2009 Family Christmas Ornaments

As I have mentioned, my grandmother made beautiful beaded Christmas ornaments. Each year, all of her grandchildren could pick out a single ornament from her bevy of creations. As a child, this was a fun tradition, and now as I look at my amassed collection as an adult, it makes me feel a bit more connected to my grandparents.


Last October, I decided I would take a stab at making my own ornaments for my family. First, I designed what I wanted them to look like. I used Microsoft Word, so nothings to scale and I made some design tweaks when I actually made them. I decided to use silver sequins of varying size, white pearl beads, seed beads, silver stick pins, and black velvet ribbon.

And copious amounts of GLUE. Now, before I started on the first ornament, I had a healthy appreciation for the beautiful ornaments my grandmother so lovingly created. As my calloused thumb pushed the final pin into the final ornament, I had a healthy appreciation for the dedication and pure insanity of my grandmother. Wowie wow wow. It took me something like three weeks to make all of the ornaments. I figure I worked on them about 2-3 hours a day, 5 days a week. Wowie wow wow. And I'm not even as meticulous as my grandma was! I didn't CARE if there were exactly the same number of pearls on each ornament! She would count beads and measure distances! Sheesh. I also discovered that not many craft/hobby stores carry a decent selection of Styrofoam shapes and sequins. I bought out the entire selection of sequins and push pins at two different Joanns and had to go back two more times. Sheesh!

But, as I pushed the last pin in, I was very proud of the ornaments, and I know my siblings, parents, and aunt and uncle will appreciate them.

The basic design of the ornaments stayed the same; I just changed the colour of the seed bead to reflect the favourite colour of the recipient. My mom said she preferred ruby, emerald, and Sapphire, while my dad preferred emerald.For my maternal uncle and aunt, I used lovely blue seeds.My oldest brother got another blue ornament, and my sister in law got green. My young nephew, who might or might not have a favourite colour, got an ornament with Denver Broncos colours (his ornament was smaller, and I didn't use an velvet on it--just pearls, sequins, and seed beads). My brother Mark said he preferred browns and grays, so his ornament was tone-on-tone silver.
My sister's favourite colour is red, while my brother in law's is dark Trojan red.

John's was in his Broncos colours.I still haven't made my ornament. When I ran out of silver sequins and velvet ribbon, I made a pink (PINK!!!) starburst ornament. I've had those pearlized pink beads for 15 years and never made anything out of them, even though I've always thought they were pretty. So I decided to use them on the ornament. While pink's not my favourite colour, I sure do think it's a pretty ornament. Click for more blurry, out of focus, low light pictures.

Gabe's Christmas Puzzles

As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. My road is *very* well paved.
As you might recall, I had that BRILLIANT idea of doing a home-made Christmas with my family. Here it is, the middle of June, and I've FINALLY gotten all of my Christmas 2009 gifts sent to their respective recipients. When I hatched my BRILLIANT plan of making all of these Christmas presents, the responsibility was being shared with someone else. I got my part of the presents largely done before or slightly after Christmas, while I (im)patiently waited for the other person to do their part. Ish happened, and suddenly I was wholly responsible for getting everything done. So that's why it's taken THIS LONG to get everything done.
So, my young, impossibly adorably cute nephew loves Thomas the Tank Engine, as any sane little child ought to. Because, really, Thomas is awesome (I'll admit to watching some Thomas well past the "appropriate" "intended" age of consumption). I'm also a fan of gifts for kids that don't involve batteries or those that zap the creative imagination of childhood. I remember really really really really really really really loving board puzzles when I was a kid, and I decided that I would make a board puzzle for my impossibly adorably cute nephew.
I took some 1/4" Masonite/hardboard and cut it down to a rough 9"x11" rectangle. I found a nice picture of Thomas, and, using standard craft grade acrylic paint, I transferred the image onto the Masonite. I think I painted two layers of paint, and then an acrylic pen to make an outline of Thomas.

I slathered Thomas with several coats of Modge Podge, and then used my trusty scroll saw to freehand puzzle shapes. By Christmas, the puzzle was ready to ship out.

As the months after Christmas wore on, I started to feel really guilty about sending a single puzzle out. And then I remembered that my favourite board puzzles were those board puzzles that were on an actual board. So I decided I would make a board for my Thomas puzzle.

Using more Masonite, I cut a board about 1/2" larger on all sides than the original puzzle, and then cut 1/2" strips of Masonite. I glued those strips onto the perimeter of the board, and clamped them until everything was dry. After a light sanding, I spray painted the board with a white satin paint. Marvelous!

And then as the months continued to wear on, I decided I should (and could) make a second puzzle. Knowing my sister in law's love of the Denver Broncos, I decided to paint the logo into another board puzzle. I used the same steps as the Thomas puzzle, but instead of Mod Podge, I went over it with some varnish (it'll probably turn the white paint yellow over time, but it's a more permanent solution than Mod Podge).
After the puzzles and the boards were ready, I realized that they might be a bit difficult for a two-almost-three-year-old. So I traced the shape of each puzzle piece on the white board using a permanent marker. This is the Broncos board:

And this is the Thomas board:

And this is Thomas the Tank Engine, assembled on his board.

And this is the Broncos logo, assembled on its board:

All in all, I'm pretty darned proud of how the puzzles turned out. I think I'll make more in the future. Just not for Christmas 2010!

Click for more piccies!

