Glass and Wood Christmas Ornaments Embellished with Stencils

Hi everyone! I’m Debi Adams and I'm happy to be on the blog today sharing some fun ideas for Christmas.  Every year I like to change up how I wrap my gifts.  I like to have a different theme (crazy, I know!) and since I have shortened the list of gifts I give, (my kids and their spouses get four gifts,  “Something you want, something you need, something you wear and something you read”), I am able to dedicate my time to hand making something as well as wrapping the items creatively.   This time I decided to make hand-painted glass ornaments for my family & a few friends.

I began with flat glass ornaments I purchased from Michael’s.

I painted them with gesso and then let them dry. I suppose you can get the plastic ones too but there is something nice about a weighty ornament, especially when gift-giving.  Obviously, the plastic ones would be perfect when using with children. :) I adhered various ephemera and strips of tissue paper to the ornament using matte medium,  followed by paint for a background color and lastly,  I applied stencils.  For this particular ornament, I used stencils by Mary Beth Shaw, Holiday Sayings Set 6,  Wendy Brightbill, Floral Frolics, Seth Apter, ATC Mix Up and Ann Butler, Squares and Tris, Set 1.

I completed the front and the back and added a few brass charm embellishments with thread at the top.  Because the ornament cap was shiny silver, I painted it with Mahogany and Patina paints by Seth Apter for PaperArtsy and then was careful and embossed some of Seth Apter’s Chunky Rust Embossing Powder by Emerald Creek onto that.  The entire process was easy,  though waiting for the gesso to dry was the hardest! (I am an impatient artist!)

And here is the  back of my ornament. I really enjoyed seeing how this was going to translate but I was even happier knowing that this piece was a part of me and I was giving it to my girls.  (Now that I got started, I am ready to create a few more with a shibori-style, that's a favorite of mine as well as my girls’.) 

Next up is an ornament that I have been wanting to do for a while. Actually, I ran across some notes that Mary Beth had sent a while back saying she would like to see this.  I sure loved this idea a lot so I ran with it. It’s a quick and easy project, taking very little time and few supplies.  I love the fact that although StencilGirl® stencils can be layered, they can also be used in their simplest form too and still look fabulous!  I purchased the wood slices at Hobby Lobby and some at Michael’s and used Mary Beth Shaw's Holiday Sayings Set 6 stencils and Pam Carriker's ATC Mixup.  Here are just a few samples I worked up making the stencil designs look like I used a wood burning tool.  To create the light and dark part of the images,  I used Vintage Photo Ink  by Tim Holtz for Ranger and Hero Arts (permanent) Intense Black ink.  I was surprised to discover that no bleeding occurred!  I think it helped that I used ink and not paint.  I am sure Staz-On ink would work too!   

Not only are these great ornaments, they work as package toppers as well!  Like I said, because I wrap fewer gifts these days, I can hone in on making my wrapping creative.  I stenciled my wrapping paper using Tammy Tutterow's Gingham Two Step stencil, Jessica Sporn's Herbs stencil for pine leaves and Mary Beth Shaw's ATC Mix Up 2 stencils for berries. I added ephemera (great use of small scraps, btw), tied it with string and added my wood slice.

Well there you have it. Something (hopefully) new for this season for you to try.  I think the glass ornaments might come in a heart shape around Valentine’s Day so if you don’t celebrate Christmas, you have another opportunity to play. :). Would love to hear and see what you make for the holiday season.

Thanks for stopping in!

XO,

Debi Adams