Egg Carton Angels For The Ornament Exchange

My fellow "Handmade Holiday Ornament Exchange" buddies, Jana, Kijsa and Kate, will each be receiving a unique version of this michele-y egg carton angel. The angels are in flight as we speak, crossing border and continent, winging their happy way to far off destinations.

It is my hope that they will reach their new homes safely. I'm quite confident they will. I mean, one would think so, given their angelic status, eh?

Goodbye Angels! And happy Christmas Jana, Kijsa and Kate. Do take care of your new babies!

♥M

P.S. Check out the beauties Kate made for Kijsa, Jana and myself HERE! I'll be getting one of those soon! Eeeeps! Thanks so much Kate.

P.P.S. Create your very own egg carton people with either "The Dozen Egg Carton Folk Ornaments PDF Tutorial" or "The Egg Carton Nativity Scene PDF Tutorial". Both are available in The Shop. Please note however, that the angel in today's post is a brand new design and not part of either of those tutorials.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas Ornament #2

Today's ornament story began a while ago, back here in February, when I received several puzzle pieces in a package from my bloggy friend Melissa. I'm fairly certain it was a bit of an unspoken crafty challenge on her part, eh Melissa? Like: "What can you make with these, Michele?" Well, I finally took the bait, 9 months hence, and here's the concoction I mixed up...

Tutorial ❉ Puzzle Piece Angel Ornaments

You will need:  old large-ish puzzle pieces, fine grit sandpaper (I used 220), large sewing needle, pencil, fine tip marker, liquid acrylic paints, small paintbrush, gold dimensional paint (optional for halos), small piece of cardboard, glue, pair of scissors, pretty string for hangers.

The puzzle pieces I used are the ideal size for ornaments at about 3 inches by 3 inches square (7.5cm x 7.5cm). Out of the pieces Melissa sent, I chose some that resembled little people: with heads, arms and legs.

To start, I sanded the fronts of the pieces with fine-grit sandpaper (220 grit). I sanded lightly to remove only the ink and not the layer of paper underneath. The sanding gives your puzzle pieces a lovely distressed look but, more importantly, the slightly roughed-up surface will hold on to paint and marker famously.

Then I used a large needle to pierce a hole in all their heads. I know that sounds slightly horrific and everything, but they are angels after all...

So once I did that... um, I took out my pencil and very lightly drew the angelic details on each piece. I drew on hair, eyes, a dress with collar, wings, skinny arms, and a halo. Once I was happy with my design, I re-traced the pencil lines with a fine tip Sharpie (a.k.a. a marker).

Then I took out my liquid acrylics and painted the other-worldly hair, dresses and collars. While I waited for the paint to dry, I made some little stars out of cereal box cardboard, and gave each a gold finish in liquid acrylic.

The stars, once dry, were then glued to the "hands", and a halo of gold dimensional paint dots was added to each head. And lastly, I added the hangers.

 Hark!... Is that singing I hear?

Why I think it is! A choir of Puzzle Piece Angels... How very sweet of them to sing for us like that. And they don't even have mouths! Now THAT is what I call talent.

♥M

Find the first installment in the "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas Ornament Series" here!