HOLIDAY: Mid-Mod Ornaments, Part 2

My last post showed you four of the ornaments I've been busy creating, and this post will share the last three mid-century modern inspired ornaments that I dreamed up.

Ready for THREE tutorials? Let's dive in!... 

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Just a reminder that my primary material for this holiday series is a vinyl placemat with a green 'leaf' print, found at Dollar Tree. (find it here - not an ad)

Using a small, sharp pair of scissors, I carefully cut out various shapes from the placemat... the pattern offers several possible motifs to use:

For two of the ornaments shown today, I am using the four-pointed 'star' shape seen by the scissor blades in the photo above, and be cutting long strips from another vinyl placemat.

The third ornament will utilize the individual leaf shape cutouts shown on the top right, above.

Enhanced 'Star' Ornament

Materials: 

white metal star ornaments (I found mine here at Dollar Tree - not an ad)
hot glue . four point 'stars' cut from vinyl - one per ornament 

Method:

1. I removed the thin silver string hanger that came on the star, and replaced it with a gold paper clip bent into an 'S' shape. The stars hang better that way!

2. Place a drop of hot glue on the center of the metal star.

3. Immediately place a four point star onto the glue, with the points facing straight up and down, and sideways. 

4. The finished 'enhanced' star. The two shapes work well together to achieve a mid-century modern vibe.

Bonus: These stars make perfect tree toppers, as well!

I used a white pipe cleaner / chenille stem attached to the top hole on the ornament to attach it to the treetop - then I twisted the rest of the pipe cleaner down the back side of the white tree trunk to give more support to the weight of the star.

I always nudge some tree lights into and behind my tree toppers, just to make them stand out more!

Ogee-Shaped Ornament

Materials:

scissors . hot glue . colored pencil . metal-edge ruler . colored pencil
stapler . binder clip . metal paper clips - one per ornament
four point 'stars' cut from vinyl - one per ornament 
one whole vinyl placemat - we'll be cutting strips out of this one.



Method:

Cutting the vinyl strips:
1. Lay the vinyl placemat on your work surface, with the back side facing UP.

2. Using a ruler and colored pencil (they don't smudge like regular lead does!), mark off four strips per ornament that measure @ 1/2 inch wide. [For the size ornaments I made, measure across the shorter width of the vinyl. If you want larger ornaments, measure down the length of the vinyl placemat for longer strips.]

3. Cut each strip off of the placemat using sharp scissors for clean edges.

4. + 5. Leave two strips as they are. Cut 1/3 of the length off of the other two strips.
You will have two long strips, and two shorter strips.

Combining the vinyl strips:

1. + 2. The vinyl placemats have a print on one side and white on the other, so I arranged the strips so the pattern was visible from any angle - the shorter 'inner' strips have the green pattern facing one another, and the longer 'outer' strips have the green pattern facing outward.

3. Stack then line up all four strips together (shorter strips in the middle, longer strips on the top and bottom) so that one end of the bunch is all four strips ending at the same point.  

4. While holding the four strips together, insert the end where all are level into a stapler, and place one staple about 1/2 inch in from the end of the bunch.

5. Place a binder clip over the end that you just stapled - it helps to hold it steady while you do the next step.

6. At the other end of the bunch, slide the OUTER two strips upward. As you slide them, the outer strips will bend outward away from the inner strips - this creates the rounded 'ogee' shape of the finished ornament. When the end of the long strips is level with the ends of the short strips, hold the very end tightly and...

7. ... insert that end into the stapler. Add one staple about 1/2 inch below the level ends. The staple will hold the outer strips in their bent shape.

8. Pick up the stapled ornament and hold it from the top AND bottom ends - then press both ends until the vinyl strips bend even more. All four strips will bend under this pressure, creating a more obvious curved shape.

Finishing Touches:
1. + 2. You can see the way the pattern shows up on the ornament here.

3. Heat up your hot glue gun, and cut two 'star' shapes from the vinyl placemat - one for each ornament.

4. Add the tiniest drops of the hot glue onto the center of the inner strips as shown.

5. Immediately place one star cutout over those glue drops. You want your star shape to be placed as shown for best effect. If you wish, you can add a second star shape on the other side of the ornament.

6. Bend the paper clip into an 'L' shape on one end, then insert the straight 'L' part into the top of the ornament by sliding it between the vinyl strip and the staple. The rounded part of the clip should face upward, to function as a hanger.

Now that you lovely crafters have read all the way through this tutorial, here's a tip before you start making them:

Use some posterboard or thin cardboard to make a 'test' ornament FIRST, before you cut up a vinyl placemat.

That's what I had to do to make sure I was cutting the right sizes of each piece and assembling them correctly. It's much cheaper to 'waste' basic materials like poster board than to mess up some of your 'good stuff'!

Leaf 'Snowflake' Ornament

Materials:

hot glue . scissors . scrap poster board piece . paper clips
metal paper clip - one per ornament
'leaves' cut from vinyl - six per ornament 
small circles cut from vinyl - one per ornament


Method:
1. Cut six leaf shapes from the vinyl placemat.

* Oops, I forgot a photo! Cut out a very small circle from the vinyl - @ 1/2 inch diameter. *

2. Cut a small round circle from the scrap poster board - @ 1" diameter.

3. Lay the six leaves out as a six-point 'snowflake' shape on your work surface.

4. Lay the small poster board circle on your work surface, just above the leaves.

5. Place a drop of hot glue onto the poster board circle.

6. Immediately place each of the six vinyl leaves onto the hot glue, in the same six-point placement that they were laid out in.

7. Add a small drop of glue to the center of the leaf arrangement.

8. Place the small vinyl circle onto the hot glue.

9. Bend one paper clip into an 'S' shape, and hot glue it to the end of one leaf shape. This will serve as your ornament hanger.

10. Hang on a tree, a wreath, in a window, or use as a gift embellishment!

TIP: If you want to hang these in a window, make a second leaf 'snowflake' and glue it to the BACK side of the first one. This makes them double-sided, better for viewing in a window.

If you missed my previous post sharing FOUR new ornaments, it's HERE!

Whew... okay, that was a LOT of info for one post!

Now Deb is going to step AWAAAAY from the computer and enjoy a lazy Thanksgiving day (and a weekend of cleaning up my disaster of a studio!) I've earned it. Wishing you all a lovely Thanksgiving, however you spend it. 


My studio 'assistant' Elfie Green hopes you're enjoying this series! (He's really enjoying all of the holiday shenanigans around here.....) See you next week for two MORE posts!

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