Keepsake Christmas Ornament Box

I love handmade Christmas ornaments. Throughout the years I have

collected a number of them, made by myself and several family

members. These ornaments will make great keepsakes for our

children and grandchildren.

I have been looking for a creative way to store these keepsake

ornaments. In the past I have stored them with all my other tree

ornaments, but I wanted a special place to store them, especially

my daughter's ornaments that we have been collecting for her

throughout the years. After purchasing about $20 in supplies and

spending a couple of hours working on the project, I ended up

with a beautiful keepsake ornament box that I hope my daughter

will cherish for years to come.

To complete this project, you will need:

- Unfinished wooden box with lid

- Modge Podge (for decoupaging)

- Christmas cards

- Scissors

- Paint brushes

- Craft paint (optional)

- Acrylic sealer/finisher spray

All of the above items can be purchased at a craft store. The

craft store I went to had a variety of boxes to choose from. I

chose a small box that was $12.99. It was just what I was

looking for!

The box I chose has a raised border around the edges that looked

like it would be difficult to work around with decoupaging, so I

chose to paint it instead. I painted all the borders with

several coats of red acrylic paint.

Next I went through a big pile of old Christmas cards to find

suitable images to decoupage onto the box. This was the fun

part! Not only can you cut out pictures, you can also cut out

holiday sentiments from friends and family members. Just in the

past couple of years, several members of our extended family have

passed away, and projects such as this keepsake ornament box are

a great way to remember lost loved ones. Cut the cards into a

variety of sizes and shapes.

Using a paintbrush, apply Modge Podge or a similar decoupage

medium to the back of your cut out, then place the cut out on the

box. Paint a coating of Modge Podge over the cut out. Continue

pasting cut outs to the side of the box until it is covered, then

go over the entire side again with another coating of Modge

Podge. After the box is completely dry, you can apply another

coating for good measure.

After the box is complete (and dry), you can spray an acrylic

sealer/finisher spray over the entire box to protect the artwork

and eliminate the tackiness of the decoupage.

That's it! There is no limit to the possibilities of decorating

this beautiful ornament box. I haven't tried it yet, but I plan

to line the inside of the box with felt to give it a more

finished look.

Photo of finished keepsake ornament box:

http://www.crafty-moms.com/christmas-ornament-box.shtml

Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com.

Keepsake Christmas Album

Do you hate throwing your Christmas cards away every year as much as I do? This year I decided to try to come up with some way to preserve our Christmas cards, as well as find a way to organize all the Christmas letters I've been faithfully filing away for the past six years. I decided to make an album for our Christmas letters using decoupage to decorate the covers with this year's Christmas cards.

I love decoupage. It's so easy to do and so versatile. It's really hard to get it wrong. I started by finding something to paste the Christmas cards on. I had some dark red card stock (next to the paper at the office supply store) that seemed heavy enough to withstand all the gluing. Next I cut our Christmas cards into all different shapes and sizes. I cut out little characters, scenes, holiday greetings, and even signatures of loved ones who had sent the cards. I next arranged the cutouts, overlapping one another, on the card stock, and started applying them one by one with the decoupage finish.

There are several kinds of decoupage finish available. You can find a variety at your local craft store. I have two different kinds: Plaid Royal Coat Antique Decoupage Finish, and Mod Podge Gloss-Lustre. The first one gives an antique-like appearance. The paste yellows when it dries, making your collage look aged. The more you apply, the yellower it gets. The Mod Podge dries clear. I used the antique finish and was quite happy with the result. You use the finish to actually glue the individual pieces on with a paintbrush, and then when you're finished (adding scraps here and there to fill in the blank spots), you brush a coat over the entire page. After it dries for about 10 minutes, you can apply another coat. I found that adding several coats made the pages sturdier-more like a album cover, like I wanted. I had just enough Christmas card cutouts to cover two pages, one for the front cover, and one for the back cover.

After the pages were dry, I used a three-hole punch to punch holes in the covers. I decided I would use wide fabric holiday ribbon to tie the covers together. That way every year I could untie the bows and add new letters to my album. I used 2 1/2 -inch-wide wire satin ribbon (dark red). I liked the wire ribbon. It was easier to adjust the bows and looked really nice. It was also leftover from my holiday gift making this year, so I didn't have to buy any extra.

When the covers were ready, I arranged our Christmas letters from oldest to most recent, and punched holes in all of them. I then placed them between the covers and inserted the ribbon through the holes and tied big red bows to hold them together. I chose not to string ribbon through all three holes-just the top and the bottom.

I was really happy with how my keepsake Christmas album turned out. It was easy, took only about two hours to make, and I didn't have to buy anything extra to make it. After you buy the decoupage finish (about $5 a bottle), the uses for it are almost limitless. You can apply it to almost any surface, giving you the opportunity to create timeless keepsakes in a variety of ways.

Originally published at Suite 101. Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom of four. For scrapbooking, card making, gift-giving ideas, and more family memory-making activities, visit http://www.crafty-moms.com

Recycle your Christmas gift wrapping paper for Decoupage

When you unpack your Christmas presents under the tree this year, trying to save the Christmas wrapping paper without too many cracks. The decorative pictures on this colorful wrappers are perfect for crafts, such as Decoupage.

While younger children hours of fun cutting the pictures of Santa Claus and his reindeer, red and white sugar candy canes, snowmen and such, and turning them into homemade greeting cards, for example. You can create your own set of paper photos, to be used as a decoupage project gathering.

Decoupage is a French word, and the hundreds of years old. It refers to the meticulous craft of cut out pictures and varnishes by everyday household items, such as plates, mugs, tea trays, small boxes and lamp shades, anything else with a surface that can be sanded, painted, glued and varnished.

I'm not sure if the French learned this art from items brought back from China by early traders, although it would have been the other way around with the Asians learn from the French for everything that I know. The Chinese and the Japanese are famous for their examples of this vessel, with Jewelry Boxes, jewelry boxes, vases and even furniture screens are very popular. The process is sometimes referred to as "Japanning" associated with the Asian influence.

And while the Oriental furniture is often based on dark varnished wood, your decoupage items can be designed on plates, cups, boxes or items of all shades and colors. All you need is a few simple tools as some scissors and a scalpel or box-cutter, sandpaper, paint, paint some and some glue.

A friend of me in Sydney has a special thing about Mermaid photos. She lives with her Siamese cat, and has some completely spoiled Mermaid plates in her home. Now she tells me that she is going to create some Mermaid waste paper bins.

I believe that mermaids are a girlie thing, and she loves them. Other women get the same warm fuzzy feelings about clippings of fairies. Join little girls of fairy parties all over again! But you have to use Santas or snowmen, mermaids of fairies. Just choose a theme that you will be satisfied, or something the person you give will enjoy the item later.

The photos you want to use, and decide what they'll be on target object out. Cut your decoupage photos and put them on the item, so you'll have a rough idea of how and where you're going to glue it.

If the object should painting, give it a rough sanding brush first, then from the sawdust thoroughly. Show the item a few thin layers of paint, dry completely between coats, and then the sand very lightly with fine paper.

Glue on your Snip Christmas wrapping graphics-or or decoupage photos for that matter-on the object and Pat them down carefully, wipe with a sponge.
When the photos are dry, add a few layers varnish to your creation, and voila! You have a work of art to show off to your friends decoupage. They will even make great personalized Christmas gifts next year!

David blokey stuff like motorcycles and enjoy camping, but can sometimes be a girlfriend will show him something that he admires, such as her Decoupage collection. More info on Decoupage 101 works as to how this