The holidays are right around the corner. Are you ready for the wrapping and gifting season to begin? Design Ambassador Emily Mydlowski is getting a jump start on her holiday wrapping and sharing a fun way to add a handmade ornament keepsake and matching tags to your holiday packages.
When it comes to wrapping gifts, I always like to add a little extra handmade topper or tag and for the holidays handmade ornaments are my favorite add-on. Today, I’m sharing Felt Plushie Snowflake Ornament Toppers & Matching Paper Tags using the new Snowflake Designer Dies and Snowflake Hot Foil Stamp.
The Snowflake Designer Dies fit perfectly on the Essential Hexagons and are a breeze to stitch into felt ornaments using the Essential Hexagons for Stitching. I die-cut all of the Snowflakes from Winter White Wool Felt and the Hexagons from The Color Pop Wool Felt Collection. I used a running stitch to piece the hexagons together using the matching Color Pop Collection DMC Embroidery Floss. For extra pop, I added clear gems & pearl embellishment to the snowflakes using Fabric Glue.
Each Snowflake Ornament Package Topper took about 10-15 minutes to create (minus drying time for the Appliqué Liquid Adhesive) which included: Die Cutting, Stitching, Appliqué, Stuffing and Threading the Ornament/Tag Hanger.
A Few Felt Ornament Design Tips
- When die-cutting Wool Felt, I like to use a metal shim to make clean-crisp cuts especially for intricate appliqué patterns (Snowflakes) and stitching holes.
- Fabric Fuse Liquid Adhesive is AMAZING. Just a little dab of this glue and you can add felt-to-felt appliqués (Snowflakes) and embellishments without any sewing or ironing. Just be sure to give it enough time to dry to ensure a really good and strong bond.
- Adhere your appliqués and embellishments before you add your filler. Yep—I learned this the hard way.
- While you may be tempted to die-cut the stitching holes to two pieces of felt at the same time, I recommend adding the stitching holes one die-cut shape at a time…just in case the thickness of the felt causes things to shift between the cutting plates while cutting and then you end up with mismatched/broken holes. Yep—I also learned this the hard way.
- My favorite felt tool is the Sizzix Stuffing Tool (no more wooden dowels or skewers for me). It makes getting filler into those pesky corners and smaller spaces super easy. I used Polyfil to stuff all of my ornaments.
- For a running stitch, I separate my threads into three strands. You can use all six strands but the stitching will be bulkier and may stretch the stitching holes. Three seems to be the magic number for me with Felt Projects.
- I find that adding the ornament/tag hanger is easiest after all the stitching and filling is complete. Another perk to adding at the end is you can adjust the length of the hanger than when it is sewn-in during the stitching process. To attach the ornament/tag hanger, I thread a large-hole needle with bakers twine and then thread the needle up and through the top stitches of the ornament and knot the thread ends together to create the hanger. For a “full loop hanger look” (no knot at the top), you can sew in your hanger thread ends to create a top loop while you are stitching the ornament together.
For the matching snowflake tags, I used the Snowflake Hot Foil Stamp to add Silver Glitter Foil to Clear Plastic Sheets which I then cut into tags using the Farmhouse Tags Die Set.
Hot Foil Designer Tips
- Be sure to place your foil pretty side down towards the stamp. Then place the acetate or paper on top of the foil.
- For Spellbinders Foil, I use the Medium to Highest heat setting with the Gemini Foil press. I let the Hot Foil stamp heat up on the press first, then apply the foil and acetate and set the timer for 30 seconds.
I then stamped the “I made this for you” sentiment from the Tag It-Christmas Stamp Set to the skinny Farmhouse Tag (one heat embossed with silver embossing powder) and the other with VersaFine Nocturne Ink and attached it to the Snowflake Heat Foiled Acetate Cards red/white bakers twine.
For my last two tags, I used the Large Snowflake Hot Foil stamp with glossy white paper and cut it from the largest die in the Snowflake Die Set. I adhered the snowflake to a white circle Farmhouse Tag. For the last tag in the set, I stacked a medium and small snowflake to a rectangle Farmhouse Tag that was stamped with “I made this for you” in VersaFine Nocturne Ink and for a little extra pop I added a silver foil tag enforcer.
So there we are friends, a fun way to stretch your cardmaking supplies to create Felt Ornament/Tag Toppers for the holidays. I can’t wait to add my ornaments and matching snowflake tags to my holiday packaging for an extra special keepsake.
Thanks for stopping by and Big Paper/Felt Hugs!
Emily
