Shabby Ornament, and Challenge Day

Hello and good morning!

It's time for a new challenge over at Tuesday Alchemy, and this week's challenge is #45 - Anything But a Card.  How fun - you can make ANYTHING, so long as it's not a card.  The prizes are awesome:

5 digital stamps from 

and
$10 store voucher to 


So start crafting and let us see what you can do!

My project is another rosette, this time a cone ornament consisting of rolled squares of CS.  I learned this from my good friend Catherine Pooler over at StampNation (members go here, non-members here).

It was a little tricky to put together, but the end result is so worth the glue all over my fingertips.  Just ask my DD - this ornament now resides in her apartment.  

You can achieve different sizes of ornaments with different sized squares.  Mine is approximately 5.5" across, which was achieved with 2" squares.  They get a bit fiddly when trying to roll and glue them, but stick with it - it's worth the effort.  All papers except for the snowflakes were inked on the edges with distress ink.

For the centerpiece, I used Robyn's Fetish digital image "Gilded Dove." I printed it on white shrink plastic, then cut it out, shrunk it and colored it with Copics.  The jury's still out on whether it's better to color an image pre- or post-shrinkage.  I'll keep you posted.

Tip: Line art images are better for shrink plastic projects than silhouette images as there isn't as much ink to shrink.  That ink has to go somewhere, and too much of it in the initial stage can lead to smearing after shrinking.

Look closely and you can see the glasslike finish - this was achieved by flooding the colored piece with Ranger Glossy Accents.  It was my first time using it, and I LOVE it - it dries very quickly and with a wonderful hard shine.  I applied a ring of ostrich feathers behind the image, gluing it to a doily die cut (which you can barely see).

 I added some snowflakes to the lower right hand side that I first painted with ivory paint, then glittered and added pearl centers...

 ...and a soft, squashy messy bow with an antique brad to the upper left hand side for balance.  And I lightly glittered inside the points of the cones all the way around, then added a narrow gold ribbon for the hanger.

This is a Christmas ornament of the shabby chic ilk, but it doesn't have to come down after Christmas as it has winter appeal as well, and my DD plans to leave hers up until spring, unless I fail to come up with a spring/summer replacement, at which point she'll leave this up until I do.  Oh, the pressure.

Thank you for joining me today, and I hope you'll hie yourself over to Tuesday Alchemy pronto and put yourself in the running for some neat prizes!

Happy crafting!

Ingredients:

Stamp: Robyn's Fetish Gilded Dove
Paper: K & Co. Classic K dp
Ink: printer, Ranger Distress Tea Die (inked edges of papers)
Accessories: Dienamics Let It Snowflake and doily dies, seam binding, pearls, Copics, Glossy Accents, SU Antique Brads, ClearSnap Fairy Dust Glitter "Pralines and Cream," gold ribbon, Creative Inspirations Ivory paint.

Challenges entered:

Simon Says...What's Your Favorite! (tool, stamp, product) - my faves are glitter and ribbon.
Delightful Challenges - Very Blingy
Charisma Cardz Challenge #49 - Christmas Makes
Really Reasonable Ribbon Challenge #62 - Anything Goes & Ribbon
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge #185 - Winter
3 Girl Jam Challenge #8 - Christmas Inspiration
Pile It On #49 - Pile On the Embellishments
Flourishes Timeless Tuesday #200 - "Deck the Tree Trimmings"
Ladybug Crafts Ink - Anything Goes at Christmas

Frosted Designs On the 8th Day of Christmas - 8 brands/products - Mine are:
Designer Paper, shrink plastic, feathers, Copics, glitter, ribbon, antique brad/pearls (counts as one), Ranger Distress Ink Tea Stain (for inking the edges of the papers).