Monday, October 24, 2016

Stenciled Holiday Ornaments

Stenciled Shimmer Sheetz Holiday Ornaments
by Judi Kauffman for StencilGirl Products
It’s so much fun mixing my favorite StencilGirl Products stencils with Shimmer Sheetz, a durable, sparkly surface! This time, I’ve used the combo for Christmas and Chanukah ornaments. As always, my color combination is offbeat, but yours can be traditional.
I love making flat holiday ornaments because they can be mailed in an envelope for standard postage. They can be tucked into a card or sent instead of one. Smaller ornaments make great gift tags, too. I used ornament-shaped dies from several companies to do the cutting but you could hand-cut yours if you prefer. A quick Internet search will yield many free patterns and a simple circle or star will work just fine.
The key to all of the stenciling I did on the ornaments is to pretend that your eye is a camera with a zoom lens. Zero in on portions of the patterns. By using this ‘trick’ you can make holiday ornaments with stencils that aren’t holiday designs.

I used five different stencils, two of them with elegant and easy to recognize patterns – Lacy Lotus and Paisley Floral. But you might have a harder time guessing what I used for the others! For example, the Star of David ornaments include sections from the 9 x 12 Clustered Leaves stencil and when you look closely at the other ornaments portions of Journaling Left Hand and Rolls will magically appear.

INSTRUCTIONS

All ornaments are a double layer of Shimmer Sheetz for extra stability. One-layer ornaments are another option.

1. Choose your favorite Shimmer Sheetz color for the front of the ornaments and back a 5” x 12” piece of that color with double-sided adhesive sheet. Add a second piece in the same color or in a contrasting color for the back side of the ornaments. Shown – Turquoise Gemstone on the front, not shown – Black Iridescent for the back.) Front and back can match; you can stencil both sides so there isn’t a difference between front and back. NOTE: For smaller ornaments you can use smaller pieces of Shimmer Sheetz like the 4” x 5” size sheets that come in the ‘sampler’ packs.

2. Die cut the ornament shapes, making sure that the cutting blade of the die is facing the color you’ve selected for the front of the ornaments. NOTE: Standard cutting dies (AccuCut, Ellison) or Sizzix Bigz cut Shimmer Sheetz like butter, but if you are using thin dies you MUST use a metal adaptor plate or the Sizzix Big Shot with Precision Base Plate when cutting. Please review the Elizabeth Craft Designs YouTube video tutorial if you are new to this technique.
3. Protect your work surface and put on latex gloves if you just had a manicure – alcohol inks are permanent and can stain furniture and your hands. Use alcohol inks and an ink applicator tool to alter the surface of the Shimmer Sheetz. It doesn’t matter if some of the ink gets onto the cap portion of the ornament. Shown – Denim, Plum, Gold Metallic. NOTE: I used non-traditional colors, but Shimmer Sheetz comes in Red Iridescent, Emerald, Ruby and Imperial Garnet Gemstone as well as Red, Green, Gold and Green Metallic so you can create ornaments that are much less offbeat!
4. Use acrylic paint and a stencil brush to add pattern to the ornaments. NOTE: Move the stencil over the ornament until you see the portion of the pattern that looks just right! If you don’t want to commit to a design until you’re certain, cut extra ornaments out of cardstock and practice on those.

5. Paint the ornament cap with a gold or silver paint pen.

6. Optional: Embellish the ornament cap with gold border peel-offs. Highlight the ornaments with Glitter Dots peel-offs as shown on the two below
7. If a hole is needed, use an awl to pierce one. Add ribbon or cord for a hanging loop.

Here are more photos to help kick start your projects:
SUPPLIES

StencilGirl Products Stencils –

Elizabeth Craft Designs –
Shimmer Sheetz in Turquoise Gemstone, Black Iridescent (or color/s of choice)
Peel-off stickers 1276 in Gold, 7018 in Violet

Ornament dies –
AccuCut
Elizabeth Craft Designs*
Stampin’ Up!*
Spellbinders*
*See note in step 2

Other –
Alcohol inks in two or more colors plus gold metallic
Ink applicator tool
Sakura PenTouch paint pen in Gold
Stencil brush
DecoArt Americana Acrylics in Champagne Gold and Sea Breeze
Narrow ribbon, metallic cord

2 comments:

  1. These are stunning! Judi is a master with Shimmer Sheetz and that pairs perfectly with Stencilgirl stencils!!!

    ReplyDelete

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