Scissors, and papers, and bows...oh my...

I've been spending a lot of time at my craft table. Some things I can't show yet. But here are a couple of gifts that I've been playing with for awhile.  Then I would lay them aside and think about them for a bit before going back to them. I finally finished them today. 

These are Christmas ornaments made for newlywed couples from their wedding invitations.  You may have seen the idea around the web.  The first one I saw was here .  And since we had a couple of weddings in the family this summer, I filed the idea away along with the invitations.

I worked on the two ornaments simultaneously this week, so some photos are of one, and some are of the other.  I don't mean to confuse anybody, with my photos.

For each one I used a clear ornament, a wedding invitation, ribbon, and embellishments.

First you cut the invitation into strips horizontally (my strips were about 1/4 inch) being careful to cut above and below each text line so that they will be readable inside the ornament.

I used a pencil to coil them around, printed side facing the outside of the coil.  Then I slipped them inside the ornament and let them relax their curl.  In this one, I decided to slip in a few curls of solid cardstock that matched the color of the floral print on the invitation.

I used my metal-stamp set to stamp the couple's names and the year on two washers to attach to this one.  I photographed it during the pondering stage, so it actually ended up with a bow added to the top like the one pictured below.

Since I had wedding photos to go with this invitation, I printed out a tiny photo of the couple and put it in a metal finding, then topped it with a liquid crystal solution.  I learned some things in that process.  Like you need to mod-podge over the image at least twice (letting it dry thoroughly between each application) before adding the liquid crystal, so it doesn't turn dark...and to let it dry and cure without disturbing it...and to watch out for bubbles or you might have to add a pearl sticky over the bubble spot.  Oh well.  I can redo the photo on this one after Christmas, but they can hang it on their tree for now.