Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Altered to Ornament

The new challenge begins today at Frilly and Funkie and I am hosting it this time and decided to call it An Altered State.

It is time to transform something you have sitting around or can pick up for a song and make it one of your works of art. It could be a frame, a bottle, an old cigar box, a discarded CD - the list is endless. Just make sure your final transformation is vintage or shabby chic.


Since I have started my Christmas preparations, I decided to make some ornaments.  The first one (and my personal favourite) started as a wooden snowflake that my husband designed for me and cut on his laser cutter.


I coated it with a layer of Gesso and then with some Champagne Gold acrylic paint from the Deco Art Metallics line.

Once I got it painted I realized that there was no hole at the top to hang it with or at the bottom to add the bead chain so I asked my handy husband to drill the holes and his drill slipped and one of them was off centre.  He drilled another pair and will change the design file so the laser cutter will do the holes in the future and they will be perfect.

In the meantime I had to come up with a solution for covering the pair that didn't look good.  I tried just filling them with more paint but that didn't work so I coated the whole thing with a mixture of course sand and texture paste.  I expropriated the sand from the bag we keep in the garage for filling in between our interlocking bricks.  Once this layer was dry, I just repainted it with the metallic acrylic paint and I love the effect.  Tip - to keep the holes from getting filled with texture paste, just stick a toothpick in them while you are working.

Next I created and attached two bead chains made from a variety of beads in my stash from Arton Bead Supply and from Michaels. The small chain at the top has a jump ring at the end so it can be attached to the tree. I wire everything to my tree but the jump ring would also be needed if you use a metal ornament hangers.

I found some free Christmas sheet music online, changed the colour to red and printed it on each side of some heavy paper. Then I cut small squares and inked them all over with Antique Linen Distress Ink and the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. The squares were then formed into cones and the point was nipped off so they would not overlap in the centre when they were attached to the snowflake.

Next I altered the colour of a filigree flower using a mixture of Cranberry, and Poppyfield Alcohol Ink blended with some Gold Mixative. The filigree flower was attached to the centre. I used some pearl stickers to create a circle on a piece of transparency and added it with a bead in the centre.


My next ornament started life as a used CD.


I printed some more of the music paper, cut two circles slightly larger and attached them back to back after I inked them all over with Antique Linen DI. Tip - In order to find your hole (I only used one this time), just attach one circle, re-punch the hole and then add the second circle and re-punch the hole again.

I made a bead chain to hang the ornament with and attached it next. Then I cut a mat from some gold card stock in my stash using Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Squares die. I fussy cut an image from the Graphic 45 paper pad called Christmas Carol and added that on top of the mat.

Next I used a poinsettia die from Marianne Creatables to cut a poinsettia from some the Graphic 45 papers. Because my poinsettias hang over the edge and the back of the paper was patterned, I just painted it with some Dark Scarlet acrylic paint from Deco Art. I added some shimmer to the petals once they were shaped by mixing some red glitter with crystal glitter paint from Craftsmart and painting it on. A few flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and Excelsior Wholesale were added along with some pearl stickers from Kaisercraft.


The final ornament, which is designed to fill one of those pesky long spaces on my tree started with three wooden circles that were leftovers from when my husband cut beer paddles.


I coated them with Gesso and then glued some crumpled tissue paper to them with Mod Podge. Then I rubbed them with some Red Geranium Archival ink and gave them a spritz with some Cherry Pie Dylusions.

Once they were dry I dabbed them randomly with a mixture of Cranberry, and Poppyfield Alcohol Ink blended with some Gold Mixative and then lightly inked over them with some Black Soot DI. Finally I added some gem strips from Recollections that have been hanging around in my stash for ages. The circles were attached to each other with screw eyes that I also altered with the alcohol ink and some beads from my stash.

I am going to enter the first ornament in the following challenges:

A Snowflake's Promise - Anything Christmas/Winter
Stamps & Fun = Creativity - Music Paper
We Love 2 Create - Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes
Allsorts Challenge - Anything But A Card
Altered Eclectics - Anything Altered/Mixed Media Goes (No cards or ATCs)

The following products used in the creation of these ornaments came from The Funkie Junkie Boutique:

18 comments:

  1. Stunning Cec and such a super cool idea, love it!!

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  2. Oh WOW Cec!!! Not one, not two, but three absolute gems!!! I love how each one looks with those varied textures and colour coordination. You will have one special tree this year. Great to see more of that laser cutting too. Looks like it's been a great investment. Jenny x

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  3. Gorgeous ornaments Cec! I really love the textures and the gold/red combo is just so wonderfully festive! The snowflake is stunning, it will really catch the light when you hang it on your tree. hugs :)

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  4. Three for the price of one, fabulous each and every one...but the first is my favourite too, love the music sheet curled...such dimension. Great challenge and beautiful inspiration Cec. Ruth xx

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  5. Wow, three beauties! I love the G45 paper on the second one (great idea to use a CD too) but the first one has stolen my heart - it is stunning! Anne x

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  6. Gorgeous Christmas decorations, your house will be looking very festive when you display these beauties.
    Yvonne xx

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  7. Super Christmas decorations Cec and perfect for our theme this week, many thanks for joining in at Allsorts challenge.

    B x

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  8. So much inspiration and fabulous projects. Love how you explain the process and enjoying learning new techniques. What lengths we go to...to fill a hole! But I think with us crafters we have just got to get it so right. Great that you husband lazer cuts them and will now update his cutting file x Thank you for the tips on 'holes' and thank you for the beautiful and fabulous projects, they are so gorgeous x

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  9. That snowflake is stunning, Cec! I love the texture that resulted from your happy accident! And your altered CD is so cheery! I'm going to play along in this one...and I have just the thing to alter! Hooray!

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  10. Love the snowflake ornament. We have a chipboard one at the shop. I think I will give it "a play" today. Love reading about coloring the plastic flower with alcohol inks. I have a bunch sitting on my shelf. Now I learned a new way to use them up. I feel a quick trip to the dollar store is needed before I go to work today. Thanks for the helpful tips, your ornaments are stunning.

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  11. Oh my gosh I love both of them, the snowflake is my favourite though! You are so creative and I feel so inspired with what you have done! Cxxx

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  12. Your DH is like a little elf in Santas workshop bringing you all these wonderful laser cuts! That snowflake is gorgeous and will make your tree even more special. Genius use of the CD dearie! I can see why you like the red gold combo. Delicious! Hugz to you muffin!

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  13. Love the red/gold color scheme, Cec, and your ornaments wear it well! The texture on that snowflake really warms my creative heart, and your hubby is such a sweetheart to make the cuts for you! Give him a great big hug! Beautiful trio, and thank you, again, for inviting me! I think we had a similar thought process with the sheet music! Thurmon--the piano instructor- has a huge wreath made from sheet music cones like yours, which is what gave me the idea to use the music, too. Hugs to you!

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  14. Love the altered CD! Thank you for sharing with us at Altered Eclectics.

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  15. Wow Cec your ornaments are amazing! Your hubby is a real master with his laser cutter! Sue C x

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  16. Amazing projects.
    Thanks for playing with us at SFC!
    Hugs Andrea

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  17. Congratulations on your Top Pick win at Allsorts! Yippee!

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  18. Wunderful project.
    Thanks for joining us at SFC

    hugs
    Tanja

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I love to hear what you think about my work, so please leave me a comment.

Thanks!
Cec