A holiday ornament to download, print and assemble

I was working on an ornament for some decorations for a few knitting mates and in the process came across some cute sweater graphics. I usually do some sort of ornament for the holidays so I decided to create a file for people to make. If you recall a past post has a lot of detail on how to make these ornaments (SO easy, I promise) and a helpful video as well. But I will add a couple of tips here.

First is find a circular shape that fits the curved areas nicely. I used one of the old Creative Memories circle cutters but there must be 100 things in your house that will also work. It makes scoring that arc so much easier.

Next, get some grabby glue. I swear by the Art Glitter Glue. That stuff grips almost instantly. I made a few of these where I used a tape runner and that did not hold. Double sided adhesive is ok but honestly the Art Glitter Glue is the BEST.

I also added a hanger by tucking the knotted end of a loop into the area at one end of the arc. Unless you add a daub of glue it won’t hold forever. Instead, I like to use a button hole punch (or a sharp needle) to add two holes to the solid area. Then thread your hanger thru that.

I like to add the bead for a little extra decoration but it isn’t a requirement.

If you print 2-a page, they make diddy little ones that are super cute and still quite easy to do. Give them a go. Such a great result for such little effort. Download the one ornament sheet here! Fair warning, the file is big so may get moved to Dropbox at some point. Speaking of, don’t forget this one I already added…

Have fun!

Beautiful and EASY paper orbs

These are honestly so much fun and so easy to make. There is a template here from Creative In Chicago, and a really helpful video here

You can use your own papers (and that can be gel prints or scrapbook paper or anything) but in my experience a slightly heavier paper, 170gsm to 230gsm, really works well. The score lines really hold better than on thinner paper.

You can use the template for a ball all of the same paper, like these. The first one is from a couple of gloss spray pieces

and this green one is from a gel print. Both are very pretty and use the template printed two to a page on an A4 sheet. I believe you should be able to see it rotating here.

The template is bigger (full A4) so the orb is bigger. All you need to do is print, score and assemble.

I like to edge the curves in gold paint, either with a pen or my fingertip. So pretty!

I am trying something new – as this is quite a large file, I am adding it via Dropbox. Here is a printable sheet that you can use. Just click the DOWNLOAD button and you should have it. I’ve cleaned up a lot of old stuff but still not got much space available so … 🙂

I do have another idea I am keen to try – if it works I think it’ll be cute. I’ll share tomorrow if all goes according to plan.

Round Robins – merry, happy, dated or not

This was much more of a struggle than it should have been and I am heartily sick of them now.  I designed them, created them, then updated my program and it seemed to cause me no end of trouble.  I would arrange a page, all looking fine, then I would save it as a PDF, open the PDF only to find there were bits missing – a wing here, an inked circle there… Drove me crazy.  I think I finally worked out the “rules” and then it was better, but still.

I ended up making just two versions – a HAPPY CHRISTMAS version, for those who use happy and a MERRY CHRISTMAS version for those.  There are six WITH 2014 and six WITHOUT a date.  You can either use a mix of dated and not dated this year or print as many dated ones as you need then tuck the un-dated ones into your Christmas wrap box for next year!

I printed them on canvas paper

and on matt photo paper

The difference in the reds is more due to the angle and the light than the paper.  Here you can see the paper-piecing version and the printed version side by side

I figure they work for gift tags (just write your message on the back) or as simple card toppers (maybe just add a nice mat behind the circle or ink the edges more and pop-dot it) as well as an ornament style hanging circle.  Now I am off to locate an oven-cleaner.  Has to be my least favourite job ever, and I have high hopes for a steam-cleaner rather than stinky chemical one.  Wish me luck…

Dated robin ornament printable

A couple of people did ask for the robins with the date on the front so I am adding that today.  The PDF is just the one page so if you print the original PDF once and this one once you will have a backer to match up with each paper piecing set

Remember, this is what you see as the sample from yesterday.

Sorry if it is all too confusing – let me be clear:

The robin ornament WITHOUT the date (6 sets) and 12 backing circles (two sheet PDF) can be downloaded HERE

The robin ornament WITH the date and no backing circles (one sheet PDF) can be downloaded HERE

And to further confuse things, if you com back tomorrow I should be able to add a printable sheet that has the ornament digitally “pieced” so all you need to do it print and punch.  I expect I’ll just go ahead and do them with the date and without the date and I guess I have to do MERRY and HAPPY Christmas and probably Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays and…..

