Nostalgic Ornaments with Mercury Glass Beads, Tinsel & Holly

As expected, I've been working on new ornament designs for this year. While I try to come up with ideas early enough to be finished by October, the holiday season always spontaneously inspires more in me.

I've had loose mercury beads for several years, yet no project ever really presented itself. Then, completely out of the blue, I was admiring Laurie's (Magpie Ethel) mercury bead candy canes and suddenly I felt the need to use my beads.

So I had some fun mixing it up with 3mm tinsel stems, fluffy 1/2” tinsel trim, gorgeous millinery lacquered holly, darkened silver bells, and my favorite twine, Everlasto. Together, they made these.....

Fun, mini wreaths, as ornaments or gift package tie-ons, measuring just over 3” diameter.

I made some multicolored...

And some with only red and silver...

I darkened the fluffy tinsel with caramel and charcoal alcohol inks to mimic tarnished Lametta tinsel. A bright, new silver tinsel wouldn't gel as well with vintage mercury beads, but tinted fits perfectly. 

To me, the elements I used are all representative of the era of Christmas I grew up in. All these items could have easily been seen on the shelves of the 88 Cents Store or Rodgers. Oh, how I wish those stores still existed. Such fond childhood memories.....

Thank you for the inspiration, Ethel......:)

Putz House with Silver Leaf & German Glass Glitter

Whew! Finally done with my latest Putz house. When you first get started and have a fresh vision of it in your mind, it seems like it will be done in no time at all. But when you're as detail-oriented as I am, that couldn't be further from the truth......

Behold.....

I'm a bold color and contrast kinda girl, but I thought it might be a nice change to give it a dreamy wintry wonderland vibe and paint it white-ish. I chose a warm off-white so the snow would still be noticeable.

I knew before I started it that I wanted to use some thin-fluted corrugated wrap I've had for a while. With so many treatment options, in the end, applying silver leaf was the winner.

I used it for the roof and the awning over the door. 

I aged it with warm brown and black alcohol inks, leaving most of the ink in the grooves, and wiping the excess off the raised areas, then sealing it in gloss varnish. I love how it turned out. It has so much more character than leaving it bright silver.

I used the same stucco texture on the walls again, but this time, after painting it, I lightly dusted it with the clear German glass glitter. So soft and twinkly.

I went further to make it a full-fledged Putz house by giving it 2 bottle brush trees. I chose not to leave them a bleached cream color, because they didn't seem to hold their weight against the silver roof and black and silver windows. But before I coated them with anything, I “pruned” them with a slight spiral pattern. The totally straight line sides were really bothering me, and I felt the spiral gave them a more natural shape. I started with metallic champagne paint, pushing it deep into the trunk of the tree, then while it was wet, I pounced silver powdered pigment into the paint to give it a good base for the glass glitter. Finally, after brushing white glue deep into the trees, I poured on copious amounts of silver German glass glitter. Oh, how they twinkle now! And they totally match the elegance of the silver leaf roof.

Rather than cutting out intricate window panes, this time I cut the window form, painted it black, then drew white glue lines and poured on the silver glass glitter. Since the glitter is so thick, it mimics raised window panes perfectly.

I made the same glue/white paint mixture to use as snow. I don't really measure the ratio, but it's close to 1/3 glue & 2/3 paint. White glue shrinks as it dries, so layering the snow in stages may be necessary, as it was for me. The paint is thick artist's paint, not the runny craft paint in the bottle.

As incredibly time-consuming as these are to make, I am pleased with how rewarding it is. When it doesn't need to be absolutely architecturally realistic, the sky is the limit with designing them. That really speaks to my creativity, since I can get bored pretty quickly. And since I'm not making 2 dozen carbon copies of an ornament, I can make each house design drastically different if I choose to. 

I may just have to create these leisurely throughout the year, so I can sell more next Christmas without being in a mad rush! Mayyybe, I'll make one more before this Christmas.........Ciao for now, Maria

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@MagiaMiaEtsy

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Silver Mercury Beads, German Glass Glitter, & Ponderosa Pinecones

As a native Oregonian, it is quite easy to be loyal and go on with a list of the benefits of living here. In Winter, an obvious bonus is our major conifer tree population, and you don't have to go very far to find pinecones. 

This year I made a point of gathering bags of various cone varieties. While I had an idea in mind, it disappeared and was replaced with another one. I think it was the fact that I had an ample supply of German glass glitter and was aching to play with it. Of all the cones I collected, the Ponderosa Pine is my favorite. The flowery shape, and the perfect ornament size to make a statement.

Behold, I give you a gilded lily....

 The natural elegance of a pine cone given even more elegance.

While it would be easy enough to only add the German glass glitter, I really wanted to maximize the details of the cone, and also elevate the glitter to its fullest potential. To do that, I painted the front area of all the scales, topside and underside, leaving the inner sections of the pine cone bare. It enhances all the light sections by giving them a dark background.

I started with white paint, then after it dried, I painted over it with a metallic Champagne. The metallic isn't very opaque, so I needed the white to brighten it. I also chose Champagne over Silver paint, because the glass glitter will gradually develop a warm patina, and it will blend better with the Champagne.

Once the paints were dry, I used an awl to poke pilot holes in the stems of the cones, then screwed in tiny eye screws. Having those attached gave me a handle to hold the cones for the rest of the steps.

Next, I brushed on the Elmer's glue, and lavishly coated both sides of the scale tips with copious amounts of silver German glass glitter.

