Update since it has been awhile

Didn't realize it had been almost 5 months since I updated.  In that time I have moved to a new residence and most of my crafting supplies are still boxed.  Moved into a smaller place so have to decide if I am going to put about half into storage, get rid of it or try to make it work.

I have a Third Quarter Ornament Exchange due out end of October. Looked around my office at work and found that most of the items I needed for plastic canvas ornaments were stored there.  So I have the design decided, what I had been calling the "Tri-Square".  The plastic canvas are parts cut so I can make five ornaments. Have made the ornaments before so it will be easier than creating an all-original design. Need to decide floss colors, thinking about embellishing with sew-on rhinestones and sequins. Photos to follow.

This is a version I did many years ago, I think in either 2009 or 2010.

Do you want to make a snowman?

Most of my crafting supplies are boxed up and in storage so I am unsure if I will be participating in the ornaments exchange this quarter. That being said I have an ornament designed from recycled products, most of them I obtained from where I work. One of the lines of products we produce have holes punched through stainless steel sheets which are then made into the product - water recirculators for the welding industry. There are several sizes of circles, squares, rectangles which are produced as waste. Last year, I made a snowman out of 3 of these circles. Spot welding them together to produce the traditional snowman shape.

We also have expanded metal used to produce air-flow grates for these machines. In the past I used some to make icicles, and have other ideas for larger pieces, but I am thinking about using them to make stick arms for the snowman.

Another recycled aspect of the snowman will be the plastic 'sawdust' produced in another operation. We also manufacture plastic welding safety and cover lens for the welding industry which we cut to size with an industrial table saw. Even though the plastic is clear, the saw dust is white. I used the sawdust in making the icicles, so will use it along with flocking material to cover the metal discs. Thinking of adding some glitter on the top coating.

Finishing the details on the snowmen, I am thinking about making 'carrot' noses from air-dry clay, and use some yarn to form scarfs. Finally, I will use markers and stamping inks to add the finishing details such as faces, and buttons.

2015 Ornament Exchange - the main exchanges

This year's major Exchange Ornaments have been sent out.  These are the major annual exchanges which I have to make multiple ornaments.  I try to make the same ornament for each member of the assigned group instead of separate ornament designs for each individual.

I was a member of two different groups who held handmade ornament exchange this year.  The first group, I needed to make a total of eight (8) ornaments, four in each group and I asked for two groups. Most (maybe missing one) have received their ornament so I feel better about posting a photo of the ornament at this time. I had a mother in one group and her daughter in the other group, who both live together, so I made the second ornament so they wouldn't have two ornaments the same on the tree.

Main ornament

Variant ornament

Many years ago, I had gone to the After Christmas sales looking at the various ornaments which were greatly discounted.  I happened upon several containers of miniature glass onion globe ornaments, three colors with eight ornaments per color in each container.  I picked up all they had (seven containers: 3 of white, red & green ornaments and 4 of bronze, gold & copper ornaments).  I had forgotten about them and discovered them again last year.  Still have many of them available for future ornaments, and will most likely use them for many personal gifts for this year.  The white is actually close to an antique pearly white which matched the pearl drops and pearl beads very close in color.  The smaller Delica beads I use on the arcs/arms were a close match as well.  If I decide to do these as my major design I can easily change the color the the Delica beads to match friend's individual likes such as one friend likes orange so I will do an orange and pearl and a friend's daughters like pink and purple while his will be deep red and his wife's will be classical pearl white.

The other exchange I was a member of this year, I had to make seven (7) identical ornaments, then send them to the coordinator who will redistribute them to the participants.  I like this concept as only the people who send in ornaments will receive ornaments in return and they come all at the same time.  For this exchange I created a beaded icicle with pearls, rhinestone rondells and bi-cones.  I have seen a similar ornament on Pinterest which I liked.  I changed a few things, deleting an additional embellishment of 'caging' the top pearl which additional pearls and bi-cones and adding additional spacer beads separating the individual elements.

2015 Second Qtr Exchange/May 2015 Recycled Exchange

The 2015 Second Quarter Ornament Exchange, along with the May 2015 Recycled Ornament Exchange, were basically the same.  Had several sets of the miniature spool snowflake ornaments left over from 2014 Christmas, so I re-worked them to include a snowflake charm dangle. 

The charms I had purchased in 2009 as part of a lot of costume Christmas bracelets/keychains which I disassembled.  The charms were varied, some simple snowflakes others were holly leaves, Santas, presents, stockings, etc. and simple beads.

