Wooden Christmas Ornaments

-

[Image ID] A group of six hand decorated, flat, wooden Christmas ornaments that can be hung on a tree. There are two Christmas trees, two stars and two baubles. The design on each one is different. [description end]

-

This project was inspired by an article that Tonic Studios posted on their blog earlier in the autumn as part of their ‘Crafter’s Autumn Fayre’. I was really inspired by the tutorial post about using pastes and shimmer power to decorate wooden ornaments, and all the projects here were inspired by it.

If you’d like to read the tutorial I was inspired by, it can be found here.

-

[Image ID] A variegated green Christmas tree. The idea that there are garlands of lights on the tree is created by small coloured blobs on gold lines. A gold star sits on the top of the tree. [description end]

-

This tree was coloured with Nuvo Shimmer powder – a water-reactive pigment powder which also contains mica for a shimmery effect. Once that layer had dried thoroughly I drew the ‘string lines’ on top with a metallic gold gel pen, and then added gold and red Nuvo Drops to represent ornaments or lights as well as to cover the star.

-

[Image ID] A large, gold, five-pointed star with a smaller star in the centre. There are blobs of colour at the point of each arm of the star, and also where each arm joins to the arms either side of it. [description end]

-

I covered this star in a thin layer of Nuvo Embellishment Mousse, then stuck a small star die cut in the centre, and finished it with a variety of Nuvo Drops.

-

[Image ID] A variegated green, round bauble with a gold top. An in-flight white dove has been stuck on top of the green background. The end of its wing sticks out beyond the edge of the bauble. [description end]

-

I remembered that I had this elegant dove die from a previous year and was pleasantly surprised with how well it fit on the wooden shape! Like the first ornament, I coloured the wood with shimmer powder. The dove itself was cut from tracing paper, and outlined with a white gel pen. I used Nuvo Drops to cover the ‘hanger’ part of the ornament.

-

[Image ID] A raised holly and berries design on a green Christmas tree. There is a gold star atop the tree. [description end]

-

For this tree I began by applying texture paste through a stencil, and only applied the shimmer powder once the paste was dry. This created an interesting effect because the water, and dissolved pigment, pooled in the areas between the raised stencil impression. I really like the way it created a subtle change of tone between the design and the background without the extreme contrast of painting them different colours. I added the same red nuvo drops used on the tree to the areas of the stencil design meant to represent berries, and a few elsewhere to balance out the colours. The gold nuvo drop used on the star is also the same as in the earlier ornaments.

-

[Image ID] A raised poinsettia leaf design on a red-orange background. [description end]

-

I used the same basic technique as the previous ornament, but this time with a red-orange colour scheme and a poinsettia stencil.

-

[Image ID] A round, blue, textured bauble with a gold top. A raised, textured, Bethlehem skyline is towards the bottom of the bauble and towards the top is a raised textured star. [description end]

-

I first covered this ornament in a bumpy layer of Nuvo Crackle Mousse, as I thought the crackle effect would make an interesting sky. Once the mousse was dry, I covered it in two layers of mod podge to ensure that none of the pieces chipped off – as this can easily happen with crackle pastes. The Bethlehem skyline was created by the same texture paste as previously through a stencil, although on this occasion I tinted the paste with some acrylic paint.

-

Nuvo drops: Mustard Gold (metallic drop), Ruby Slippers (glitter drop), & Lemoncello (Jewel Drop –translucent)

Shimmer powders: Catherine Wheel, Blue Blitz, Green Parade, Atlantis Burst, Falling Leaves, Golden Sparkler, & Solar Flare – not all on the same ornament though!

Crackle Mousse: Water Nymph

Embellishment Mousse: Indian Gold

Texture Paste: by Ranger

Gold Gel Pen: Uniball Singo (the long design)

White Gel Pen: Sakura Gelly Roll in size 0.5

Greenery & Poinsettia Stencils: Layering Poinsettia by Tim Holtz

Bethlehem Stencil: Away in a Manger set by Gemini

-