It can be so much fun to decorate a Christmas tree, but if you don’t love the idea of jingle bells, reindeer, or snowmen…. because you’d rather decorate with Krampus or skulls… I’m here to help. You can certainly get shopping… there are plenty of curious ornaments on the market these days! OR.. you can make your own! Every year, I try to think of simple ways to transform ordinary Christmas ornaments into something with a darker twist. The first of those I worked on this year is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe …. a Raven Nevermore Skull Christmas Ornament!
The base of this mixed media ornament is the Raven. While ravens are certainly not typical Christmas decor, plenty of other birds are. It’s not too hard to find bird ornaments anywhere that has a decent selection. Obviously not every bird can pass as a raven, but in many cases, you paint a bird black, and add a quote from the poem The Raven… and suddenly your mind plays tricks on you.
For the Nevermore sign, I decided to go with Foil Sheets. They are super easy to work with, and give the appearance of metal, which I thought gave a nice vintage quality to the ornament. Reminiscent of a typewriter…. after all… I am channeling Poe! Add some accent beads, and voila – a Gothic Mixed Media Ornament!
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What you’ll need to recreate these ornaments:
- Bird Ornaments
- Adhesive Foil Sheets
- Metal Letter Stamp Set
- Hammer
- Steel Bench Block
- Small Hole Punch
- Jump Rings
- Jewelry Pliers
- Skull Bead
- Accent Bead
- Eye Pins
- Ribbon
1. Paint the bird ornaments black
2. Place a sheet of foil on the stamping block
3. Place the N stamp onto the foil. *Make sure the letter is facing the correct direction.
4. Using the hammer, give the top of the stamp two firm taps. *Don’t hit too hard, the stamp will cut through the foil. An impression of the N will be left in the foil.
5. Repeat with the letters, spelling out Nevermore. Getting the alignment and spacing of the letters correct can be a bit of a challenge at first, so it’s worth it to do a test run until you get the hang of it. No sense in wasting all of those foil sheets!!
6. Create a second imprint of the word Nevermore.
7. Cut a rectangle around both words
8. Peel the backing off of one of the rectangles and adhere to the back side of the other rectangle. This allows the Nevermore Sign to be seen from any angle as the ornament spins and dangles from the tree. If you want the sign to be a bit thicker, you can adhere each of the rectangles to a piece of card stock or cardboard.
9. Trim the sign to the desired shape
10. Punch a hole at the center top and bottom of the foil rectangle
11. Thread the accent bead and the skull bead each onto an eye pin, and use the jewelry pliers to form an eye on the straight end.
12. Use jump rings to connect the bird to the accent bead, the accent bead to the foil sign, the sign to the skull bead, and top the skull with one last jump ring.
13. Tie a black ribbon through the final jump ring to create a hanger
Hang on your tree and enjoy! And once Christmas is over, grab an ornament stand, and you can display this special piece all year long!
If you’re a Poe fan like me, you’ll also want to make these Poe Themed Ball Ornaments for your tree.
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