After a few hours of letting the glue really dry, it was time to add the ornament loops.

Made from 1/4" silver mercury beads threaded onto 3mm tinsel stems, I attached the stem ends to the screw eye, wrapping it around the loop a couple of times to hide it. With such elegance, you don't want to see the metal hardware. Another great attribute of this cone, is the fact that removing some scales from the base around the stem area creates a perfect hiding place for the screw eye.

I created the mercury glass bead loops so they would be beautiful whether used as is, or with ribbon to hang in a window or from a garland.

Don't these look like beautiful pieces of jewelry for the tree? Oh, how they twinkle.....

I still have a bag full of smaller cones, which haven't inspired me yet. Ever since my latest inspiration to make Putz houses, an exorbitant amount of time has been devoted to them. (I'll be posting about my latest Putz house creation tomorrow.) As is typical with me and my non-stop holiday creativity, I'll probably come up with a project for them 3 days before Christmas....:)

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Oh What Fun Creating Putz Houses & Playing with German Glass Glitter

Well, it's that time of year for me, which means my imagination goes into overdrive, with Christmas ornament and décor ideas bouncing around in my head.....

I've been creating original ornaments for about 30 years, with new designs every year. While I never run out of ideas, in the end, I only produce to sell that which I am willing to re-produce. I've never been one for assembly line mass-production, because my fulfillment is dictated by quality over quantity. Therefore, I've got to really enjoy the design to repeat it many times.

I did create some new ornaments for this year, but I also did something out of the norm for me. I was perusing Pinterest a few weeks ago, and I saw a picture of an artificial tiered tree, and each level layer displayed an entire village of Putz houses. Something clicked in my head, and I immediately got a bug in my bonnet to try my hand at making some Putz/Glitter houses. I've admired vintage ones for years, but it just never occurred to me to make them from scratch. 

You creative types understand, that once that epiphany happens, you just can't let it go till you give it a try. I think another reason the Putz idea appealed to me this year is because I have an ample supply of German glass glitter to play with. I've been wanting to incorporate glass glitter into my Christmas creations in a much bigger way, so this totally satisfies that need.  

So without further ado, here is my first Putz house production......

Oh my. Making these completely from scratch does require a great deal of patience. Especially when you're creating them to sell, and not to keep. You can take a lot of shortcuts for personal projects, like using a glue gun. These would've been done in no time flat with hot glue, but when aesthetics are a top priority for perfect tiny details and joining walls, roofs, and chimneys, you need the open time of white glue to get it just right. I also reinforced each structure, making braces from foamcore.

Nothing speaks to your inner child better than glitter, glue, paint, and cardboard.

I've only created 3 of this design, and I kept them small to start with. Each one stands approximately 3-3/8” tall and wide.

I started completely from scratch, sketching out some designs, then cutting them out of chipboard. Since I don't have a die-cutter, and I ditched my printer years ago, everything was done old-school....pencil, cutting blade, and scissors. I used thick chipboard (I think 14ply), which I don't think could've gone through a printer anyway.

I used Snow-Tex for the first time. While I bought it to try it out for snow, in the end, I used it to create stucco walls for the houses. I painted over the stucco texture with rich colors of matte finish Tiffany blue, Red, and Chartreuse paint I had mixed specially for my projects. I chose to leave the matte sheen, to give a velvety contrast to the glitter, and they really complement each other now. 

After visiting many Putz house sites, I decided to make my snow using thick white artist paint mixed with white glue. I love how it came out. It looks much more wispy and creamy, which is the look I was going for. I applied it with a plastic clay knife tool, spreading it like frosting. It also seemed to dry a bit faster than the Snow-Tex.

I really wanted the houses to have seriously elegant twinkle, without the need to cut a hole in the back for a light bulb. Mission accomplished!

I cut the tiny icicle trim and coated it with clear glass glitter. I also added the clear glitter to the tiny black windows to make them look icy.

I have some other house designs swimming in my head, so we'll see what I'm ambitious enough to take on next. This must be said though........a lot of the larger Putz houses I've seen for sale truly deserve to be sold at a higher price than they are listed. These houses require a lot of time, patience and artistry, especially if made from scratch. I can see if they use pre-fab paper mache ones, that might lighten the load of work, but still, creativity is essential. So cheers to all the Putz house designers out there!

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@MagiaMiaEtsy

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Chalk Paint Before & After: From Retro to Renaissance

Earlier this year, I blogged about this retro plastic sewing storage/jewelry box, made by Lerner.

Did I really say it would be a treat to not have to design any graphics on this? Well, what replaced the time-consuming effort of designing, was the time-consuming painting of each and every raised design.....Oy.

Before:

After:

I love how it turned out, but no matter what order it was painted in, it was very labor-intensive.

Before:

After:

The base coat is Tiffany blue chalk paint, and the scrolls were painted a warm Ivory, then topped with Creme. Then to really give it the royal treatment, I accented it with a very high-pigment metallic gold. I then sealed with clear and dark wax.

Before:

After:

I love how the original texture was meant to mimic wood grain, because the dark wax really enhanced that.

Before:

After:

The interior of the drawers was craptastic red velveteen, so I stripped them and added gorgeous Italian art paper. The scrolled design was just made for this piece!

I really don't know for sure if this piece was made for sewing or jewelry, but it's now a beauty for displaying.

Well, Christmas projects are waiting, so I'd better get to it! 

TTFN, Maria

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