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Christmas Party FavorsHow to Make Plaster Ornament Christmas Placecards
These inexpensive Christmas ornaments make great homemade Christmas party favors AND can be used as Christmas place cards. Then your guests take them home and display them on their Christmas trees! You certainly do get your money's worth with this great three-in-one Christmas arts and crafts idea. Such a deal! I purchased preformed plaster Christmas ornaments for 59 cents each at Michael's. Then I painted them and personalized them. That's all there is to it! They are handmade ornaments because you choose the colors, do all the painting, and add whatever creative touches you want to! I used Permapaque™
opaque paint markers
(fine tip) for the Leigh Christmas party favor. I used acrylic craft paints for the Nancy and Mark party favors. I used opaque paint markers AND white acrylic paint for the Sean ornament. (I used a black opaque paint marker to write the names on all four ornaments). There are no brushes to clean when you use the markers. But that's really not that big of an advantage over using craft paint. Acrylic craft paint is water based and washes right out of your paint brushes when rinsed with water. No turpentine or paint thinner is necessary! For the most part, it is very easy to color with these markers. However, the color selection is limited. Also, even when using a fine point it sometimes is difficult to neatly color some of the small molded details of the design on the plaster ornaments.
In the photo of the Leigh ornament you can see the somewhat "sloppy" edges where the color meets the white. This occurred despite my meticulous efforts. Also, in the hat under the red band you can see some white. I tried to color that crease red but the marker was too thick to really "get into the groove!" Actually, "in person" the Leigh Christmas party favor looks pretty decent. This place card also took less time than any of the other three featured on this page, so unless you are a perfectionist, this method is a very viable option. (As you can see, I used green, red, black, and yellow markers to color the Leigh ornament. I did not use white paint. I just left the white portion unpainted.)
This allowed me to "clean up" the sloppy edges left by the markers. However, it took a bit longer to complete the ornament. When the paint was dry, I added Sean's name using a black paint marker.
For the Nancy party favor, I used acrylic craft paint for everything except for writing Nancy's name. I painted the white areas too rather than just leave them unpainted. By using a thin paint brush, I was able to paint inside the crevices and create nice clean lines. It also was much easier to paint the holly sprig and berries on the hat band and to make the scarf plaid (my own embellishment) using the brush than it would have been with the markers. However, it did take me longer to paint this ornament than it did to color the others using the paint markers.
To begin with, I don't really even understand the design. I think the cat is carrying a basket in its mouth, but I'm not really sure. I also do not like the colors I chose. (Maybe if I change the hat...??) Anyway, this is not an ornament I plan to ever give to anybody! But you know what? There have been times I made something I was disappointed with but then other people saw it and raved about it! So maybe somebody somewhere will think this fellow is the cat's meow. Stranger things have happened! By the way, I used only acrylic craft paints for this Christmas place card except for Mark's name. Fun Family Crafts | Arts and Crafts HOME Page | Arts and Crafts SiteMap
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Not every craft project turns out great. I really don't want to hurt this little cat's feelings but I've got to tell you -- I think this ornament is ugly!