The small spools had to have the central wire re-worked from a headpin and plain bottom to a eyepin which ran the entire way through the ornament and gave an attachment loop for the charm.

Exchange ornaments

This year I had three (3) different handmade ornament exchanges from two different Yahoo groups.  I have been involved in ornament exchanges for almost 20 years.

I had two exchanges which were from the Yearly Ornament Exchange group.  Those that are signed-up are assigned to groups of (usually) four others and everyone makes an ornament for each person.  And if everything works out, you will receive four handmade ornaments.  No style or medium is set so you can (and usually) get four different ornaments.  In past years, I have received ornaments made from beads, polymer clay, wire, cross-stitch, plastic canvas, paper, cloth, wood, and puzzle pieces.  These have been both religious and secular in nature.  I will do the same ornament for each exchange partner unless they are duplicated in both groups, then I will make another ornament, usually same designed but a different color or different focal element.

The third exchange group is from the Christmas All Year group.  This group you sign-up and the co-ordinator instructions have many ornaments you need to make.  One rule is that the ornaments which you make all have to be the same. So that when the ornaments are re-packaged, everyone in the exchange will receive the same ornament from you.  This the magic number was eight (8).  Trying a new ornament design for this group and hope everyone likes it.

Will be posting photos of both ornaments I send out after Thanksgiving, along with instructional photos of the new design and variations on the theme.

On the personal gift/ornaments front,   I usually joke with people that I have several lists I make at Christmas, an “A” list, a “B” list and a “C” list.  The C-list gets a card, the B-list I will buy something for and the “A”-list will get an ornament or a set of ornaments. 

The lists are not set in stone as this year I found a ceramic Krampus head I bought for a friend, and my soon-to-be step daughter and husband, I have Egyptian glass ornaments which will go with the set I gave them last year.  They married last year and I gave them a group of four blown ornaments as a way to start their own ornaments.  They had a baby in February of this year so I will be making her a little commemorative ornament with her name and birthday date on it.  I am planning on making 2 of these, one for the tree and the other sealed to be given to her when she moves out on her own, so she will have her own set of personal Christmas ornaments.

I have many ornaments in various stages of creation.  Many people will be receiving personal ornaments this year.  I have one person who loves the Minion characters from the “Despicable Me” movies, another enjoys “Doctor Who”, several who pull for Alabama, UNC or NC State, and another who loves Mickey Mouse (okay he is only 2 years old).  I have either found pre-printed fabric and scrap-booking paper in these themes, but I always have had to create copy to use.  Luckily, I have a very nice commercial laser printer available to me through work, as well as the programmes (Adobe Creative Suite Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign) and knowledge to make my own compositions.  Sometime my job does come n handy outside of work.  So Deb will get four Minion theme ornaments, Matt will get two Doctor Who theme ornaments.  Chuck and Little Jimmy will received four Alabama ornaments each, Ayden - two (maybe four) Mickey Mouse.  Robert a new set of UNC ornaments, Roger and (another little) Jimmy will receive NC State ornaments.  Others like a specific color, I’ve got an Orange person, a Pink person, a Purple person, and a Dark Blue person, another person likes the color combination of White, Black and Gold.

Getting back in the saddle

Aside from making the recycled icicles (previous post), I was finishing my "Pay It Forward" gifts, each person who agreed to "Pay It Forward" received a set of miniature dangles made with rhinestone rondelles, glass teardrops, metal beads and beadcaps.

There were ten colors of rondelles and I was lucky enough to find seed beads in a close match to the rhinestones.  Small and delicate enough for a miniature tree, the over all length was around 3 inches.

I also had a contest to name the person portraying Santa in the photo I am using as my Facebook cover photo.  The first person to correctly identify him would receive something during the year.  The received a set of pearl dangles which were around 5 inches tall.  Another good size for a miniature tree or could be used on a regular sized tree.

It has been awhile, but I have been busy: ICICLES and dangles

One of the Ornament Exchanges for this quarter was "Recycled".  Here are images of my final ornaments.  Where I work we have expanded stainless steel grating which we use as protective covers for the Water Recirculators we make.  There are pieces of scrap which I have de-burred and fashioned into various lengths.  I bent the top of each to form a hanging hook.

The base coating is another recycled product from work.  Another part of the company I work for in cutting protective lens from plastic sheeting, Polycarbonate and PET-G.  When cut on the saw, the resulting sawdust is a nice snowy white.  Using E6000 epoxy, I glued the plastics sawdust to both sides of the metal, allowed to dry and then using spray adhesive I applied large flake glitter, regular glitter and then micro-fine glitter to the surface.

