Inspired by... Noel {Inspiration #1}

Inspired by... Noel {Inspiration #1}

 

 

Welcome to the first inspirational project in our Inspired Noel series! I promise I will not mention how many weeks, days, hours, etc. are left between now and Christmas as this series progresses! Ignorance is bliss, I say! Especially in this case, as my goal is to inspire you to have a JOYOUS Christmas! Not a stressful one!

I'm super excited to share this first project with you! I learned a new technique, which I will share with you, and the best part? everything for this project came from THE STASH! I spent exactly $0!

My inspiration came from this Vintage Spool Jewel ornament in the Holiday Craft edition of Better Homes and Gardens.

I had seen several wooden spools when sorting through THE STASH with my mom and knew right away that I wanted to make some of these. At the time, I didn't have any old sheet music I could cut up (since then a dear friend has gifted me with some old hymnals which I'll be using in a future project!) so I had to make my own. I Googled "how to make paper look old" and found several different techniques using coffee and tea.

I found this technique at Me vs. the House. But frankly, I was too impatient to follow all of her instructions. I simply didn't have the time to wait around while the water evaporated in the oven! So here is what I did:

Step One: pre-heat your oven to its lowest setting. While the oven is heating brew some black tea in about 16oz of water

Step Two: using a cookie sheet with high sides (or another pan that will hold both your sheet music and your water) place the sheet music in the pan and cover it with the tea

Step Three: place it in the pre-heated oven, turn the oven off and walk away

I think I left mine in for about two hours. I took it out when it had turned a color I was pleased with. If you want it darker, or want dark splotches in places, etc. click on over to Me vs. the House for the extended version!

Here's the before and after shot of my sheet music.

I'm thrilled with the way it turned out! Okay, let's get started!

 

Supplies

wooden spools

sheet music

wire, 20gauge

wire cutters

beads, lace, glitter – whatever you want to decorate with!

modge podge

hot glue gun

 

 

The first thing I did was measure and cut my sheet music to fit the spool. Then adhered it using modge podge. While it was drying I made my wire hanger. The length of wire will depend upon how tall your spool is, how many beads your using on each end, etc. I always cut longer than I think I need! I used round-nose and needle-nose pliers to form the curves in the wire. By this time your sheet music should be dry enough and you can start decorating your spool!

For this one, I kept it fairly simple, adding some lace, garland and a couple of beads. You can also see the entire hanger in this photo.

 

 

Here is a closer view of some of the aging detail on the sheet music.

 

 

This one was an odd shaped spool. I used lace again, beads and some ribbon.

 

 

And finally, more lace, gold beads, gold glitter and a musical note at the bottom!

 

 

This spool wasn't actually wooden, but it was older than me, so I figured that was close enough for vintage![smile]

Much of the supplies I used were items my Nana had collected to use to decorate her hand-blown eggs. She made the most beautiful eggs for us every Christmas and Easter. I'll be sharing some of her work in future posts.

Oh, I almost forgot... Baby Kitty supervised the photo shoot!

 

 

I have more plans for my newly aged sheet music! But for now Inspiration #1 is complete! I hope you've been inspired! I'd be happy to answer any questions you have about the process and I'd love to hear if any part of this inspires you to make your own version of these "vintage" ornaments!

 

Blessings,

 

 

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