I am playing in:

Really Reasonable Ribbon:  Anything But A Card 

Word Art Wednesday
Simon Says Have A Heart