Family Goal Ornaments

There are so many pieces of our past on this tree, photos throughout the years, ornaments I made during our first year together, Atti’s little footprints, but it was missing a piece of our future. Remember this project I promised would come back around? Now’s the time.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Some plain ornaments
alphabet stamps (a variety of sizes and styles works great)
Pigment ink
Embossing powder (a variety of colors really looks good)
a heat gun
your list of words

This is just regular old embossing, but here’s the rundown if you’ve never tried it before.

Stamp your highest priority word on the center of the ball with your largest stamps and pigment ink. The ink can be pretty slippery, so I’d suggest buying a few extra ornaments to practice on. I’d also suggest balancing as much of your hand as you can on the ball so that the only thing moving are your thumb and forefinger. This will make a really stable surface.

Pour embossing powder over the inked letters and shake the excess off inside something you can use to pour the powder back into the jar. A plain sheet of paper works just fine, but I love my fancy little tray with built in funnel I got in the beading aisle.

Heat the powder with the heat gun until it melts. Don’t hold the gun too close or else it could discolor the ball.

Keep going with your other goals, adding different colors of embossing powder. Since I was inspired by the wordle design, I used smaller stamp alphabets for the lower priority goals. This also helps to fit in some of those really long words.

I think this could be a really great way of capturing the changes in your family from year to year. As Atti grows up I might add balls that commemorate his favorite thing about that year, or a new years resolution.