Altered Puzzle Piece Ornament
Bugs and Daffy appeared in many cartoons together, so pairing them seemed a natural choice. All of the ornaments in this series have a beaded holly dangle, but the other components were chosen from my stash of beads.
On this ornament I paired Marvin and Taz, for no good reason except that the images on the wrapping paper were limited to seven: Bugs, Daffy, Sylvester, Tweety, Taz, Marvin, and Pepe le Pew. In retrospect, I could have done a Bugs-Taz pair and a Marvin-Daffy pair. Maybe I will yet.
These "altered" puzzle ornaments are made from a single large jigsaw puzzle piece. You can purchase blank puzzle pieces from a craft store, or recycle pieces from a kids' puzzle, which is what I did. The one I used was already missing several pieces so wasn't a keeper, but the large pieces are perfect for making altered art and ornaments.
The images I used came from some Looney Tunes Christmas wrap I had on hand. I put two different characters on each ornament, though you could use the same character on both sides if you like. To begin, I painted the puzzle pieces white so the original images wouldn't show through. I positioned the puzzle piece over the wrapping paper image and traced closely around the piece with a sharp pencil, then fussy-cut the image about 1/16" inside the traced line. I tried the cut-out on the puzzle piece and trimmed where necessary, then decoupaged it on with Mod Podge and let it dry thoroughly.
To make the faces stand out, I covered them with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic and let it dry. After several hours (preferably overnight), I added glitter glue to the remaining surfaces and let those dry.
When all the glue had dried, I punched holes for hanging using a heavy-duty punch (I used one made for metal, as the little paper punches are not strong enough to punch through the thick layers. If you don't have a suitable punch, you may be able to make holes with a hammer and nail). Then I attached several beaded dangles using jump rings.
The beaded dangles give the ornaments movement and visual interest, and they look great on the tree. These were made using beads from my stash, chosen in colors to coordinate with the images and strung on 20 gauge craft wire, then linked to the ornament with jump rings.
Holly leaf beads paired with a red bead make a nice dangle, along with small colored jingle bells. The rest of the beads were chosen in red, green, white, and gold to match the colors in the images.
Sylvester is a favorite at our house. I oriented the puzzle piece wide rather than long in order to capture most of his face, and as a result I ended up with four dangles rather than my usual three. I like the bead combination on this one, but I have since kind of wondered whether that fourth dangle should be shortened to just the heart.
Not Just Looney Tunes
Altered puzzle ornaments will work with just about any image: gift wrap, Christmas cards, photos, or printed images made with a laser printer or photocopier (inkjet images will smear when decoupaged). And although I didn't use any surface embellishments on the Looney Tunes versions, I like to add them whenever they seem appropriate.
I used a gift wrap image on one side of this ornament, and finished the back with paint and glitter. I quite like the glittered side, and I've been thinking of doing some with just glitter.
The dangles, beads, and sequins were taken from my crafting stash. The red bell and the red holly leaf, as well as the beads I used for the berries, were parts of a plastic garland which I cut apart. They add a bit of dimension to the flat puzzle surface.
Although it looks vaguely pinkish in that right hand picture, this ornament is actually all white. I used an iridescent gift wrap to cover the puzzle surfaces, then added sequins, beads and dangles all in white or silver.
I like the way the iridescent surface reflects light, despite the fact that it looks pink some of the time (pink isn't my favorite color for Christmas).
The snowflakes were cut from a couple of fused bead garlands that I picked up at a thrift store. These garlands often get discarded because they are hard to store without ending up in a tangled mess, but they're a great source of surface embellishments for ornaments.
The foil gift wrap on this one lends a bit of shine. I also added a little bit of iridescent glitter to the white parts of the image for extra shimmer.
The red bead in the indentation is actually a glass bird -- a Christmas cardinal, which I think looks too cute nestled in the opening.
The red holly leaves and beads are part of a fused bead garland, which I caught with a jump ring and topped with a pony bead in the shape of a star. The flat silver beads were taken from another of the same garlands in silver.
I added tiny rhinestones to the little berries on the greenery, for sparkle and also for surface texture.
Here's another holly gift wrap with a glittered reverse side.
I added some surface texture using components cut from yet another fused bead garland. I glued the large star to the surface and let the beads and small star dangle. I like the look and will use it again.
The back features a felt holly motif with rhinestone beads that I purchased in a pack at a dollar store. The dangles are my usual combination of beads from my crafting stash. I love those lightbulb dangles.
This Silver Bells ornament looks ever so wintry in blue, white, and silver.
The holly leaves and bell came from one of the fused bead garlands, and the snowflake from another. I added a blue jingle bell to serve as a clapper for the silver bell. The rest of the beads came from my stash.
The holly leaves and snowflake give surface texture, and a bit of iridescent glitter gives added sparkle.
The front of this gorgeous ornament features an image of holly taken from some Christmas wrap; the back is plain white, glittered for sparkle. I added small red beads to the holly and a heart embellishment to the plain back, which I also outlined with a line of gold glitter glue.
For the dangles, I chose beads to match the shade of green on the holly leaf image, and added a touch of red and pearl for contrast. This one will likely go on my own tree.
An ornament collection wouldn't be complete without Santa Claus!
The little cameo is a flat-backed 7/8" button glued on top of the poinsettia motif. The back of the ornament is glittered, with glued-on "Ho Ho Ho" and green Santa spangles.
Three beaded dangles include a fancy jingle bell with red poinsettia on the surface.
A real acorn and natural cones from an alder tree help give this ornament its outdoorsy feel. The cones have been brushed with a bit of white paint to highlight the shape, then ModPodged to help preserve them.
The puzzle piece has been decoupaged on both sides with small-scale buffalo check print. Along with the acorn dangle, I added beads in natural tones accented with a bit of red .
Christmas stockings dangle from this brick-patterned puzzle ornament. I used dollhouse paper and made the stockings by fussy-cutting the print-outs and gluing them to a double layer of black card stock.
The wreaths were made from chenille stems twisted into a circle and dabbed with a bit of white paint, then decorated with tiny holly spangles and red beads. I added texture medium for a snow effect on the edges. The Santa dangle is a glass bead.