OWSE Christmas in July!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I'm absolutely delighted to be a guest designer for the Outlaw Women Scrapbook Emporium's Christmas in July event! Outlaw Woman Scrapbook Emporium is a wonderful, online buying club where you can find all those crafting goodies you crave at amazing prices! This club is free to join, and has a wonderful online community that shares ideas, supports each other... and host challenges!

It's such an honor to have been asked to create a challenge for the OWSE Christmas in July event, and what better way to get into the holiday spirit than an ORNAMENT CHALLENGE? Everyone's invited to participate-- just visit the OWSE Events List and sign up!

Your challenge is to create a sparkly and unique Christmas or Winter Holiday ornament that incorporates the following products:

• Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink, at least one color 
• Perfect Pearls powder or Perfect Pearls Mist
• At least one die cut of your choice
• Stickles, Distress Stickles or some other glitter product
• At least one sheet Designer Paper of your choice

You absolutely DON'T need to use any of those products the way I have! Just play and have fun and get in the Christmas (in July) spirit!


For my Designer Paper, I used this sweet, vintage Santa from Tim Holtz's Seasonal Paper Stash. Isn't he the jolliest little guy EVER? (Santa, I mean, though I'm sure Tim has his jolly moments, too...). My die cut is the  Sizzix Alterations Baroque die to cut my ornament base, and then cut a piece of silver metal using the same die with the Mini Baroque insert, which created a frame:

For structure, I also cut a piece of regular 'ol chipboard with the larger Baroque die and glued the Designer Paper onto it. 

Yay, it's BLING TIME! I used Ranger Stickles in Xmas Red, Dark Blue and Baby Blue to glam up Santa's hat and create some icy sparkles in the background:

Ready for his close-up:

Let's get back to that metal frame! This challenge requires only one color of Ranger Adirondack Alcohol Ink. I used Red Pepper, but just for fun, I added in some Pearl Mixative for extra shine, and a couple drops of Blending Solution to make the colors mix together better. You're absolutely not required to use the Mixative or the Blending Solution, so don't sweat if you don't have those on hand! I used an Ink Blending Tool to apply the inks, but you could also use a cotton swab or piece of felt. 

Dabbing on the color....

Now, we've got some shabby vintage Christmas happening! I used Distress Stickles in Rock Candy to add some texture to the frame:

It's all about Joy, right? I cut the word from the same Seasonal Paper Stash, and gave it a quick spritz with Perfect Pearls Mist (in the color "Perfect Pearl). 

And now, joy has a shimmer:

I glued a thin satin ribbon to the top edge of the ornament to use as a hanger...

... and then used Glossy Accents to glue on the frame. This stuff will hold just about anything, and it dries quickly, too!

The finishing touch is the edging. I wanted it to look a little old and battered, like a vintage ornament, so I just dabbed some silver Alcohol Ink Mixative along the edge using a Cut and Dry Pen Nib. (A cotton swab would work, too, and so would a Krylon pen). Don't try to be too precise, or you'll lose that shabby look!

I like my ornaments to do double duty, so this one also serves as a Christmas card! I just glued some pretty paper to the back and hand wrote the greeting. You could also make this a two-sided ornament if you'd like, and repeat the entire process on the other side!

And there you have it!

(I forgot to take of photo of the "Joy" being glued on, but I did, in fact, glue it on!)

Okay, now I want to see YOUR wonderful holiday ornament! Create it, add it to the folder in the OWSE Events section, and feel the holiday cheer!

Thanks so much for visiting my blog. I can't wait to see what you create! OH, and there's a fabulous prize up for grabs, from the generous Robyn and Jeanette at OWSE... 

Hugs,

Linda