Monday, December 15, 2014

Christmas Ornament exchange

Every year I participate in a Christmas ornament exchange. Rules are simple, you make an ornament 5 times and exchange it with others on the list you are provided. As long as it is a Christmas ornament, any crafting technique works. This year I wanted to see if I could make something using yogurt tops. You know the metallic cover that seals the yogurt contents inside of its container? In countries like France, mostly these are plastic but in Germany, more commonly, they are some sort of metallic material.

I know it sounds odd, but given yogurt lids:
Make an ornament. How hard could it be? 

It turns out it was really easy and fun. All I needed was some Mod Podge (Decopatch), a cookie cutter, bits of fabric, vintage lace (dyed to match), scissors, heavy thread (I used 12 weight sulky Blendable cotton thread), a sponge, a paint brush, a sewing machine and I was ready to go. 

I tried several different options for fabric, see failure at the bottom of this blog. Finally I decided on using a medium weight Danish linen from my stash. They were not Christmas colors, but I loved the muted tones. 

From the lace stash:
Not bad, but no match to the Danish linen so I cut pieces and dyed them: 
Much better and, Ohhhh pretty!

The pattern for the Christmas ornament is from a cookie cutter, I am a sucker for Butterflies. I found the cutter in Paris earlier this year at Bon Marche. It appears to be British. Three different sizes of the same butterfly leads to a lot of options.
Here they are partially completed. Esay do to they are straight stitched along the edges which means there may be slight fraying. the Mod Podge should hold it together.
Antennas, how to do the antennas... Mod Podge of course! Notice the use of two different sizes of the butterfly, one was not enough to get the desired effect The fancy tail lace pieces were just knotted in.
Just in case you think I have no failures,I have to start somewhere and here is the first try at this ornament. It just did not work. I mean nothing, not the color, the satin stitch edging, the one cut of the butterfly or the fancy tail. Total yuck! In my mind was the finished product, but I loved to colors of the failure, it just did not and would not work for this project.
Now here is the completely finished butterfly. Due to the metallic interior, the butterfly can be molded to be 3 dimensions. How cool is that? 

Photographing turned out to be the hardest thing to do, but after taking far to many pictures, these are the best that show the 3 dimensional look for the butterflies.
As you can see, the upper and lower wings can be spread and molded into what ever pleasing effect needed.
I love the way the fancy tail hangs. How fun it that? Here is hoping those who get this ornament like it.

3 comments:

  1. What a great idea...I love them, I know they are a hit! You had me speed reading to find out how in the world you made an ornament from a yogurt top!!

    carol

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    Replies
    1. Carol, I was not sure about putting all the details. if you would like them I can add a blog post with the how-to

      Delete
  2. Precioso tu blog y tus post de ensueño. un abrazo desde España

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