Stained Glass Mosaic Smoothfoam™ Ornaments

It's time for the Smoothfoam™ Holiday Ball!   Follow through the links here on their site to see tons of creative holiday projects made with Smoothfoam™ balls!   For my project I made stained glass mosaic ornaments - you can view the full tutorial in my Creatively Crafty video linked below from my YouTube channel!  

Burlap & Wooden Snowflake Ornament

I love burlap!  The rustic, country feeling it brings, the texture, and the neutral color that goes with any color scheme.   I've been having fun creating holiday ornaments this year with burlap and Smoothfoam™ - here's my latest creation!

Rustic Burlap Snowflake Ornaments 

Add these rustic burlap ornaments to your country Christmas tree for a homespun holiday feel. 

Materials: 

Smoothfoam™ ball 

Blumenthal Lansing Favorite Findings™ - Wooden Snowflakes 

Burlap

1” brown grossgrain ribbon

Jute ric-rac trim 

Twine

Hot glue gun & hot glue sticks

Scissors 

Instructions: 

Cut burlap square approximately 8” x 8”.  

Place Smoothfoam™ ball in center of square with hole on top.  Add hot glue around hole, fold four corners of burlap upward and mount to ball.  Fold remaining burlap over and glue to side of ball.  

Cut piece of twine for hanging ornament, hot glue ends into hole in top of ball. 

Gather edges of burlap, tie together tightly around twine loop with additional piece of twine. 

Mount brown ribbon around center of ball.  

Mount jute ric-rac centered on brown ribbon. 

Mount wooden Blumenthal Lansing snowflake in center over ric-rac. 

Flannel Yo-Yo Heart Ornament

Here's another quick holiday tree decoration I created for Cindi's Simple Solutions at

When Creativity Knocks!  Clover's heart yo-yo maker, and Blumenthal Lansing buttons made it easy! Find the instructions here.

ICE Resin® Rue Romantique® Christmas Blog Hop - Floating Poinsettia Ornament

The beautiful bezels in the Rue Romantique collection make fabulous holiday ornaments.  For this one I combined an open backed bezel with a Spellbinders die cut poinsettia coated with ICE Resin for a unique holiday ornament.  Be sure to visit the other participating designers' blogs to see what lovely holiday projects they'll be sharing featuring the Rue Romantique line! - Cindi

Floating Poinsettia Ornament 

Materials:

ICE Resin®

Rue Romantique bezel - open backed 

Susan Lenart Kazmer ”Carnivale”  German Glass Glitter

Spellbinders® Layered Poinsettia die 

Spellbinders® Grand Calibur® machine 

Connie Crystal red crystal and antiqued silver metallic beads 

Red cardstock

Beacon Adhesives Zip-Dry™ Adhesive

Thin jewelry wire 

Jewelry pliers 

Instructions: 

Use Grand Calibur® and Layered Poinsettia die to cut and emboss 3 of the smallest poinsettia flowers from red cardstock.

Mix ICE Resin® according to instructions, coat back of each flower with resin and let cure.  Coat front of each flower with resin, adding gold German Glass Glitter to centers of two flowers, using a small amount of ICE Resin® over the glitter to seal it in place.  Let cure.   Add second layer of resin to front and back of each flower and let cure. 

Cut piece of thin jewelry wire approximately 5” long.  Tie to loop in bezel, leaving approximately 1 1/2” extending down into the open area of the bezel.  

Add red crystal bead right next to loop in bezel, then continue adding small metallic beads to end of wire, looping around and attaching to create hanging loop at end. 

Mount one flower front with glitter center to flower without glitter center so petals are alternating.  Mount to hanging piece of wire in open area of bezel, then mount second flower with glitter center to back of first two, covering wire.   This allows the poinsettia to “float” in the center of the bezel opening. 

Here are the links to the other amazing artists participating in this hop - 

Friday, Nov. 8

Kristen Robinson   http://kristenrobinson.typepad.com/kristenrobinson/2013/11/rue-romantique-christmas-blog-hop.html

Jen Crossley http://amarkintime.blogspot.com/2013/11/rue-romantique-christmas-ornament-blog.html 

Cindy Cima Edwards  http://www.cindycima.com/2013/11/08/rue-romantique-christmas-blog-hop-the-merry-duck/

Cindi Bissonhttp://fatcatcreations.blogspot.com/2013/11/ice-resin-rue-romantique-christmas-blog.html

Saturday, Nov. 9

ICE Resin site  http://wp.me/p1MCno-2W3 

Lexi Grenzer http://lexigrenzer.blogspot.com/2013/11/rue-romantique-ornament-blog-hop.html

Pamela Huntington  http://pamelahuntington.typepad.com/february_2007/2013/11/handmade-holiday-blog-hop.html

Susan Walls  http://www.susansartcircus.com/christmas-with-ice-and-santa/

Jen Cushman  http://wp.me/p1lhEq-Gb

Sunday, Nov. 10

Lesley Venable 

http://flatwoodsfolkart.typepad.com/lesley_venable/2013/11/a-very-rue-romantique-christmas.html.html  

JoMama http://www.shopjomama.com/blog/rue-romantique-ornament-blog-hop

Sandy Martin http://sweetpeajewelry1.blogspot.com/2013/11/rue-romantique-christmas-blog-hop.html

Susan Weckesser http://mysweetearth.blogspot.com/2013/11/rue-romantique-bloghop.html

PEACE with Rit Dye

Let there be PEACE this holiday season - give the gift of "Peace Cookies" in a jar and a hand-made ornament featuring Rit Dye, twine from The Twinery, and a funky Blumenthal Lansing button!  Find the full tutorial on the Rit Dye site.

Holiday Ornament Gift Box

A 3” Smoothfoam ball is the base of this ornament which also serves as a gift box for a small treasure.

 Materials: 

Smoothfoam 3” ball
Plaid Mod Podge
Connie Crystals - blue, red
Silver wire
Foam brush
1/4” Ribbon
Spoon
Reindeer paper from BasicGrey Blitzen Collection
Westcott Premium TrimAir Titanium Paper Trimmer
Westcott Craft Titanium Bonded Non-Stick Scissors
Westcott Craft Hobby Knife
Red felt
Velcro Brand Sticky Back Fasteners

Instructions:


Carefully cut ball in half with craft knife.

Use a spoon (grapefruit spoon makes it easier as it has a grooved edge) to hollow out inside of both halves of ball.

Cut 1/2”  x 2” strips of patterned paper and Mod Podge onto top and bottom outsides of ball, overlapping each piece slightly.  Let dry. 

Cut 1 1/2” strip of wire, add small blue crystal bead and medium red crystal bead and insert through bottom center of ball.

Cut 4” strip of wire, add medium red crystal bead, medium green crystal bead, and small blue crystal bead.  Insert through top center of ornament.  Create loop at end to attach ribbon.

Cut felt to fit in bottom of both halves, mount.  Cut strips of felt to fit around inside of balls, mount against base piece of felt in each half.

Cut ribbon to wrap around center of ornament.  Glue ribbon in place on bottom of TOP of ornament,
extending downward so it will cover the edge of the bottom half when the ornament is “closed." 

Mount 1" strip of ribbon vertically along back center of ball (this will be your “hinge").


Mount small piece of sticky backed Velcro to inside center front of box to hold ornament closed. 


Creating hand-made ornaments each year is part of our family tradition - why not start your own tradition, and collection, this year? - Cindi