It’s never too early to start crafting for Christmas – that holiday always sneaks up on us crafters and leaves before we’ve completed our “to craft for Christmas” list. So, I offer you the first DSC holiday post for 2012! I used some fun new products from Plaid’s Mod Podge Podgeables line to make some handmade ornaments for our Christmas tree. You can find the new Podgeables line at Michaels, or online. [visit Plaid to find out more about Podgeables]

In our family, we like to make a handmade ornament every year, so this is perfect for us. The Podgeable acrylic shapes are very easy to use, and would be a great base for kids to use to make unique ornaments for parents, grandparents, teachers, or themselves! You can use a variety of methods to alter the acrylic shapes. The process for using the acrylic Podgeable shapes is pretty simple – you can paint them, alcohol ink them, and of course, Mod Podge them. Since they are clear and see-through, you can Mod Podge on one side and let your design show through the acrylic, or you can decorate both sides.

Project Materials:

• Podgeable Acrylic Shapes (Large), 6 for $5.99
• Podgeable paper pads or your choice of paper, on hand or $6.99 for the pad
• Old stamps, on hand
• Mod Podge, on hand
• Paintbrush, on hand
• 1/8″ ribbon, on hand or $1
• Drill or Dremel, on hand -OR- a paperclip and industrial glue like E-6000

Total: $5.99 and up for 6 ornaments

I had everything on hand except the Podgeable shapes. I also used the Podgeable Paper flip books in Travel and Nature, but you could certainly use any craft papers or recycled papers you already have in your stash.

I received a great selection of the new Mod Podge products from Plaid. if you’d like to see what I got, check my haul video:

My favorite way to craft these days is to take a box of stuff over to my mom’s house and get crafty together — it’s a lot of fun to just sit down together and play with crafty stuff. We decided to make some crafts with the Podgeables. My mom used the small Acrylic Podgeable shapes (they are a great size for pendants and jewelry charms), and I decided to use the large Podgeable acrylic designer shapes.

As soon as my mom broke out her childhood stamp collection, I decided to find stamps in holiday colors and make Christmas ornaments.

 

To create these ornaments:

1. Mod Podge stamps and papers to an acrylic shape as desired. Make sure to seal the top with another coat of Mod Podge.

2. Allow the shape to dry completely (I let mine dry overnight).

3. To add a hole for hanging, you can simply drill through the shape with a Dremel or a drill (or an electric  screwdriver like I did). You will need to hold the shape against the table before you drill, and let the part you will be drilling hang over the edge of the table. For best results, drill through the paper-covered side first.

ALTERNATELY, if you don’t want to use the drill method, you can create a bail out of a paper clip. I bent mine into a small figure eight, then attached the bail with E-6000 glue and let it dry overnight.

4. To string ornaments, run an 8″ piece of 1/8″ ribbon through the hole (or the bail), and tie.

I Podged both sides of each ornament:

You can find out more about Mod Podge and the new Mod Podge line from Plaid:

• Plaid Crafts on Pinterest
• Plaid on Facebook
• Plaid on Twitter
• Mod Podge Rocks! Blog

Disclosure.