Puzzling Time

Last fall during the beginning woodworking class John and I were taking through the local CC, we were introduced to the Scroll Saw. I immediately decided that I liked the scroll saw, and that it and I would become best buddies. I liked that I could easily cut circles and waves, that it was relatively safe to use, and didn't take a lot of know how. I also liked that I wasn't confined to a pattern and measurements, as it's a much more free-form type of woodworking. The teacher had an unused scroll saw he had acquired when he purchased a bunch of equipment from a retiring woodworker, and offered to sell the saw at a deeply discounted rate. SOLD. It even looked a little bit like the Starship Enterprise, so it became my new little baby. So cute!

I started doing a little research into scroll saws, and found that many they were a huge fad a number of years ago, so there were TONS of resources available. About this same time, I hatched the HOMEMADE CHRISTMAS PRESENT plan with my siblings. I know my brother Mark really really really enjoys puzzles, so I thought I'd make him a puzzle. I Googled for inspiration, and came across this idea. I was smitten, and decided Mark would love a puzzle like that. Being ballsy and stupid, I didn't bother to read the instructions or print up the pattern; I just free handed it, and this is the result:Not too shabby, and I was awefully proud of it, if I do say so myself. Now that my brother is enjoying his Christmas present (so I shipped it off 5 months late? So what!), I decided to post about it. And then I also decided to make another one, for a Secret "Santa" exchange at an online community. I made a few reasonable changes in my method to accommodate the insane amount of time it took me to complete my brother's puzzle, and documented the procedure for posterity (certainly not for prosperity).

First, I took a 11" x 8" x 3/4" plank of pine, found the center line, and sketched out a rough tree-shape. Trying to keep the pattern centered is important to keep the puzzle balanced when it's standing up.I cut off large chunks of wood using the band saw, to make it easier to cut the pattern on the scroll saw. Also because I like the band saw, and never use it. It looked lonely, shoved off in the corner of the garage.

After I was satisfied with the band saw efforts (damned blade kept angling off to the side!---now I understand why it's shoved off into the corner of the garage!), I took the plank over to the scroll saw and started hacking away at the pattern.

Again, the appeal of the scroll saw to me is that I don't really have to follow the pattern, so I used it as a rough guideline for the basic shape of the puzzle. The only important thing was that the base and the trunk would fit together snugly when assembled. And it did! Next was sanding. First I used the random orbital sander with 80grit and then 150grit sand paper. I did both sides of the tree form.Then I broke out the paper and sanding pads, in 80, 100, and 150 grits to sand the outside edges of the tree, as well as the base.Sanding pads make sanding curves SO much easier. The person who first thought of them is my hero. I only wish I'd had them when I was refurbishing the wood chairs I bought from ReStore. When I was satisfied the plank was nicely sanded, I dusted it off, and used a damp rag to remove any lingering saw dust.

Now this is where my tutorial for this puzzle and the original tutorial (and how I did my brother's puzzle) diverge--rather than cut out the individual puzzle pieces now, I decided to paint the puzzle. The blade on the scroll saw is so fine, that I wasn't too worried about chip out from cutting into the painted surface, and it wouldn't be anything that a quick touch up would be able to handle. I decided to paint now because painting the individual pieces was a HUGE time suck, and painting it as a whole would give me the opportunity to make a more realistic looking puzzle.
I loaded three shades of green onto my paint "palette"--a bright green, a true green, and a ruddy green. I just used standard craft acrylic paint, because that's what I had on hand it and it was suited to the project.

Using a large flat brush, I splotched the paint onto the surface, dragging my brush through all three colours at the same time. I wasn't too worried about pattern, as I was more interested in creating background shading for the final treatment.

After the initial coat was dry, I picked up a smaller flat brush, dipped it in one of the shades, and dappled it onto the splotched surface. when the paint was running dry on the brush, I would dip it into a different shade, and add that colour to the area that was still wet. I added some yellow paint, as well, to work as a highlight colour.

I tried to keep the pattern as loose as possible, to make it look random and more realistic. When the first side was done, I painted the reverse side, using the same technique. I also painted the edge of the tree shape the same way.

Next was painting the trunk and adding some visible branches. For that, I used two colours of brown: a true brown, and a tinted brown. The true brown was the base, and I used the tinted brown to make the highlights/squiggly lines to simulate bark. I did front, back, sides, and the base. I tried as much as possible to mirror the branches near where the trunk met the leaves on both sides of the puzzle.

I waited 24 hours to make sure the paint and wood were bone dry. Then I took the plank out to the scroll saw, and free handed a puzzle pattern. The only trick here was to make sure the outside pieces and the trunk linked together snugly, to ensure that when the puzzle was standing, there was a solid band around the perimeter that would prevent it from falling apart. I also cut out some random negative space within the puzzle, and trashed those pieces--it would make the puzzle even more difficult to assemble.

I took the puzzle back in, and used the true green and true brown paints to paint the inside edges of the newly cut puzzle pieces. I didn't worry too much about sanding, as the scroll saw blade was supa fine. I also didn't worry about making the inside pieces realistic, as I thought it would make the puzzle WAY TOO HARD if you couldn't clearly tell which pieces were the boarder (I had to reassemble the puzzle, after all). Unfortunately, I didn't a picture of this. The only picture I have that shows the painted inside edges is one that incidentally shows them. Albert was being cute.

I didn't want the added heft of lacquer since some of the pieces were VERY snug when put together and I didn't have a whole lot of time to wait for coats to dry, so I decided to use outdoor Mod Podge, since it's waterproof.

Bad idea. The glue-qualities of the Mod Podge made the pieces stick together very uncomfortably. So I decided to use a clear coat spray paint in a matte finish. Worked like a charm. This was the finished product:

Even after making it myself, it takes me about 30 minutes to complete it. It's especially hard because both sides of the puzzle were painted the same way. All in all, I think this is the start of my scroll saw puzzle hobby :o) Click for more pictures of the process.