Deck the Tree - Spray Painted Bulb Ornaments w/Christine Middlecamp

 

As promised, there is a giveaway in the works this weekend! A mixed batch of Bundled Up products is up for grabs, just in time for the holidays! To join in on the festivities, tell us your handmade ornament idea, or mention an idea that you love and are considering trying either this year, or next! You have until Sunday, December 15th (8:00pm Central Time) to comment. On Monday, December 16th, we'll announce the winner and the winning idea on our blog.

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It seems like every year presents it's own unique handmade ornament challenge. As Crate Paper's Design Team Coordinator the last five years, there has always been a request for handmade ornaments come the holiday season. It's become a tradition of sorts that I thoroughly enjoy. And so, once again, I reinvented the ornament using Crate's 2013 Winter/holiday collection, Bundled Up.

They're a regular feature at crafts store; plastic clear bulbs with silver ornate tops. The minute I spot on them on the shelf,  I feel immediately inclined to buy a bunch. I contemplate idea after idea as to how to decorate them. The nearby glazes always seem like a decent option, but I prefer to not use my oven while crafting. This year, with the whole spray paint craze movement in full swing, I figured it might be worth a shot to apply spray paint directly to the bulbs, painting the back of each one a single hue. I even learned a trick or two in the process...

As you might be able to tell, the backs were decorated with either painted lines or dots prior to my spray painting the bulbs. To accomplish this, I hand painted a pattern on the backside of each bulb using a medium rounded brush and white acrylic paint. I then spotted a safe area and spray painted over the patterning in a back and forth motion. The paint took about ten minutes to dry (a second coat is recommended).

Now, one thing you might be wondering is how to prevent the paint from covering or splattering  the front portion of the bulb. The trick is to try and paint around the area. Any paint that happens to reach the front can easily be removed with Goo Gone. No Kidding! It's an easy enough solution and one I'm grateful for! Just rub it on the affected area and watch it disappear. AMAZING!

The ornament "tops" required painting as well, so I applied an even layer of gold spray paint to each one.

Finally, I stuffed them silly with plastic snow, clear and colored glitter, tiny hand-cut trimmings and 2.5" x 2.5" B/W photos. I embellished the tops with layered tags using metallic/vanilla twine to hold them in place.
 

Inside this ornament are cut-out Christmas tree's from Crate's Bundled Up collection. Kinda fun, eh?

And there are snowflakes in this one! Cute!

There is running theme here throughout; pretty pink glitter in various shades! Before bringing this post to an official close, a bonus tip is in order!

I'm a BIG fan of American Crafts' "This and That Super Sticky Red Tape". For the purpose of glitter application. I use it all the time. It's ideal for creating glittery linear lines across any given surface. In this case, I applied the tape and glitter to my tags. This particular tag is a mix of gold gel pen and glittered diagonal lines.

First, draw a series of diagonal lines on a medium manila tag using a gold gel pen and a ruler. Make sure to leave at last a 1/2" of open space between each line. Fill in the open space with strips of 1/4" red tape. Cut off any excess, remove the red covering and apply a sizable helping of dark peach glitter (or whatever color you like).

This is the final product! Embellish it with something small so as to avoid covering up all that pretty glitter.

I wish all of you a safe and happy holiday! I'll return next week with yet another Bundled Up DIY project! Have a great weekend!

Comments

[Natalie (QSOgirl)]

Wow, what beautiful ornaments! I'm a big fan of sticking things inside ornaments (it's the basis of my etsy shop, haha!) but I'd not thought of photographs. I might have to try this!

[Kailash]

I love the idea of an altered cookie cutter, would simply enjoy embellishing with various elements from a favorite collection pack. I think it can be so festive and so unique:-) Have to give a go for next year:-)!!!

[Heather - housesbuiltofcards]

OH - so many fun ideas I can think of! I would love to make something including photos of my girls,and somehow include glitter and burlap - the perfect mix of rough and tumble and girly!!!

[kayla f]

My favorite ornaments to make are the cinnamon ones. You just mix cinnamon and applesauce together, cut out some cute shapes and bake them. They smell delicious and look like cookies hanging on the tree. I am also working on making my garland from paper beads.

[{vicki}]

I'm not too good at explaining things but I'll give it a try....

In school one year my son made the MOST PRECIOUS Ornament Ever!

An angel of himself....

They took a school photo and just used his head. Attached it to a doily that had been folded around into a cone shape. Take another doily, cut it in half and glue to the back of the cone for the wings. Then take some gold pipe cleaner to make a halo.
It is my FAVORITE ORNAMENT on my tree!

[Cristina]

Mason jars seem to be all the rage lately, and I would love to decorate one with Bundled Up!
Last year I made these paper ornaments using Snow Day (an old fave of mine): http://cristinascrap.blogspot.com/2012/12/paper-ornaments.html

[Niki Willaert]

Oh my! I think might just be the cutest thing I seen I have seen this holiday season! Absolutely love this - gorgeous work and just so sweet and precious!!

I love handmade photo ornaments adorned with scrapbooking supplies, frames made out of tiny ornaments and all aqua, mint, pink and glittery! I also just love the burlap craze and monogram or initial ornaments. So many ideas to choose from and try!

[Joni Moore]

Those are so cute!
My ornament idea this year is to use wood veneers. They are all over Michael's in such cute Christmas shapes... cheap too using Michael's weekly coupons. I'm going to layer them with chipboard, PP and a picture of the kids.

[Gina M]

I love the idea of purchasing tiny children's mittens and stringing them up with clothespins as a garland. The "hands" can be decorated with the words "winter" or "Ho Ho Ho" (even amount of letters to go with pairs of mittens) and other cute embellishments from the Bundled Up line from CP. Tiny candy canes sticking out of the top. Festive!

[Linda Johnson]

I made a cone Christmas wreath yesterday. Now I want to try the cone ornaments. Just cone happy! Such a nice way to use such beautiful papers!

[Brenda Lubrant]

Our local organization made ornaments for a tree of rememberance to raise money. We purchased clear glass oraments for this project. You take the wire holder off the ornament and stuffed clear shimmery tinsel inside. Replace the wire holder. Then we took a white feather and attached it to the ornament by placing it in the tails of a silver glittery premade wire bow and twisting it around the wire holder. We then used a sharpie pen to write and name of the person to be rembered. They turned out beautiful as we decorated a whole tree with these ornaments. After Christmas the person who bought an ornament receives it back to put on their own tree the years to follow.

[Cassandra Duchaine]

I make handmade ornaments with my kids every year. I think the first one we ever did together was beads threaded onto silver pipe cleaners that I then assembled into snowflakes.

[Melissa]

Oh, Christine, I just could look at your things all day with all their little detail! Thanks for doing them for us. I love love the tag and must do that on everything now - lol.

My favorite ornament to make: My girls are teenagers. I like to take pictures of them around Christmas when they were little, reprint smaller if I need to, cut them out. I then wrap a tiny box in tiffany blue with gold trim and attach one of the girls sitting on the box. Then I have fun and put snow in the bottom, a little snowman, tiny candy canes and sometimes a garland across the top. I treasure them each year when I pull them out!

[Mel Blackburn]

Gorgeous!!! Such a great gift idea! We might just make this for the grand-parents this year.

[Lynda]

I want to make paper stars this year to give each of my children for their yearly ornament. I saved this link from last year that has the tutorial. Wish me luck!
http://kismetartlife.blogspot.com/2012/12/cas-ual-fridays-even-score.html