Ornaments

Good Morning!!  I hope those of you who celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday have recovered!!  I spent yesterday in my little cave working on projects.  With the Holiday season upon us, I really need to kick it into high gear!! 

Today, I thought I'd share a quick gift idea.  Ornaments blinged out in metal!!

I asked all the girls to send me a favorite picture for the year.  So far, everyone but *L, has picked up on my procrastination habit!  But that's ok!  *L gets the privilege of having her ornament done with undivided attention to detail!

I started with Darcie's Ariana Acrylic Ornament frame.  I painted all the edges, including the acrylic edges, with a Krylon Silver leafing pen.  I then traced the ornament twice onto TenSecondStudios Poision Ivy metal. I carefully cut out the metal using paper snips and then ran both pieces through the Big Shot with a Cuttlebug Christmas tree embossing folder.  QUICK and EASY way to emboss metal!!  Plus, with the clear folders, you can see exactly where the embossing image is placed!  I then sanded the color off the embossed areas. 

Now I "layer" the pieces different from the directions that come with the frames.  The frames use metal clips to hold everything together, but I like the cleaner edge of just gluing the pieces together.  Here is my layering order:  Acrylic frame covered on top with metal/paper.  This is glued to the backside of  two chipboard frames that have been glued together.  My photo, originally printed out as a wallet size, was reduced by 70% on my printer and cut to fit into the recessed frame area.  Then I fill with some Martha Stewart Snow Glitter and glue the second acrylic frame on top to "close" the shadowbox.  My top cover is the last piece of chipboard with the metal/paper. 

Here is a picture of the back side that shows off more of the embossing!

GORGEOUS!  I'm telling you!!  The Toad gave this the ultimate compliment of saying "This looks very professional or factory".  



I used Tombo Metal Liquid Glue to glue the metal to the acrylic and chipboard. The Humungo Sticky Tape is wonderful as far as not budging the metal from the surface you stick it too, but it also does not allow for fiddle room to line the edges up.  After waiting for the glue to dry (the hardest part of this whole thing), I burnished the edges of the metal with a paper stump.  I then touched up any missed spots along all the edges with the Krylon leafing pen again. 

All the girls will be getting a variation of this once I get their pictures, ahem!! 

Thanks for stopping by again today!  I will be back with more gift ideas later!!  Till then............REMEMBER TO TAKE TIME TO EXPLORE CREATIVITY IN YOUR DAY!!