A few weeks ago Beckie from Infarrantly Creative asked us to share a gift under $10 for her Pennywise Present series. Of course, we immediately thought of this:
But then it dawned on us…oh, she wants a handmade gift for under $10! Silly us. (Now you know what WE want for Christmas!) Anyway, last year we tried our hand at lots of different DIY ornaments and thought it would be fun to try something new this year. You can easily make a set of six or eight of these wood tag ornaments for well under $10. Customize them with monograms, favorite phrases or fun Christmas images, and you'll have a unique, one-of-a-kind gift for everyone on your list (ok, not your dad. He probably won't appreciate these.)
What is liquid gilding, you ask? Well, according to Martha, Liquid Gilding is a one-step leafing paint that gives a rich, metallic luster to projects. We don't really care what is is, we just love the look of it! Gilding gives your projects a high-end look and will make your friends think you spent tons of money on them (shhhh- we won't tell)! Here's what you need to do to make your own:
1. Gather your materials. We used cute mini alphabet stamps, holiday stencils, metallic silver cording, silver liquid gilding, wood tags and various spraypaints and acrylic paints that we had on hand.
You can find the wood tags at Michaels in the wood supplies section, as well as the liquid gilding which can be found with the Martha Stewart supplies. The alphabet stamps came from the Target dollar bins (LOVE those things!).
Step 2: Paint (or gild) the surfaces of your wood tags. Some of ours were spraypainted (the red and green) and others were painted with acrylic paint, and the rest were gilded.
Isn't the gilding awesome?
Step 3: Create your designs! We had fun coming up with lots of different tags that complemented each other. Be creative!
When working on a small surface, make sure you use painters tape to prevent paint from your stencil brush getting where you don't want it. Also, good stencil brushes make a HUGE difference, especially when stenciling with liquid gilding. It's very runny, and you'll need a brush with stiff bristles to distribute it without it bleeding.
Step 4: Attach your cording or ribbon. Some of our wood tags already had holes at the top. We wanted our ornaments to look uniform, so we hot glued the cording to the backs of the tags without holes, and threaded the cording through the holes on the others and hot glued it in place.
You'll be left with lots of ridiculously cute ornaments and money in your pocket!
Hoard a few for your own tree Package them as a set and you have a gift that will wow the receiver!
Merry {Early} Christmas!