Christmas Ornaments/Home Decor – Decorating for Christmas is a BIG thing.  And giving small homemade gifts is another BIG thing.  So today we are combining the two!  Our challenge is to make a Christmas Ornament OR an item of Home Decor that could be used yourself or as a small gift to give.  Who doesn’t LOVE to receive ornaments and home decor items during the holidays!  You may alter a store bought item, create something from scratch, or go in whatever direction your mind leads you!  We’ll just be anxious to see what you come up with!  And if creating a gift item or home decor item is not on your agenda right now, then go right ahead and make a card with some sort of ornament on it — easy enough!!! Just have FUN doing it!!!

As always, anyone is welcome and invited to play!  SCS Keyword is ssnotime168  for those who upload at SCS.  There is no time limit. You can play this challenge anytime at all.  The point is to keep it simple, quick and have fun!!!  And when posting to your blog, be sure to link up to Mr. Linky at the end of this post. Please link the direct post, not your blog URL, so we can easily find your project!

And beginning now in December, you will notice some changes here with our weekly challenge — the DT in particular.  After many years, and with a very heavy heart, I had to make the decision to switch over to the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store Design Team for our weekly challenge inspiration.  Work in blogland and with Design Teams takes an unbelievable amount of time and energy — time and energy that I must devote to my storefront and the many improvements needed therein.  The early months of 2011 will see some major changes to The Stamp Simply Ribbon Store, and making this change to our weekly challenges is just one step freeing up just a bit more time to do the work that needs to be done. 

I will dearly miss playing each week with Janine Orchard, AJ Otto, Barbara Anders, Jennie Gropp  and Deb Neerman.  Our Thursday night chit-chats as we prepared our posts were always something to look forward to and something I will so miss.  THANK YOU, ladies, each one of you, for all the time and energy you have taken and spent providing samples for the weekly Stamp Simply Challenges.  You are SO appreciated and will be missed more than you know!!!

Our new upload time for the Stamp Simply Challenges will be 8 a.m. EST on Friday mornings.

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We are taking it easy for this busy month of December, and just a couple of the Design Team will be playing each week.  But I KNOW you’ll be WOW’d by the projects you’ll see!  This week’s players are:

 Deb Saaranen:  Dream in Color

Barb Schram:  Explore.  Dream.  Discover.

And me – here’s my project for today’s challenge:

 I used the MDF board Ornament and Stocking by Kaisercraft for this project.  These are so much fun to alter.  The MDF board is heavier than chipboard, so these make quality items to keep from year to year.  These are fairly large — the ornament being about 6″ x 5″ wide and the stocking being about 8″ high and 6″ across the foot.  The ribbon hangers on top add another several inches to each.

To cover the MDF board shapes I trace them onto my designer paper, cut out, adhere using Mod Podge, then sand the edges using a sanding tool (I like to use the files in the nail care section — I keep a good supply on hand).  You don’t have to stress about cutting perfectly as the imperfect edges file off easily and become tightly bound to the board as you sand, leaving you with very professional results!

The paper on both the ornament and stocking is from a new Bo Bunny 6×6 pad called Midnight Frost.  It’s filled with shades of blues and a bit of burgundy — just perfect for winter/Christmas creations!  I was lacking blues this year in my stacks of winter paper, so I snapped this pad up just as quickly as I could!  There is something about winter and blue that has always appealed to me. 

The sentiment is from my go-to Christmas set this year, JustRite’s Nested Christmas Sentiments, used on the Rectangle Clear Stampers.  I cut it with my Circle Nesties. Ribbons used on both these items are the 1/2″ and 1.5″ Wrinkled Ribbon in blue and white.  I really enjoy having the same ribbon in two widths for projects such at this.  The blue bow here is made with the Bow Easy.  VersaFine Onyx Black ink was used for the sentiment, my favorite for crisp, clear sentiments.

These stockings are especially fun to do!  The scalloped top is a separate piece that I have adhered to the stocking with the Mod Podge after it was covered.  For both ornaments, I covered over the pre-drilled holes with the paper and then working from the back where I can see the hole, used my Cropodile to punch the holes in the paper — easy and perfectly place holes!

The Merry and Bright sentiment is also included in the same set used above, Christmas Nested Sentiments.  I’ve used Silver Kaiser Rhinestones to dot my *i* — adds just a hint of sparkle and glitz that I like!

Aren’t those snowflakes fun!  This is the Satin Snowflake Ribbon.  I just ran a strip of 1/8″ Scor Tape along the curved lines and placed the ribbon on top — I love it used this way!  The 1/2″ Wrinkled Ribbon is just wrapped around and hand tied into a bow to resemble laces.

These altered items have various uses:

1)  Tags for large gift bags or wrapped pages;

2) Christmas tree ornaments (they are heavy and would need to be wedged in the tree for support);

3) Teacher or girlfriend small gift items;

4) Home decor items — personally, I LOVE to have all kinds of these type of hand made items hanging on cabinet knobs and hooks throughout my house — it just makes me happy to see them!

Hopefully you can take some inspiration from our mini blog hop and challenge today.  These are really quick items to create that are sure to put a smile on your face as well as that of the recipient!

And here’s a visual of product used:

Kaisercraft MDF Stockings (5 per pack) – $8.99

Kaisercraft MDF Ornaments (4 per pack) – $4.99

JustRite Christmas Nested Sentiments – $14.95

JustRite set of 2 Clear Rectangle Stampers – $23.95

Bo Bunny 6×6 Pad – Midnight Frost – $5.99

VersaFine Onyx Black Ink – $8.99

May Arts 1/2″ Wrinkled Ribbon – 5 yds/$2.50 or $12.95/50 yd Spool

May Arts 1.5″ Wrinkled Ribbon – $ .65/yd or $28/50 yd Spool

May Arts Satin Snowflake Ribbon – $1.65/yd or $22/15 yd Spool

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I have 3 new 6×6 pads in by Bo Bunny.

Crazy Love – $5.99

Crush – $5.99

Midnight Frost – $5.99

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All items available from The Stamp Simply Ribbon Store.

To order just email me at [email protected] with your list and your state/zip OR country so I can calculate postage and I will get back to you with an invoice.  Thanks!

You can see all KITS here.

You can view all ribbons available here.

You can view individual paper pads, supplies and JustRite stamps here.

You can view the Just Rite Cling stamps in stock here.  This link also includes some super sell-out prices of many JustRite sizes I will no longer restock.

You can view all tools used here.

You can view Odds-N-Ends for sale here.

You can see/read about the CLEAR BOXES here and here.

You can view Verve stamps here.

You can view Wordsworth stamps here.

You can view Primas here.

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Thank you so much for stopping in today.  It’s been busy, for sure, and I know you are all in the same boat and I especially appeciate your visits during this hectic time of year.  I’m hoping that we here at The Stamp Simply Ribbon Store can in some small way inspire you to create some simple projects to make your holiday season preparations go smoothly.  I have another super easy gift idea that’ll pop up over the weekend.  Actually, I had a 20-something young lady here to craft and the project was her idea as a gift for her previous college roomates!  A fun project from a younger woman’s perspective!   Hope you can stop back in to check it out over the weekend!

Remember to check out the FAB projects by Deb and Barb.

So sorry I forgot to add Mr. Linky this morning! My apologies!