This is a piece of the mesh.  I had one of the mechanist to shear the initial pieces into long wavy strips.  I then used the grinding stone to take any sharped metal off.

I had other ornaments I needed to make for other commitments.  Each year, I will do a "Pay It Forward" campaign on Facebook.  People sign up and commit to also "pay it forward" in that sometime in the year, you will make something hand-made and send to the person along with a handwritten note.  This year, the people will receive miniature Christmas ornaments made from glass teardrops, rhinestone rondelles, bead caps, metal beads, wire and Delica beads.  I had 10 different colors of the rondelles: Clear AB, Red, Lime Green, Emerald Green, Aqua Blue, Medium Blue, Sapphire Blue, Purple, Root Beer and Smoke Topaz.

There was another 'contest' on my Facebook page to identify the person dressed in the Santa outfit.  The image came from the up coming movie "I Am Santa Claus" which stars WWE wrestler Mick Foley.  The person who correctly identified him will be receiving the four dangles pictured below.

Ornaments #2 and #3 for 2014

I had the 'spike' ornaments for several years.  I have them in red, green, blue and purple.  Wanted to carry the swag motif from the miniature ornaments to the entire ornament.

This is the ornament that I am giving an internet friend for his birthday, February 5th.  It will be going into the post this afternoon.  He likes the black/white/gold color combination and most (if not all) ornaments he has received from me are in this combo.

Currently working on the above but using white opal instead of opaque black.  Have one finished and half way through a second.  The white will be for the 1st Quarter ornament exchange at ChristmasOnramentCrafters under the YAHOO! groups.

Other ornaments from Christmas 2013

Most of the Christmas gifts I give are handmade beaded ornaments done in various colors of beads.  Occasionally I will more than one, especially if the gift is going to a couple or family.  The following are photos of ornaments which were given during the 2013 Christmas season.

These were not only the Exchange ornaments I used but were also a set given to my younger sister in NC.

The red ones were also given to my younger sister.

Another set went to a co-worker and his family.  The Dark Red (not shown) to the father as he likes Alabama, the wife received the White, oldest daughter Purple and youngest daughter Pink.

Most of the other ornaments given followed the designs below but in various colors.  The Suspended Chandelier (left) also was done in White, Blue, Orange, Rainbow, Light Blue and Ivory.  The regular Chandelier (right) was done in White, Light Blue, Rainbow.

 

I also did a few variations on the Exchange ornaments in Blue with Silver beads.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men

Even though I went out and bought supplies for 4 miniature trees and then decided I wanted a year off, after making two last year in less than 3 months, I was asked by a co-worker to-day (11.13.2013) and I couldn't refuse. I made the second miniature tree last year which was given to his wife. She adored it and has refused to allow it to be put up. She told me that she and her mother-in-law would lie in the dark with the tree lights aglow. I stopped back by their house last Christmas to see her what she thought and Chuck's father commented that both he and his wife couldn't believe I made the tree.

In late July of this year, Chuck's father passed away and Chuck asked me today if I would consider making a tree for his mother so she could set it beside the urn containing his father's ashes. Chuck wanted to know if I could make a smaller tree, as the 32" tree I gave his wife would be too big. I purchased a 16" tree and have fluffed the branches. The next step will be trimming some of the branches to make the tree more symmetrical. After turning down the top ‘branch' the tree is just over a foot tall.

 For lighting, I could put two outlet powered strands or five sets of battery-operated, 20 bulbs per strand. I am thinking about using only battery operated lights for this tree. I then remembered I have a bunch of Christmas charms I haven't used in four years from bracelets, key-chains and ear-rings I bought at the wholesale show back in 2009. I have 24 different designs that I will re-purpose as ornaments. The collection has presents, 5 different snow-flakes, holly, stocking, candy canes, reindeer head and wreath, snowmen and 6 different Santas. Thinking about using up to six of each although I have only 2, 3,or 4 of maybe half of the designs. I should over a hundred charms which I will use, and since the charms are silvered finished, I will be using silver-plated findings instead of my traditional gold-toned.

There will be fill-in ornaments from white pearls, and maybe some other jewelry accessories but nothing over 1.5 inches though. From another shopping trip I have some silver-plated rhinestone sprays which I will add as sparkle and maybe I can find some rhinestone chain in silver-finish I can use as garland. I will set everything aside for the next week to work on this tree, trying to get it done before heading to North Carolina on the 22nd.

