Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Ornament Exchange (Giving)

We started this blog as a way to keep our friends and family faraway updated on what's going on here with Team Gabel, but one of the surprise benefits that I've found is the greater blogging community that I have come to also think of as friends in a way. One of my favorite blogs is Just Something I Made because she always has such great craft ideas and creates many graphics that she shares for free with her readers (like the "e-mail me" button I added to our site). I also discovered on her blog a Bloggers Ornament Exchange (you may have also noticed that button over on the right there), hosted by Pampering Beki. More than 200 bloggers signed up! I thought it sounded like fun (like having a pen pal in elementary school!) and I decided to sign up. I was paired with Linda of LindaOma's Olde Baggs n Stuft Shirts. It wasn't required to make the ornament, but I thought that would be more fun than buying one and I had a couple things I'd been wanting to try.

Soon after I signed up for the exchange I spotted a bunch of tiny pinecones outside the Journalism building at school so I gathered some up thinking they could be used somehow. I bought some clear glass ornaments at Target and, after breaking the stems on a few pinecones, finally managed to get this bunch in in one piece. I used craftwire to hold it in place, and added some red ribbon.

For the next ornament, I used some spray adhesive that I had from a past project and sprayed the inside of the ornament, and then poured in some gold glitter. The first one ended up in the garbage because there was basically a clump of glitter on the bottom, but the second time it seemed to coat the inside better. After pouring in the glitter (using a funnel fashioned from a magazine page) I twirled the ornament around to coat the inside, and then poured out the excess glitter.

I finished it by tying a bow with some ribbon I already had - the color match was perfect. (The bow seems to overwhelm the ornament in the picture, but I don't think it looks that way in person.)

I packaged them each in a white box, which I decorated using scraps of scrapbook paper and images off of a Starbucks cup. (Upcycled! Reusable!)

I hope Linda enjoys the ornaments - I sure had fun making them!

3 comments:

OmaLindasOldeBaggsandStuftShirts said...

Happy Turkey Day Tammy. I love my ornaments, the boxes are an added treat and you are so clever. See there, you are so smart to have taken photos of yours....I hope that tomorrow when you get my ornaments that you too will like them, they are a little shall we say, outside art as in not the normal hohoho.
I hope you enjoy today but don't gobble til you wobble, Linda in New Mexico

Drea said...

Tammers--the gold ornaments are beautiful and I love the idea of sending a little J school pine cones out! Fun :)

volksbloggin said...

I know that pine cone and red ribbon. My birthday present was also wrapped using it. I love the gold ornament and no the bow doesn't look too big. You are a crafty one, Miss Tammy.