Peaceful Boughs Christmas ornament in gold pizza box

I do love a woodland theme... and particularly a woodland-themed Christmas ornament, so it wouldn't be the festive season without one of these making its way into my craft classes!

I bought some MDF hearts from eBay, painted them white and then set to crafting by stamping them with the Birch Background stamp and Peaceful Boughs.

I embossed the boughs with clear embossing powder on top of the Mossy Meadow (hurrah for the Stamparatus!) and, because the Crumb Cake Birch image still wasn't quite dry that picked up some of the powder, too. I call this a happy accident! There's even a hint of glitter!

The box is die-cut (look out for the missing piece coming soon!) and given a window sheet insert which is stamped in Whisper White ink and heat set, then we wrapped our ornaments in stamped black tissue paper ready to give as a lovely handcrafted gift.

I don't like glitter because it can end up in our oceans but still have quite a bit left so I now only use it when mixed with glue or embossing powder. Here I mixed it with the clear embossing powder to stop it from going astray. It adds a touch of glitz to an otherwise quite understated project. 
 

Beautiful Boughs Christmas star decoration

Feeling festive yet? Is it wrong that I have this Christmas star decoration hanging up already? I promise I'll take it down soon, ready to come out again at a more respectable time.

I made this at the weekend using the Peaceful Boughs bundle and have to say I love it. I have precisely five of these stars left which is just enough for a small, friendly class which I'll be holding in December.

The link to register will be going out in my newsletter tomorrow so make sure you're on the list if you want to join me!

Stamping the star with the Birch Background stamp was easy because the die-cut pine sprigs cover the joins. I just made sure I kept the stamp level, and turned it 180º occasionally. It was one of the very rare occasions that I used a clear block with a background stamp; normally I just leave it in the box and apply paper to stamp.

Free as a Bird and Birch Background - a match made in heaven

Bird Ballad is one of the stand-out suites in the new catalogue, with loads of lovely products including this Free as a Bird stamp set and Bird Ballad Designer Series Paper. It goes perfectly with the lovely new Birch Background stamp, too; a match made in heaven!

To get a subtle look from the Birch Background stamp, I stamped it in Crumb Cake onto scrap paper once first, before stamping onto my Whisper White cardstock. This process – known as ‘stamping off’ – removes some of the ink to give you a paler look.