The Double Stealer

Wow I can't believe it's December already and the last time I posted was in October!  Here's hoping you had a lovely fall and are enjoying the holiday season.  Late October found us traveling for vacation and I spent November focusing on photography.  Fall is my favorite season and we had some incredibly gorgeous days.  Here are a couple of my favorite shots so far.


Around our house

Freshly fallen leaves after a rain

So far this month I've focused my creative efforts on creating a handmade ornament for one of my friend's annual ornament exchange parties.  Everyone tries to bring a really unique ornament.  Each person draws a number and picks a wrapped ornament from under the tree in order according to their number.  You can keep the ornament you opened or "steal" one from someone who has gone before you.  Each ornament can be stolen up to two times before it finds its final resting place.  The really unique and desired ornaments are hence referred to as "double stealers".  It's actually quite competitive if you can imagine that.

I decided to go out on a limb and create mine instead of buying one.  I scoured various craft stores and online sites and settled on a very nifty wire frame heart from The Shoppe at Somerset from Stampington and Company.  They have a great selection of wire frames just begging to be embellished.  I have a large tree and a dress form as well... but that's another project...


Pre decoration

In keeping with the wire frame, I decided to go with a vintage design and add butterfly wings (why not?).  My first step was to paint the hanger with a black and gold shimmer spray from Lindy's Stamp Gang.  I am LOVING their sprays!  I thought decoupage would be a nice touch so I misted some book print paper with some gold Glimmer Mist, tore it into strips, and then adhered it to the frame with gloss multi medium.



Finished front

For the front side, I cut out some images from a sheet of Basic Grey paper and glued them to the front to create a focal point.  Once that was dry, I painted the entire heart with Rock Candy (clear) crackle paint.  To play up the cracks, I went over the heart with distress ink and then used a moist towel to wipe off the ink from the surface.  It wasn't as much depth as I was going for however so I decided to do the same thing but with gold ink from Smooch.  It worked great and added a nice sheen to the project!


Golden crackly goodness

I then painted some die cut crinoline flowers with Glimmer Glaze, Glimmer Glam, and even a bit of glitter glue (can't have too much glitter on an ornament right?).  I layered them together along with a vintage button.  I added a few bits of bling and voila, the front was done.



Lots of glitter and shine

The wings were a multi step process.  I used a Tim Holtz butterfly die.  I wanted the wings to be flexible and bendable so I die cut them from grungepaper - love that stuff!  I also wanted the inside of the wings to be transparent allowing light to shine from behind when the ornament was hung on a tree so I die cut the insides from vellum.  I found this groovy clear gel medium at Scrapbook Island (my fav local store) and painted the vellum with the gel.  The gel has bits of glitter and iridescent mica.  Very sparkly!

For the outer parts of the wings, I painted them with Glimmer Glaze and then covered them with glitter glue from Martha Stewart.  I have to say this is my favorite glitter glue of all time!  I used a couple of different colors to add some depth and dimension to the wings.  Once everything was dry, I glued all of the layers together and edged them with more gold ink.  I then adhered them to the back of the heart with a glue gun.


Sparkle sparkle sparkle.  And check out those chunks of mica on the inside of the wings!

I added a flower detail to the back to cover up where the wings met and to make it pretty from both sides.  After all that work I have to say I kind of like the back better than the front!  LOL


Finished back

Some big fat bows on the front and back and it was completed!  I had a lot of fun making it and I hope someone at the party really likes it.



In its natural setting...

I hope this holiday season finds you filled with creative inspiration and surround by love, peace, and joy.

Happy Holidays!!!

Products Used:

• Wire frame heart (Stampington and Company)
• Book print paper (7 Gypsies)
• Floral paper (Basic Grey Jovial collection)
• Gloss multi medium (Claudine Helmuth for Ranger Ink)
• Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint (Ranger Ink)
• Frayed Burlap Distress Ink (Ranger Ink)
• Crinoline
• Tattered Flowers die (Tim Holtz for Sizzix)
• Butterfly die (Tim Holtz for Sizzix)
• Golden Lump of Coal spray (Lindy's Stamp Gang)
• Glimmer Glam in Big Apple and Tidepool (Tattered Angels)
• Glimmer Glaze in Waterfall
• Krystall Glitter Gel (Viva)
• Glitter glue (Martha Stewart Crafts)
• Gold Ink (Smooch)
• Vellum paper
• Ribbon
• Glossy Accents (Ranger Ink)
• Hot glue