DOH!  You see, one of the reasons I started making printables to begin with was that I hated it when I bought some set of embellishments that I loved and they didn’t have exactly what  needed – so maybe I wanted the label or tag or other item, but with a RED border and not a pink one, or I wanted no date so I could use it another year.  But no matter how I try to guess what people want there are always options I simply never think of.  And when I DO think of them, this happens – I wind up making a gazillion sets of basically the SAME thing with very slight variations.

{sigh} I suppose it’s better than moving furniture and cleaning under the fridge….

 

Christmas printables – ornament card

{sigh}  Even I am aware that the holiday season will be upon us all too quickly.  Every year I design a card with an ornament to go with it, for DD to give out at school and at skating.  It usually takes me a while to make the 20-30 that I end up needing so I figured I should do it soon so I can work on a handful at a time. I’ve only gotten as far as the “ornament” part, not the card base yet.

You can download it here.

OK so a couple of things – first the printable does NOT have 2014 on it.  But I had already printed a sheet of that version and took photos of the assembly, and wasn’t going to do it all again.  Instead, I created a back that has the date and a greeting on it:

I still have the PDF with 2014 on the front, like you see in the photo, so if you REALLY love that one for some reason, drop a comment on me and I can probably add it.

You will note that the bits have a digitally inked edge.  You can still dust it with ink to make it more obvious but you don’t HAVE to. Also, the print out has feet.  A note about them – they are always going to be prone to catching and ripping, even if you print them on heavy card.  I left them because if you wanted to paper-piece the robin as a card topper you might want to use them, but my recommendation for the ornament is to skip them.

Looking at them you can see they are basically a couple of upside down Vs – if you REALLY want to use them,  if you have an appropriate letter die you might make life easy and just cut a pile of them to stick on, or draw them on or anything else you can think of.

The large circle fits a 2″ circle punch.  Various other dies will work – test what you have.  you might lose a smidge of the inked edge, or have a small white halo, but it’ll still probably look fine.

You can cut the wings by lining up one side with your 2″ punch and cutting that

then cutting the other side with scissors OR by sticking the uncut edge to a bit of scrap and use the punch to cut the other edge

Now, you will lose a bit doing it this way, but it’s easier than hand cutting for some.

The same thing works with a 1″ punch and the wing

Sure, there are better wing shapes but I am going for ease of mass-production and there are always compromises with that. I like to add the wing flat on the red, with a thin pop dot under the top edge. You can change the wing shape by trimming it or maybe even cut or punch a shape you prefer from some of the spare backers. Punch a circle from black cardstock for the eye.

And cut and add the beak, then back it with the backing circle – there are more of those than you need so you can either print page 1 of the PDF 2x and the backer once, or print as it comes and use the extra backers for gift tags or simple card toppers.

The background comes from a Graphics Fairy piece but just certain sections of it.  I may end up using that in some way for the card base. Watch this space.

{sigh} DH is here and keeps asking me questions about HIS part of the sorting and de cluttering and I have stuffed peppers to make and pop in the crock pot for dinner … and just when I was finally being creative….

Ornament from my printables

Just a quick one – still cleaning and busy, busy, busy.

If you print the sheet of printables here and cut all 5 of either design, you can make a quick, cute tree ornament. You need the print-out, a jewellry headpin (although that is not essential – I just happened to have some kicking around) and a couple of star brads with the legs snipped off.

Cut out and score in half all five of the trees.  Stick them together.  I did two and three as groups.

Add the headpin in the middle. I just used my ATG gun.  Sorry for the blur! You could also just stick a loop of ribbon or fishing line or some other sort of hanger in the middle.

Stick the two groups together and sandwich the top between the two brads (or buttons or gems – anything or nothing) and add a hanger (this is fine hemp cord but you can leave it off and just add an ornament hook to the headpin)

Hang it up!

And if I didn’t mention it, there is enough room at the top of the tree to punch a hole in one and use it as a gift tag.  You know me – I’m always keen on finding many uses for one printable!

The snowy set would look lovely edged in Stickles….

have fun….