Star and Snowflake Ornaments

Star and Snowflake Ornaments

Posted by DecoArt on Dec 15th 2014

Wooden ornaments take on extra color, sparkle, and life with Americana® Acrylics and Glamour Dust Glitter Paint.

SUPPLIES

    • water container
    • palette or plastic plate
    • paper towels
    • wax paper
    • fine-grit sandpaper
    • 3/4" wash brush
    • #8 flat brush
    • craft glue
    • #12 flat brush
    • 1/4" angle brush
    • cosmetic sponge
    • 3/4" oval brush
    • fan brush
    • 1/2" blender mop
    • 3/8" rake brush
    • #0 script liner brush
    • wooden ornaments
    • small snowflake stamp or stencil
    • extra small and medium dome brushes (1 each)
    • #16 flat brush
    • jewels and initals
    • wooden snowflake cutout

    INSTRUCTIONS

    NOTES:

    Let dry completely between painting steps.

    1. PINE BOUGHS AND SNOWFLAKES ORNAMENT: Sand the square wooden ornament surface with fine-grit sandpaper and remove any dust.
    2. For background: Base is Green Mist. While still wet and using 3/4″ wash brush, pick up Leaf Green and, beginning at the bottom left of the design, slip-slap the color up toward upper right of design, going about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up.
    3. Using a dirty brush, pick up Evergreen and, starting at lower left, add darker color to the bottom left. Temper the brush by picking up Green Mist and then Pistachio Mint. Begin at the upper right and move the color toward the darker colors. Repeat using Mint Julep Green and Sea Glass. Repeat this step several times until you achieve the look you like. (There should be a gradual transition in colors, but some streaking adds to the design.)
    4. Shade at the bottom left of ornament with Black Green.
    5. Using a #0 script liner brush and Sable Brown, lay in the branches.
    6. Highlight the tops of pine boughs with a hit-and-miss line of Mink Tan; shade bottoms with a hit-and-miss of Milk Chocolate.
    7. Beginning with branches A and B and using a 3/8" rake brush, begin adding needles with Evergreen. (Refer to pattern for placement.) This goes on both sides of the branch.
    8. On branches C, D, and E, add needles only under the branches. (Refer to pattern for placement.)
    9. Add more needles with Leaf Green and then Green Mist.
    10. Add Green Mist needles to both sides of all branches.
    11. Add needles with Pistachio Mint, keeping them fairly light or darker on branch A and making branches E and F the brightest.
    12. Beginning with branch F and working downward, add pine needles with Mint Julep Green and then Sea Glass.
    13. Add Cool White needles, beginning with both sides of branch F, keeping this color on the needles only on the top of branches E, D, C, and a little on B.
    14. Add more color to the brighter highlights on the top branches.
    15. Lightly add shading and tints of color to the three darkest edges, under some of the branches, and under area where the snowflake cut-out will go.
    16. Using snowflake stamps of your choice, apply Cool White mixed with Silver Bling to stamp using a cosmetic sponge.
    17. Base snowflake cut-out with Cool White. Shade top edges and paint sides Spa Blue.
    18. Varnish the ornament and snowflake cut-out with DuraClear Satin Varnish.
    19. Add snow to branches with Snow-Writer.
    20. Over a piece of wax paper, sprinkle on Crystal Glamour Dust. Tap off excess Glamour Dust onto wax paper, roll up paper, and put extra Dust back into the bottle. “Paint” area where you want glitter on the snowflake cut-out with a bit of Americana Primer & Sealer and the #0 liner brush; sprinkle on Glamour Dust while it’s still wet. Tap off the excess onto wax paper as before.
    21. When dry, glue onto ornament.
    22. Paint the edge of the ornament with Shimmering Silver. Let dry.
    23. GRAZING SHEEP ORNAMENT: Undercoat a square wooden ornament with Admiral Blue.
    24. Using a dry, scruffy 1/4″ angle brush, tap in the background trees with Evergreen. (Keep this row uneven; some taller, some shorter, etc. )
    25. On a dirty brush, pick up Leaf Green on the long end of the brush, tap out excess, and apply a highlight to the right side of some of the trees.
    26. Repeat previous step, adding more highlight with a dirty brush and same technique above with Green Mist and then Pistachio Mint.
    27. Clean the brush on a dry paper towel and tap in foreground trees as above with Green Mist. Add highlights, as above, with Pistachio Mint, Mint Julep Green, and Sea Glass. Finally pick up Cool White on a dirty brush and add final highlights to some of the trees that you want to “bring forward”.
    28. Using #16 flat or 3/4″ wash brush, sideload into Eggshell, blend, and begin laying in hills at top, walking color toward bottom of each hill. (Do this twice to get a nice look to the hills.)
    29. Add more highlight by picking up Cool White on the dirty brush, walking down not as far as the first two times. Add more highlight to top three hills with just a float of Cool White.
    30. The sheep faces and ears are based with a brush-mix of Sable Brown and Light Mocha (about 1:2).
    31. Highlight tops of each sheep with Light Mocha, and shade the bottoms with Sable Brown.
    32. The sheep body is stippled in with a dry dome brush with Neutral Grey. Begin building highlights with Driftwood, Eggshell, Light Mocha, and finally Cool White in the brightest areas.
    33. Pick up a tad of Pistachio Mint on a dirty brush and add touches of color randomly. Clean the brush in a dry paper towel.
    34. Pick up Cool White and Spa Blue, smash to blend, and tap in additional highlights.
    35. On the back sheep, shade to separate; at the back of the sheep in front; and at bottom right of the sheep in front with a 1:1 mix of Neutral Grey and Evergreen.
    36. On the front sheep, using the Neutral Grey/Evergreen mix, add shading to the top right of the head next to the ear; at the bottom of the head; to separate the head from the body; and at the bottom corner of the body. Also add this shading at the bottom of the big sheep’s face.
    37. The eyes, nose, and mouth are done with a liner brush and a brush-mix of Evergreen, Admiral Blue, and Milk Chocolate.
    38. Add a highlight dot to front sheep’s eye and a bit more highlight to his face and ears with Cool White.
    39. Use a liner brush of Metallic Silver for the main star and dots for the smaller stars. When dry, dampen the area around the main star and float Cool White toward the trees.
    40. Use a fan brush and thinned Cool White and Silver Bling to add snow.
    41. Shade the bottom left edge of the ornament with a 1:1 mix of Evergreen and Admiral Blue. Also add this color under the sheep toward the back.
    42. Varnish the ornament with DuraClear Satin Varnish.
    43. Add Shimmering Silver to the edge of the ornament. Add Limelight randomly on the trees. Add Silver Bling on the hills.
    44. SNOWFLAKE ORNAMENT: Base the wooden snowflake ornament with a 3:1 mix of Spa Blue and Cool White.
    45. Pick up Cool White and Silver Bling on a dry M Dome brush, take out the excess, and stencil randomly on the entire surface.
    46. Shade around the outside edges with Desert Turquoise; repeat, using Soft Black.
    47. Using dry dome brush, stipple on Desert Turquoise and then Soft Black in a smaller area under where you will place the jewels and initial. (Refer to photo for placement.)
    48. Glue on the jewels and an initial.

    DOWNLOADS

    Project Pattern