DIY Frida Christmas Ornaments #Mexi-Christmas

Anytime of the year is a good time for Frida, in my very humble opinion. Valentine's Day, Cinco de Mayo, Halloween, Groundhog Day--you name it, and I can incorporate my muse. What can I say, I'm #obsessed.

Now, of course you can have vintage ornaments or a collection of snow men hanging from your tree. That's nice. But wouldn't it be bad ass to have a few of your favorite Frida Kahlo portraits, too? Surely, I can't be the only one doing a Napoleon Dynamite right now.

Yesssssssss.

This DIY ornament project is so easy, guys. There are so many ways you can make your own handmade ornaments. Let me show you how.

What you'll need:

I made color copies of the Frida portraits I liked. I also made a few Loteria card ornaments and I used actual Loteria cards. They are quite a bit thicker and take a little more effort to muscle on the ornament, but the color is amazing. Once again, I used Collage Pauge Sparkle. I can't get enough of that stuff! Be sure to buy the ornaments that are flat...I'm sure the round ornaments would work fine but I think alot of the detail of your artwork would get lost, since you are actually looking through the glass.

Step 1: Place your image on the ornament with Collage Pauge.

Brush a coat of Collage Pauge on the front of your color copy. Think of it as glue with a touch of sparkle wonderfulness. Now press your image down (face first) on the ornament. Smooth it with your fingers and try to eliminate any air bubbles. I've found the best way to do this is to let the medium sit for a few seconds and get tacky. Now brush another coat of Collage Pauge. Let it dry.

Doesn't she already look beautiful?

Now flip your ornament over. You should be looking at Frida through the glass, like the photo above.

Step 2: Decorating your ornament with glitter.

Now you can start making your ornament look fancy by using glitter, flat crystals, ribbon, jute--whatever crumbles your cookie. I tried a few ornaments with loose glitter and it was making me lose my mind (I hope Kathy will still be friends with me!), but this is where Stickles Glitter Glue stepped in and rescued me from a loose glitter-induced hell. The glitter glue tip gives you perfect control.

Maybe that's my problem--I want to be in control all the time. I can't lose myself with abandon in loose glitter. They look beautiful in tubes but in real life, it's just too messy. I'm always afraid it will get in my eye. What does it mean? What does it mean?

See, art really does double as therapy. Don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

Golden polka-dots are my jam.

Let the glitter glue completely dry. Go and make yourself a sandwich (I like turkey and swiss--avocado, if you have any). Take a nap. Go scrub the toilets. In other words, make yourself busy because it's going to take a while for the glitter glue to dry.

Step 3: Add tissue paper as your background color.

I went with tissue paper for this project because paint can easily scrape off craft glass. Tissue paper is cheap, it dries very sheer, it comes in many colors and when paired with glitter, it takes on this pretty, sari-type effect. Very lovely.

I eyeballed the size and cut out a circle in the tissue paper. Trim it down and find the size that best suits your design. Brush a few strokes of Collage Pauge and place your tissue paper on top of the Frida image. The tissue paper won't take a lot of abuse so work quickly. Brush another coat on top of the ornament to seal it. Let dry.

And now, you have this magnificent little beauty. Ornaments as delicate and beautiful as Diego's little paloma.

Of course, you can pretty much put any artwork on these you want. They are yours, after all, and this is a free country. As for me, I totally fell in love with this project and I kinda got carried away with Frida, which tends to happen,  so I made a few more.

Love.

You can find the rest of these little beauties at my Pearmama shop on Etsy.

This will kick off the season of #Mexi-Christmas crafting--can't wait to see what the holidays will inspire! xoxo