Hybrid Ornament Round-Up

Happy Thursday, Everyone! It’s Tgmousechick Kim here, with another hybrid showcase for you. This week is our Happy Hybrid Holidays segment, and with Christmas coming up quickly, I decided to focus on making hybrid ornaments.

Ornaments are a very big part of my holidays- I just love them. Tiny little sculptures packed with sentimental memories, and they come in an infinite variety. I have a rather odd ornament collection- I have the full series of Star Trek ship ornaments made by Hallmark, dating all the way back to the original released in 1992. Before my children arrived, my husband and I simply decorated our tree with the ships, plus some glass balls that vaguely looked like planets. The ultimate geek tree.

Handmade ornaments are great tools to recall special memories and milestones, and they can make wonderful hostess gifts. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, a general seasonal ornament can still enhance your home decor. And, with the huge assortment of digital kits out there (including several found right here at Scrap Matters), making unique ornaments with a hybrid flair is easy. Today, I’d like to share with you a few ideas that I have pulled together.

Foldable Templates

Geometric shapes can make fun ornaments- from simple cubes to more complex polyhedrals. Tiny boxes can even be functional- small gifts (jewelry, perhaps?) can be tucked inside and hung on the tree. Imagine having your advent calendar hanging on the tree- with 24 numbered boxes scattered throughout…

Before discovering scrapbooking, I used to trace a pattern onto paper and cut away, but I didn’t really have too many design options outside of rubber stamps. With the discovery of digital, this can be a much more sophisticated project with much less work. The Black Friday blog train included a printable 20-sided ornament, and now there is a collection of polyhedral templates in the Scrap Matters shop. The templates allow you to customize your ornaments to show off your favorite papers, or you can include photos without having to cut them to fit later. Here are some of my examples of the shape templates, using the Holly Jolly kit by Andilynn Designs:

These ornaments look a little complicated, but with a little practice, they can be fun (plus, the download includes a file with instructions and tips)! Add your papers, print, trim around the outside, score along the fold lines, and glue the flaps in place. This can also be a sneaky way to teach your children about shapes.

Cut-Out Shapes

Another ornament option is embellishing chipboard shapes. In addition to die cut shapes that may be available at a local brick and mortar scrapbook store or library, many manufacturers offer chipboard shapes (Basic Grey and Creative Imaginations are just a few), and you have plenty of embellishment options: paper, flowers, paint, glitter, etc. Here are a couple of chipboard shapes (from CI) that I jazzed up:

I can take credit for the tree- it’s a remake of an ornament I made last year at one of my local scrapbook stores- Scrapbook Art in Columbus. It’s too cool not to share because it’s so easy!! Simple strips of paper layered over the shape, trim to fit, and edge with acrylic paint. The ornament shape was even simpler- I measured the opening of the shape, and added the lace frame (and a drop shadow) to the digital paper before printing. I enhanced the swirl pattern within the paper with Stickles glitter glue.

This is a great project for scraps hanging around your hybrid space! You don’t need to stick with traditional holiday shapes either- this would be great for chipboard swirls and other shapes. Don’t have access to a die cut machine? No problem- it’s simple to cut a triangle tree or circle ball from the backs of notepads, cereal boxes, or junk mail postcards!

Chipboard Coasters

My love affair with the chipboard coaster continues, this time disguised to create a quicky ornament. This was an idea scammed from an old issue of Better Homes and Garden’s Digital Scrapbooking Special Issue. This example features one of Haynay’s new kits- Fall Splendor, Christmas Add-on. I copied a 4.5″ square of patterned paper to a new project, and added the digital swirl and the drop shadow. Once printed, I glued the coaster on the wrong side of the printout, holding it up to a bright light to make sure the swirl was included. I trimmed around the coaster, and neatened the edge with my red chalk in from Colorbox. Additional embellishment included tracing the swirl with Liquid Pearls, adding the Prima flower poinsettia, and adding the American Craft rub-on letters.

Embellished Slide Mounts

A couple of years ago in my paper days, I discovered 35mm slide mounts. They were wonderful as miniature frames or shaker boxes, and were super simple to cover with patterned paper. I pulled my slide mounts out of the mothballs for this project, once again using Britt’s Very Merry kit.  These are TINY- the “frame” opening is only about 1.5″ or so- but it’s a great way to use photo proofs or the mini photos sold in photo packages.  Wrapping a slide mount is fairly simple- I use a 3″ square of printed paper (paper is better than cardstock for this as it folds around corners easier), and trim the triangles off the corners to reduce bulk.  Trim an “X” in the slide opening and wrap everything around the back (don’t panic!  a diagram is in progress!).  I masked the adhesive work by covering the back with another 2 1/2″ square of paper.

I hope you are inspired to add some hybrid goodies to your Christmas tree this year! Many of these projects are kid-friendly, which is perfect for these days when the weather can be questionable (at least, those of us in the Northern hemisphere). Grab a cup of hot chocolate, a plate of cookies, and some printed digital paper!

Happy Holidays!

Tags: Christmas, ornaments

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 7:52 am and is filed under Hybrid Scrapping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.