Day 16: Emerald Glitter Ornaments

I am so excited to have Amy from Mod Podge Rocks here.  Her and I have been home girls since the very beginning of this blog thing.  She is one of those blog friends turned real friends.  She took of her Mod Podge Rocks hat to show us a fun ornament paint with awesome glitter paint.  I love these and how they shimmer.

 

Hello there.  It’s Amy – from Mod Podge Rocks.  I’m so pleased to be here, especially because I’ve known Beckie since the very beginning of my blogging.  We started our adventures together, and it’s been a friendship ever since!  She’s talented and can Mod Podge with the best of them, don’t you agree? 

I’m actually not showing you a Mod Podge project today.  Before you faint, I’m also a contributor at the blog Paint Me Plaid – and writing blog entries there has gotten me to fall in love with the most wonderful FolkArt Extreme Glitter.  It makes the most gorgeous (and affordable) ornaments, so I wanted to show you how to make one too.  If you end up using Mod Podge on some part of it, you know I won’t complain.  This pennywise present is intended to be made in multiples, so keep that in mind.  You have several gifts for neighbors, friends, church buddies, teachers, co-workers and even the mailman to come up with . . . the more of these you make, the less expensive they are, and the glitter goes a long way.  So let’s jump in!

Supplies:

Pack of glass ornaments (mine was $4 with three in there, so $1.33 per ornament)

FolkArt Extreme Glitter, 2 oz. – Emerald ($2, and it does about six ornaments)

FolkArt Enamels Paint – Wicker White ($2, will do as many of these as you can make)

Snowflake Stencil – I’ve provided the artwork

Spouncers or paintbrush

Red Rhinestones (I got mine for $1 in "those bins" at Michaels) Ribbon (on hand)

Styrofoam or paper cup

Here are the ornaments that I used – I LOVE the square shape.  I got these from Hobby Lobby, but just about every craft store in the world has glass ornaments.  They go so fast, too. I should start selling them out of the back of my trunk!

Remove the top of the ornament and set aside.  Stick the ornament into a cup to hold it.  Squeeze Extreme Glitter into the ornament.  Here’s some advice for you – DO NOT empty the whole bottle into the ornament, because you’ll be wasting.  My technique is to squeeze some in, shake around to see how well it covers the inside of the ornament, and then to squeeze more if I need to.  The goal is to cover the inside of the ornament while using the least amount of precious glitter paint possible.  Again – squeeze a little paint in, shake, squeeze a little more in.  Tilting to one side or another helps coverage as well.  Repeat until the ornament is completely coated on the inside.

It looks kind of cloudy while drying, but that’s okay.  It dries clear.  Turn the ornament over into the cup so that any excess can drain into the cup and not onto your beautiful coffee table.  Before I do this, I typically bang the ornament lightly on the inside of my kitchen trash can – watch for flying glitter at your own risk!  Tap lightly so you don’t break the ornament, and this will help get excess glitter out of there.  Leave the ornament to drain overnight. Once the ornament is drained, keep it in this position but put it in a warm, dry place to dry.  I’m telling you – if you keep it somewhere cold and humid, it will take over a week to dry.  My area was unfortunately cold so it took about three days.  But you don’t have to worry about your ornaments while they are drying.  Keep checking on them, and just have patience.  You should definitely do several of them at one time for this reason.

I have an old sticky stencil that I used on the front.  You have several options here – you can paint freehand snowflakes (the end of your paintbrush will make great polka dots), you can cut vinyl on a die cutting machine and make a similar stencil, or you can download this artwork that I’ve provided for you.  I’m actually giving you the entire sheet of stencils that this one came with.  Play with them as you wish! Jack Frost Stencil

Use your spouncers (or a paintbrush) and the white Enamels paint to stencil directly onto the ornament.  Enamels paint dries quickly but takes a long time to cure.  Read the complete instructions on the packaging.  You can handle it, just don’t be rough.

Add the rhinestones.  Mine were self-adhesive so I didn’t NEED glue, but I wanted a little extra security.  I then tied ribbon onto the top of the ornament.  Done and done. If I only made three, I would have a total cost of $1.33 (ornament) + $1.30 (paints) + $.33 (rhinestones) = $2.96 per ornament.  I recommend doing more than that though – the cost goes down with each ornament you make, and the glitter is BEAUTIFUL when dry.  You aren’t going to believe how awesome it looks against Christmas lights!

Thanks to Beckie and to you, her IC audience, for having me.  Swing by Mod Podge Rocks as well as Paint Me Plaid to see my crafting misadventures.  There’s a lot of glue involved, paint spills and a story or two.  Have a very happy holiday season!