N is for Nicholas!

Make N is for Nicholas ornament cards with eight different images. The letters may be decorated with three gold balls, the most widely recognized symbol for Saint Nicholas.

Materials

• Wooden "N" letters
  large 4¼ x 4 1/8 inches
  or small 1¾ x 1¼ inches
• I used Craft it with Wood letters by Tree House Studio from Hobby Lobby, the large letters were 2/99¢, small 4/77¢. If you need a quantity for a group project they may need to be ordered. When I was getting supplies the other craft stores were out of "N".
  
• Saint Nicholas pictures
• Cover or cardstock for color printing
  hp Brochure Paper 180g, 48 lb, gave good clear bright results; Wausau Exact Vellum Bristol did well, but not as bright
• Cold laminating sheets
  Laminating cards on both sides makes them stiffer more durable
• Acrylic paint
I used 2-oz bottles of Ceramcoat in Crimson, Bright Red, Liberty Blue, Christmas Green and Antique Rose
• Gold stickers ½-round for large letters or ¼-inch round for small letters or gold posterboard
• Narrow ribbon or cord

Equipment

• Paper cutter
  
• Paint brushes ¾-inch for large letters, 3/8-inch for small
• Wax paper
• ½-inch or ¼-inch punch to make circles, if not using stickers
  Paper Shapers has a ½-inch circle punch
• Small punch to make holes for hanging
• Glue or adhesive

Directions

1. Print as many copies of the Saint Nicholas images as needed
2. Laminate cards before cutting apart
3. Paint wooden letters with acrylic paint, put on wax paper to dry
   Acrylic paint dries in 15 minutes, a bit longer if it is thicker in the narrow places
   Two coats gives a good finish, especially needed with green
   When dry, smooth off any extra paint bits from the edges
4. Decorate letters with three gold balls for Saint Nicholas, using stickers or gold circles punched out from gold posterboard
5. Glue letters onto cards
6. Punch holes and insert ribbon or cord to hang ornaments

Small letter ornaments

N is for Nicholas!

Ornaments, of course, may be made for other saints as well.

Adapted from "Advent Saints Christmas Tree Ornaments, Under Her Starry Mantle.

Tips for accurate PDF printing

For Adobe Reader 7.0

In the Adobe Print dialog box, check these boxes:

For older versions
In the Adobe Print dialog box, make sure the boxes for Shrink oversized pages to paper size and Expand small pages to paper size are NOT checked. (In some versions the option is Page Scaling: NONE, click to find Fit to pages and Shrink large pages.)

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