Today both of the Hammond sisters join us for Crafty Thursday and they decided to mix it with a Chocolate Martini...so read on.
It’s still Christmas in July, so grab your cut out book
pages to make another holiday craft. These ornaments make great gifts for book
lovers, or you can keep them for yourself and make your Christmas tree a
literary affair. Warning: this ornament is messy to make, but don’t worry, it’s
worth it. We recommend you don’t get your nails done right before attempting
this craft, though (Kim learned that the hard way). Let’s just say, the Mod
Podge is very sticky.
Supplies Needed
Scissors or Paper Cutter
Book Pages
Styrofoam Balls
Twine
Tidy Pins
Mod Podge
Paint Brush
Optional Supplies
Paper Plate
Pencil
Step 1: Book Strips
Cut the book pages into strips with scissors or a paper
cutter. You are going to wrap a lot of these strips around your Styrofoam ball,
so don’t worry if you have different thicknesses or if you’re using scissors
and the strips aren’t cut perfectly. We cut off the tops and bottoms after
making the strips, to reduce the amount of white space. You really want just
the writing to show as you wrap.
Step 2: Twine Hanger
Tie a knot in your twine to make a circle. Take a tidy pin
and push both ends into the Styrofoam ball (straddling the twine). This will be
your hanger and you will cover the pin with book strips so that it doesn’t show.
Step 3: Mod Podge
You can stick your paintbrush right into the Mod Podge jar,
or you can pour a puddle of it onto a paper plate like I did. Take your paint
brush and paint one side of the book strip and then stick the strip to the Styrofoam
ball. Don’t worry if they don’t stick really well at first. The Styrofoam is
very porous and it’s hard for the strips to stick. As you add more, though,
they will end up sticking to each other as they overlap. If you cut the book
pages lengthwise into long strips like we did, they wrap around the ball
farther and will overlap quicker.
Paint strips on until you have the whole ball covered and
you’ve got a pattern you’re happy with. Take your paint brush and paint more
Mod Podge on the outside to seal your strips. This will dry clear, so don’t
worry about gooping it on. I still tried to brush it over the paper evenly
though, just so it would dry smoothly.
Step 4: Dry
Hang your ornament somewhere where it can hang free and not
touch anything. I used a pencil and a cabinet to hang mine. Give it a good 24
hours to dry so that it’s no longer tacky.
One of the key elements in making this craft was the fact
that we first made a Chocolate Martini to sip on while we worked.
Chocolate Martini
1 part Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
1 part Vodka
1 part Kahlua
Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup
Chill your glass with ice water. Mix the 3 ingredients in a
shaker and shake well with ice. Pour out the water chilling your glass and line
the inside of your martini glass with Hershey’s syrup. Pour from the shaker into your chocolate lined
glass and enjoy.
Kerry Hammond |
Kim Hammond |
You can find our other Christmas in July posts here.
This was a lot of fun and the martini in no way impaired our glueing ability. In fact, I think it helped.
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