The ornaments for gifts to friends and family are almost done, have about 6 left to do, plus a set of miniatures for the first miniature tree I gave to a friend. Some will be mailed around Thanksgiving, others given out while I'm in NC at Christmas, and more after my return but before the 12 Days of Christmas are up.

Joined an ornament exchange a few days again and the person I was partnered with, said she didn't like glittery or gaudy ornaments, but she did like Santas.  There's a little glitter, but not as much as I could have done.

2013 Exchange Ornaments

Been toying with different color combinations for the 2013 exchange ornaments.  Need to do 15 total for the three exchanges I am a member of.  Six will go to the Yahoo! Group Christmas_All_Year.  These have to be the same and are shipped to a central processor who then re-boxes the ornaments and ships them to the other participants so you will get a box of six different Christmas ornaments.  Eight will go to the two groups I signed up on the Yahoo Group Yearly Christmas Ornament Exchange.  Each group will have a total of five people (me and 4 others) and since I will be in both groups that makes me and eight others (hopefully no overlapping will occur, but if it does I can make versions in metallic red, green and blue along with glittered red, green, blue, pale gold and bright pink).  The fifteenth ornament is the one I always make for myself.

I’ve made several of the onion-shaped glittered red/blue/green ornaments in both 4- and 6- spoke versions,

but I think the one I will do for the exchanges will be the 6-spoke onion-shaped pale gold with pearl teardrop dangles.  One of the main reasons is the pale gold comes 12 to a package instead of four each of three colors.  Have four packages (so far) of the pale gold, so I’ll only be using a little more than one package.  The first package I opened had one ornament which had some glitter missing and was showing the base ornament underneath.

There are also marquise shaped ornaments in both glitter and metallic of the red, blue and green as well as glitter gold.  I have been thinking about making those up and gifting them as a set to some of the people on my “A-list” for Christmas. 























The “A-list” people received either “A”n ornament or “A” set of ornaments.  To people I gave the 6-spoke chandelier to last year, I’m seriously thinking about doing 6-spoke suspended chandeliers this year.

I also have a “Baby’s First Christmas” ornament to do in light blue.  Also have a couple sets of upholstered ornaments in Crimson Tide (Alabama) and Tar Heels (UNC-Chapel Hill) with maybe some individual Wolfpack (NC State University) thrown in for good measure.  Of course this mean I’ll need to check the number and shapes of papier mache forms along with seeing how much of the collegiate licensed material I still have.

Third Quarter Exchange

I am a member of two ornament exchange groups through Yahoo! Groups, the first one I have exchanged with for over 15 years and is an annual exchange.  You sign up and are given four other members to exchange with.  Everyone makes ornaments for the others, so each year I receive four handmade ornaments from my group.  You can sign-up for two groups and opt for domestic or international groups.  I usually sign up for two groups which means I need to make 8 ornaments.  There have been times when I would make four identical ornaments to send to one group and then make four similar ornaments for the other group.

The second exchange group is similar with the exceptions of exchanging only with one person, and the group exchanges on a quarterly basis but only 3 times.  The groups are moderated by the same people and most members cross-over.  For the Third Quarter (July-October), I made the ornament below.  Using some of the same concepts from earlier designs I had a rough idea of what I would do for this exchange.  The only thing missing was the miniature ornament I would be using at the bottom.  While shopping I found the miniature I used and bought several packages.  The ornaments come in packs of 12 with three different options (that I have found so far).  They are available in packages of 12 bright glitter pink and another in medium glitter gold, then there is a package of 4 each glitter red, glitter green and glitter dark blue.  The gold have golden tops while all the other colors have a silver toned.

I am thinking of using this ornament design for the annual exchange but changing out the silver tops for golden tops that way I can use gold-plated wire, findings and beads.  I find that the gold toned gives a ‘warmer’ feel.  I will most likely make enough of one color to satisfy both groups I have signed up for.  Though it rarely happens, occasionally, I will have the same person in both groups.  Not wanting to send them a double set of the same ornament I can either use a different color or use the alternative design of only 4 arcs instead of the 6 arcs in this ornament.

I am a member in another Yahoo! Groups which has an ornament exchange, but it is not the groups primary purpose.  In the ornament exchange in this group the crafter is expected to produce at least six of the same ornament, send them to the co-ordinator and she will take one from everyone and send then out so when the participants get their box, there are six ornaments inside.

One of the things I also do is make the same ornament to keep for myself.  If I decide to do all the ornaments in the same color scheme I will be making at least 15 of the same ornaments.