Crafting Paintstick Ornaments

Well my Christmas Holiday Season has started. I love crafting and making things for Christmas. Not only for decorations but also love making gifts.  So my Christmas  is now in full swing.

I am trying to prepare for the annual fall Craft Sale the local Senior Center holds each year. I am planning on taking in a few of my crafts. I had hoped it would be in October as I have lots of Halloween things I had started on . But alas it is not until November.

Last week I started the week making ornaments out of paint sticks. They are addicting and go quite fast. So many different variations of these. I found the cutest printables at http://www.todaysfabulousfinds.blogspot.com/.
I printed them out , cut out and got started.

The paintsticks came from Lowe's. They are the 5 gallon size sticks. Just the right size for making these and you get 4  ornaments and 1 snowman out of each paintstick. You will need the following for the ornaments.

Scissors
Wire ( color of your choice)
wire cutters
needle nose pliers
paint and paintbrush
Word sayings of your choice ( there is also a blank template to add your own sayings too if wanted at this site.
http://www.todaysfabulousfinds.blogspot.com/
Modge Podge  or Instant Decoupage
and of course  paint sticks.

To start measure and mark your paint sticks starting from the bottom of the stick into 4 inch segments. The top part of the stick should be 5 inches. This piece save for the future project of a snowman.  Cut your sticks on your measured marks and you are ready to really get going. At this time you will need to drill a couple small holes into the top corner of each ornament for adding a wire of hanger of your choice. Paint your 4 inch pieces on both side and edges. I put on two coats. If it does not cover the words fully your saying  will be large enough to cover so you will not see the words.  Here I actually did a few by painting on a dark color dry and then covered with a light color. I then used sand paper and distressed the edges so the dark showed through a bit. .
This is what it will look like if your decide to do the two coats and distress them.

After  your paint has thoroughly dried you can then start adding your words to them I cut out my wording on all but the distressed one buy following the outline of the word. I thought they looked a bit more fancy with it done in that manner.  After cutting out the wording you are ready to decoupage  them onto the ornament. Brush on a good coat of the modge podge or decoupage and  lay your wording over the ornament while wet. I used my paint  brush handle flat and drew it across the paper to make sure it stuck good and had no air bubbles under it. Then brush on a layer over the whole front of the ornament . This will stick your paper down and seal it good. After it has dried then paint the edges and back of the ornament with your mod podge or decoupage. This seals the ornament. Dry thoroughly.

Now is the time to add a hanger for your ornament. I used wire and cut it at approximately 14 inches. I then poked it from the back to the front, wrapped it a few times tightly around the tip of the needle nose pliers.. It makes a little curly Q and looks  pretty that way. Then I wrapped a part of the wire into a larger curly  circle  around the handle of my paint brush, slide off of the brush and  poked the opposite end in the ornament back to front. Make a curly  on the wire tip  with your needle nose pliers.

And there you have your paint stick ornaments.  These would make a great extra to tie onto your gift packages, make for your friend, family or co workers. I love having a few extra things I can hand out to people.

These are ready for the wires to be placed.

And here are the ones I have all done and just waiting for the Christmas Holiday Season to be given.

There are so many possibilities with these. You could use pretty scrapping paper to print out you sayings, or splatter paint the saying before adding  or splatter paint the ornament leaving the saying clear. I love changing things to fit my taste and need.

I hope that this post finds everyone enjoyng their summer. Finally a break in the weather today and I may get outside and try to catch up a bit out in the flower beds. Bought a few new day lillies I need to get into the ground and am way behind in weeding. I am enjoying the windows open today and hearing the birds early in the day. Listened to all the wild turkey's below the hill and accross in the field for an hour or more this morning. Boy they sure can get loud. And early this morning there were a couploe baby squirrels playing in the apple tree out side the kitchen window.

My week end was long and busy. Chatted with my Grandson last night. His last night before being sworn in as an official Marine.  Sure will miss having him pop in on MeMaw and Peepa as he called us for years.  Seems like the Grandkids are growing up way too fast and it makes me sad.

I hope that you all have a great week.