A Micro Fine Mess!

Last night was craft night to work on a few more decorations for Jennifer’s house.  We knocked out three projects I wanted to share.   The first are these “Joy” plates that will sit in plate easels on the buffet during Christmas.   I wiped down the plate with rubbing alcohol to clean it, then I traced on the letters (this is “Santa’s Sleigh” and is a free download from www.dafont.com) with graphite paper.

I painted Matte Mod Podge in the outline of the letters and then sprinkled on Martha Stewart’s Micro Beads  (I got mine at Michael’s with the coupon!) in the lighter pink color…very pretty but like anything micro fine, it gets messy.    When it dried I wasn’t real happy with the coverage, so I watered down more Mod Podge, soaked it into the first try and added more beads.  Make sure you let it dry well before adding a second color.  Time to add the silver beads…and a different approach because I want to give it some dimension.  I used a hot glue gun and dotted it where I wanted to add the circles to the middle of the letters and then quickly sprinkled the beads.  I let it cool slightly and then used my finger to press the beads into the glue.  Mission accomplished! Now onto the swirls.  I used a silver Sharpie to draw on a swirl, then followed the form with hot glue, and quickly sprinkled on the beads in small sections.

Working in small sections, I ran the glue along the form, sprinkled the beads…

and then carefully pressed down the beads into the glue…careful not to burn your fingers!

Imperfections!  It’s difficult to get a perfect line with hot glue so I trimmed off excess with an Exacto knife when it cooled.

The next project…Leopard Christmas Ornaments!

Super easy…anyone can do!  You will need a gold or silver and black oil based paint pen and plastic ball ornaments…we got ours at Wally World.  I like the matte finish the best.  

Draw irregular shapes (think lima bean!) with the gold pen in making sure that the shape has a good coverage coat of paint.   Let paint dry.  I make a stand out of 20 gauge wire to hang the ornament for this part. 

Draw irregular shapes (think lima bean!) with the gold pen in making sure that the shape has a good coverage coat of paint.

Let paint dry.  I make a stand out of 20 gauge wire to hang the ornament for this part and it really cut out the headache of balls rolling and smudging paint.

 

Now take the black pen and draw on the outer spots…two or three on each gold should do it.  Tie a black based ribbon to your ornament and you are ready to hang!

 

Remember these guys from a previous blog?

I bleached out the decorative sisal trees in a gallon bath of hot water and 1/2 cup of bleach for about 30 minutes and then rinsed them.  These trees are for Jennifer’s house where the color scheme for her decorations are jewel toned.  I “dyed” them in a 2 cup hot water and 1/2 bottle of craft paint (Folk Art) in a tall and narrow vase until I got the color saturation that I liked.  Shake off excess water and use a fork to separate and fluff the branches.  Let them dry completely…this may take a day. 

Jennifer and Janet chose very small ornaments and cut up old Mardi Gras beads and hot glued each little sucker into the tree.  I painted the base of a pear green plate white and let it dry.  Then I hot glued this prismatic snow tinsel mylar stuff (Hobby Lobby in the Christmas craft section) on top of the paint and hot glued the trees on top of that.  I still have to do my trees and will show you them soon.  I am going to add snow onto my trees.