Handmade Star Ornaments...and then some

I love using the big Sizzix dies that cut chipboard! I used the nested stars die to make these fun holiday stars with a country twist, featuring some of my favorite Cosmo Cricket papers!

Each star is unique and has a different silver medallion as an embellishment. Some rusty wire kinked and twisted makes a nice hanger.

This one got an added embellishment - a little rusty jingle bell attached with wire. That's what happens when you punch the hole for the wire hanger in the wrong spot! Suddenly, you have a hole you need to figure out what to do with!

The back of each star is unique, too. I used various papers on the backside.

I favor the simple faux wood looking paper on the backside the most.

I also made this crazy-sparkly tree using one of the left over small stars, and one of my newly tea-stained mini-tags.

I think it's amazing how good chipboard looks with just some brown ink applied to it, and a bit of glitter for sparkle! It looks so much like tooled leather, with the added faux stitches. Cool!

Here are my tea-stained mini-tags I made. I will be using these on holiday packages with twill, twine, buttons, glitter, and maybe even some faux berries!

Want to make your own tea-stained goodies? It's really quite simple. I find instant tea works best (sugar free), and gives the richest color and good variety of shades. But you can use a heavy brewed bagged tea, if that's what you have handy. Coffee works too, but I prefer the brown color of tea stain over coffee stain.

Simply dip your tag in a mixture of tea & water (I used about 2 TBS of instant tea mix per cup of water). Don't forget to dip the string! Once the tag is good and dampened, lay the tags on a cookie sheet. Put them in the oven on the lowest heat setting (mine goes down to 175*) and let them "cook" until they're dry. If you want some areas much darker than others, you can add a few spoonfuls of tea to the tags once you have them on the cookie sheet. The pooled areas of tea will soak into the tags and dry, giving a darker stain. If you want a bit of "scent" to your tags, you could add a few drops of cinnamon oil or even some vanilla to your tea mixture! Have fun!

Comments

[Kathyc on SCS]

These are wonderful Anna! Thanks for sharing!

[Vina]

Wow...those tags are gorgeous! I love how you can take a basic die shape & turn it in to a masterpiece! Thanks for sharing the dye tips too. I recently used coffee to dye my crinkle ribbon but I could not get a rich, deep color. I'll try your instant tea stain method.

[Sharli]

Oh Anna, these are drop-dead gorgeous! I love your style so much - when I grow up (well, let's assume that I will some day) I want to be just like you!

Thanks for sharing how you make the beautiful tea-dyed tags. This is something I've seen, heard about, but never tried and you are giving me courage!

Hugs!

[Diane McNickle]

Beautiful!! Your ornaments always inspire me. Is the tree a die cut?

[Jennifer]

Your star ornaments and trees are beautiful. Makes me want to go make some star ornaments. Your such an inspiration to me.

[Kelly Schirmer]

I think I wanna take the Nestea Plunge with some tags this weekend! Thanks for sharing your tips, and your stars and tree are TOTALLY AWESOME! LOVE!

[Shellie Daniel]

Drip, drip, drip . . . that's you, dripping with talent! LOVE these stars and the beautiful papers you incorporated. What type of adhesive do you use to adhere the papers to the chipboard? Love the stained tags too--very cool.

[Carol Dee]

Great star ornaments and tea stained tags. Thanks for the how-to tips. (You always make it look so easy!) Hugs...

[Karel Hamilton]

I'm just in awe of your talent. I'm a new follower to your blog this week and you are definitely going to be one of my top favorites.

[Toni K]

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!!

[Barb]

I love those star ornaments! I will have to try my hand at that and those tea bag tags, love the look of those tags. Thanks for the ideas.

[Kathy Martin]

Very cool ornaments! Love the tree one too and those tags! I need to stain some too!

[Anthonette]

I loved all of them, Anna! Thanks for the instructions of how to tea stain. I've never tried it.

[Heather]

Love love LOVE these! May have to gather some pretty papers and play with a friend's toys. I've posted more handcrafted pretties on my blog this week as well. Thanks for visiting me last week!

[Karen Paolini]

Your stars are FABULOUS!! I love making visits to your blog, you always inspire me! I can't wait to try your tea stained tags.

xoxo Karen Lee

[Yvonne]

These are GORGEOUS!!! WOW!!! Some of them the coloring makes them almost look quilted!

[Debbie Fisher]

WOW! I love these!

[Judy Workman]

Sometimes I love to see what other people make, and sometimes I am just bitter I don't have those supplies myself. Today I am bitter. I love what you made. I wonder if it's too late to tell Santa to add the big sizzix cutters to my list.

[Dee in N.H.]

Wow, those are all soooo pretty! I can't wait to stain up some tags. TFS!

[Robb_eeie]

These look like something you snagged at a flea market :) Thanks for the recipe to transform them.

[Gabriela (Gabi With An Eye)]

Why yes, I'd love a spot of tea, thank you.

[Tricia]

Those ornaments and tags are so pretty! I'm going to try your receipe for tea stained tags. Thanks for sharing that! Those little rusty bells are pefect!

[Janine]

Anna your ornaments are fabulous!! and the tea stained tags are so wonderful!! Love that primitive look....

[Sally]

Aah, they are so beautiful! Thanks for sharing how you tea stain the tags, will have to give that a try, but didn't figure you'd say instant tea, something I don't keep around.Glad you are feeling better and quite crafty too.