Christmas Ornament using Sizzix Die & Stunning Inky Gems

Hi - Julie Ann here, hoping to inspire you with a lovely Christmas ornament tutorial

A little bit ironic maybe as I'm sat here in my crafting space with a fan going full blast in an attempt to stay cool!

My ornament started life as a sheet of AC Cardstock from the "Winter" collection

I used the fabulous Snowflake die and bonus embossing folder combination to cut and emboss 4 shapes.

Cut out 4 or 6 shapes depending on how dimensional you want your finished ornament to be

I used my Cuttlebug machine to cut out the shapes with the die but check out the Sizzix website to discover which other machines it is compatible with.

Next comes the embossing of the cut outs, again I carefully lined up each shape and ran it through the Cuttlebug.

Once all shapes had been embossed I took a sanding block (in my case a acrylic nail set sanding block) and using a circular motion distressed the raised areas of each cut out.  This gives a lovely finish whereby some of the white core of the cardstock shows through.  

The photo above demonstrates the difference each stage makes to the snowflake cut out shape.

Using my Hougie Board - you can use whichever embossing board you have to hand - I scored down the centre of each cut out snowflake.  Be gentle at this stage as the shapes are now quite delicate and could easily rip.

Prior to assembly I used Inky Impressions 5mm Light Blue Disco Flat Back Gems to decorate each diamond point.  I used a tiny bead of Pinflair glue to firmly hold each gem in place.

I must say quite genuinely that these gems are the most sparkly gems I have ever used.  The surface is faceted with a checkerboard effect which just catches every ray of passing light and throws off brilliant flashes of greens, purples and blues . . . simply the best finishing touch. 

Once the glue had dried I folded each cut out shape in half with the embossed side facing outwards.

I found it easier to make the ornament in two halves (glueing two shapes at a time) using a fast grab wet glue.

I then glued the two halve of the ornament together to make the finished article. 

Using 6 cut outs follow the same process to produce an even more dimensional result.

I added a narrow white satin ribbon as a hanging loop and tied a small bow as decoration to finish.

I hope that you like the ornament.  I know I will be making many more to match my Christmas colour scheme this year.

Thanks for visiting

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