Making Christmas - Atomic Starburst Ornament Tutorial

 This tutorial is one of my favorite tutorials this season. I feel like I'm doing summer camp crafts but they turn out looking so elegant at the same time. I have told you guys in the past that I love mixing graphic prints/items with florals and pretty things. It's kinds of my 'thing' around the house and even in my personal wardrobe. Our Christmas decor is no different. I like mixing some mid-century modern graphic accents in with my girly vintage decor (thanks to my husband for letting me do as I please in this area). I picked up a vintage atomic snowflake bowl and plate from one of my favorite antique stores awhile back and I've been so inspired by this plate set ever since. I wanted to create some ornaments that have a little of that brassy-golden vibe from the plates and this is what I came up with.

 Atomic Starburst Ornaments -

You'll need

Gold spray paint
Golden Polymer Clay
Tooth Picks
Floral Wire
Small Circle Mirrors
E-6000 adhesive

 1. Take a portion of your polymer clay and form a ball. You'll need to squeeze and stretch and warm your clay to soften it.
2. Flatten your ball so that it resembles more of a cylinder shape, you can roll the sides back and forth to make them stand up straighter. I used my mirror as a pattern to keep it's roundness making sure that the cylinder is just slightly wider than the mirror.
3. Stick your tooth picks in the sides of the clay very gently, you don't want the clay to loose it's shape. I just three rows of toothpicks and arranged them so that I could fit several toothpicks all around the cylendar.
4.  Take a 4-5 inch long piece of your floral wire and stick both ends into a gap between your tooth picks (see photo for example). This is what you'll use to hang the ornament onto the tree.
5.  Remove all of your toothpicks and floral wire from your base piece.  If you want to re-shape or smooth out your sides do this while the toothpicks are still inside the clay because you don't want your base to lose it's shape. You'll need to stick your toothpicks back in later. Now bake your clay at around 260 degrees for 25-30 minutes (see your polymer clay package for directions).
6.  Once your clay has baked and cooled use E-6000 adhesive to glue the ends of your toothpicks back into their holes. Do this with your floral wire as well.
7. Once the glue has dried spray paint the entire ornament gold and let it dry completely.
8. Lastly, use a dab of E-6000 to glue your mirrors to your base centers.

All done!

Now hang it up next to your red velvet flocked reindeer and don't give a care. Pshh.

 In all seriousness though, I think these are so pretty and I kind of want to hang them all over my house...all year long.


Happy toothpick crafting y'all.

Love,
   Erin