Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Little Silver House Ornaments

Check out these silvery little ornaments...


They are a 2-D version of my secret-compartment house pendant.  Materials used: cardboard, duct tape and some oddments from your junk drawer.



Want to make some?  Here's the DIY.

First make some squiggly wire smoke plumes.


To make the puffy ones, do this:





Cut some silly tiny houses out of cardboard.


Arrange various flat oddments onto the plain houses.  Scrounge around and improvise.  I tried beads, a plastic leaf, some filigree shapes and paper doilies.


Sandwich your oddments in, using my favorite, magic silver duct tape.


Real aluminum duct tape, from a hardware or home improvement store.  Seriously, you need some, it is fab!  (Click here to see yet another magic metal tape project.)

Snip around the corners and wrap.  As you wrap the chimney, include a smoke plume.


If the wrapping doesn't cover the back of the house or the smoke-plume wire completely, just add more tape to fill in.  Here's how your house will look at this point:


Pretty blah, yes?  But now begin burnishing the tape down around the oddments, and see the textures emerge!


For a burnishing tool, you could use the handle of a butter knife, the rubber grip of a tool (as in the picture above) or anything small and rounded.  You might accidentally press too hard and rip the tape, like I did.  (See that little crescent of green cardboard peeking through?)  No biggie!  Just add a scrap of tape and burnish to blend it in with the rest.  This stuff is very forgiving.

Now you are done!


I think they're pretty cute!

Make a few for your holiday tree if you have one.  I do not have a tree this year, so naturally I hung them on a bouquet of  beaded sticks and peacock feathers.


Naturally.

Psst!  Want to check out some of my other ornament ideas?  Click here!  And here!  And how 'bout here?

Thanks for visiting!




33 comments:

  1. ooh ooh I know! You should do this on a candle! Or a candle holder...you know, on the outside...that would be so pretty! I love it. I want some of that tape now!

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  2. How sweet! And yes, your're right, I definitly NEED some real metal tape! :)

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  3. Definitely outside the box - but lovely ornaments just the same. Magic silver duct tape, huh

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  4. Those are so cute! Very creative! Who knew you could do that with just tape!
    Thanks for linking up to my Holiday Open House!

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  5. like? LOVE! Had no idea such tape existed! I def need some!

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  6. Never seen silver duct tape either, but these are so clever! Great job!

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  7. So cool....so many possibilites...so many surfaces to be adorned! Looks like embossed metal. I hope you link these up to my Open House on Friday!!

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  8. Neato mosquito!!!!!!!
    This has me thinking baout gift tags....Hmmmm.....

    PS: Love the peacock feathers too :)

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  9. That is BRILLIANT!!!!!!!! What a cool idea!!! I hit my goal of 50 links, so be sure to come back next week cuz I'm having a giveaway!!!!! Thanks for linking up to gettin' crafty on hump day!!!!!!! :)

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  10. Just wanted to let you know I shared a link to these on my blog's, FB page.
    http://www.facebook.com/AGlimpseInside

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  11. Okay that is too cool Michelle! You and your little metal duct-tape houses in all their incarnations make me very very happy. And I think your wire smoke hangers are beyond clever, maybe genius even.

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  12. Um, way cool blog! I love to "up-cycle" stuff. :)

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  13. Magic just happens when you get near that metal, doesn't it??? Those are so cool!!! And they look really great next to the peacock feathers! You can decorate almost anything with metal.

    Great lesson and especially love how you show us how to fix mistakes, 'coz you KNOW they would happen to us! :)

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  14. Naturally, what a great place to hang those little darlings. Just so over-the-top clever as always. That tape is magical and there is nothing you can't do with it. Keep these fantastical creations coming.

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  15. Those are so cute. Love the squiggly smoke.
    Sophie

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  16. These are seriously cool!! Whimsical yet pretty.

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  17. You are just in time, my decoration is not quite finished yet. Wheres my duct tape? And I dimly remember seeing some wire somewhere. Gotta go, there's houses to make!

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  18. Yup, Cletus and me, we made our decorations outta duct tape, wire, and stuff from the junk drawer...how do you come up with this stuff??? And how do they turn out so flippin' elegant????

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  19. So cute -what a neat idea! Gonna have to Follow now..... :)

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  20. hola michelle, estos adornos estàn muy lindos, que ingenio que tienes!!!!

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  21. That tape is on my wish-list (well ebay watch-list! I will be buying it after Christmas) since your secret compartment house ;)

    These are cool! I love the squiggley wire smoke and I really love the effects you get with the embellishments under the tape!

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  22. how smart it is..i think these can be easily convert into key chains,cell phone hanging accessory & so many things..very very smart tutorial...

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  23. I just love it !!! I have to find this metal tape !!!!!!

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  24. You are such a genius!! Every post is more delightful than the last.

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  25. These are really cool! Thanks for sharing.

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  26. What do you mean "burnish" them? I didn't see anything mentioned about a burnishing tool.

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  27. Very pretty house ornaments. Thanks for sharing.
    Buy Here Pay Here

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  28. Hey, these are GREAT! I can't wait to try - thank you for sharing :D

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  29. I LOVE this idea..... my Girl Scouts are doing special ornament crafts for the FedEx Family House at LeBonheur Children's Hospital... I am going to see if I can come up with a way for the girls to create the house logo... think they would be adorable and wonderful gifts for the families!... and perfect for our budget!! Thank you for sharing!

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  30. I will try some hot glue to make patterns then let it dry I think it might just work. These are so cute. your "fail" made me think if I put a pic for the second layer then put the tape framing around the pic.

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