Christmas Ornament ~ Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another new challenge over on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge blog and this week is all about Ornaments! From simple paper designs to mixed media masterpieces, stamped ornaments to something you create to be ornamental ~ we want to see how you are inspired by this week's challenge!

For my project, I decided to make a start on some home decor pieces for Christmas and what better place to begin than with the gorgeous Luminary Die from Tim Holtz. As always, I hope you love what I've made.

To begin with, I used the Luminary die to die cut some Manila Card. I find this card perfect for using with this die, as it really is a good weight of card and it makes the luminary itself a very substantial piece.

I then gave each of the die cut pieces a good coat of Black Soot Distress Paint. Heat dry the paint before dry brushing a layer of Brushed Pewter Distress Paint over the top to give the effect of metal. Once this layer of paint is dry, spritz all the pieces with Brushed Pewter Distress Spray Stain and once again heat dry.

For the frosted windows, I cut 4 pieces of acetate to size and then covered each piece with some Frosted Film before attaching them to the inside of the luminary.

Construct the luminary as per the instructions.

Once you have done this, you can now start decorating and for this, I used the Festive Greenery Strip Die to die cut some more Manila card which I then inked with various colours of Distress Ink. Heat set the inked die cut pieces and then spritz each piece with Picket Fence Distress Spray Stain to give the appearance of a frosty snow effect on the foliage.

I then arranged and added the foliage to each corner of the luminary, together with some dried moss and some red pearls, that I coated in Picket Fence Distress Paint.

To create the snowy, icy effect on the corners of the lantern, I used my hot glue gun to add small amounts of glue and then covered them in Crystal Glass Glitter.

For the top of the luminary, I used the Tattered Pinecone to die cut kraft card. Once I'd inked the card with some Gathered Twigs Distress Ink, I then made up two pinecones, coated the tips in Glossy Accents and dipped each of them into some Rock Candy Distress Glitter to give a bit of sparkle.

I added some more die cut Festive Greenery pieces to the arrangement, together with crinkle ribbon bow, that I dyed using Festive Berries Distress Stain, some twine and I added jingle bells and decorative pins. The bells were originally silver but I wanted a more rustic look so to create this, I dabbed on some Treasure Gold to change the colour.

To complete the piece, I added some Chit Chat stickers to the front section.

To complete my ornamental decoration, I made a couple of brush bottle trees using the trees from the Woodland Trees and Wreath set. Each of the trees are spritzed using Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stains in Tarnished Brass and Peeled Paint. I then rolled the trees in Glossy Accents to pick up some of the adhesive before dipping them into mica pieces and Rock Candy Distress Glitter. I added faux pearls to each before mounting them onto cotton spools. Each cotton spool is painted gold and has Tissue Tape wrapped around the centre. As a finishing touch, I added small amounts of mica flakes around the base of each tree, where I've attached them to the spools.

Finally, add a battery operated tealight to your luminary and watch it glow!

I hope you've enjoyed this week's post of how I created my Christmas Ornament and if you're looking for some more great ideas and inspiration for this challenge, then you need to look no further than the blog to see all the wonderful creations from all the very talented Design Team members and every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. Good luck....

Thank you so much for all your visits today and hope you all have a great week ahead

See you again soon...love Emma xx

Products used:

Tim Holtz Sizzix Dies: Luminary Die, Festive Greenery Strip Die, Tattered Pinecone

Distress Ink: Iced Spruce, Forest Moss, Gathered Twigs

Distress Stains: Festive Berries

Distress Spray Stain: Tarnished Brass, Brushed Pewter, Peeled Paint, Picket Fence

Distress Paint: Picket Fence, Brushed Pewter, Black Soot

Glitter: Prima Pearl Glass Glitter, Rock Candy Distress Glitter, Prima Frosted Mica Flakes

Treasure Gold Renaissance Gilding Wax

Idea-Ology ~  Crinkle Ribbon, Woodlands Trees and Wreath, Merriment Tissue Tape, Seasonal Chit Chat Stickers

Embellishments: Cream Pearls, Green Pearls, Blue Pearls, Red Pearls, Bells, Twine

Surfaces: Ranger Manila Card, Ranger Kraft Card, Frosted Film

Ranger Craft Sheet

Big Shot

Hot Glue Gun

Glossy Accents

Decorative pins, cotton spools, acetate and dried moss from my own stash