The ornament is a sandwich that consists of red embossed cardstock, green craft foam, white craft foam, the cross-stitched fabric (not shown below), green cardstock and the red embossed cardstock again.
I started off using the same double sided tape method that I used for these ornaments but, probably because the double-sided tape was the kind without the protective paper, I found that it didn't do a satisfactory job of keeping the layers together. Instead, I developed a much slower but "ooze free" glue process to assemble the sandwich.
To keep the shape of the layers as similar as possible I used a rotary cutter and quilting ruler to cut the 2 pieces of back-to-back embossed cardstock at the same time and also punched the holes through the 2 layers of cardstock at the same time. Then I laid the front piece on the white craft foam and the back on the green craft foam. As with the earlier ornament I used the existing craft foam edges and corners as much as possible. I used a toothpick to trace around the cardstock edges that weren't against a craft foam edge so that I would know where to apply the glue.
My ooze free glue process involved applying a narrow bead of glue about 1/4 of an inch from the edges of the cardstock and foam core (and toothpick lines), using a small flat paint brush to flatten out the glue without depositing any glue right at the edge and then using the same brush to disburse a very fine layer of that glue right out to the edges and toothpick line.
After stacking the cardstock and craft foam I matched up the edges, checked for and removed any oozing glue, and let them dry with a flat weight on top. Because the front pieces were thicker than the back pieces, I didn't place them under the same weight. Because the front piece was thicker in the middle than at the edges, I placed craft sticks (popsicle sticks) and bits of craft sticks on top of the cardstock and adjacent to the edges before placing the weight on top. Strips of mat board could be used in place of the craft sticks.
To ensure that the glue cured completely I left them for about 12 hours. (To help speed up the project, I did 3 fronts and 3 backs at the same time.) When the glue was cured, I used a rotary cutter and quilting ruler to trim the craft foam to match the cardstock then carefully used the hole punch to punch the craft foam. The holes in the foam didn't have nice crisp edges but twirling the cone of a sharpened pencil in the holes tidied up most of the fuzziness. I used the ooze free method to adhere the ornament fronts to the backs, placed craft sticks ...
and the weight on the top and left them for 12 more hours.
I haven't yet decided what I will use for the hangers. I used 6 strands of red and white embroidery floss to make a few lengths of "baker's twine" and if nothing else turns up it will be a satisfactory choice.
The day I finished these ornaments I took the photos, put the ornaments away to be packaged up in December and put away all of the stitching/ assembly materials and tools. I felt a keen sense of satisfaction for meeting my deadline and having a clean and clear desktop. Hours later I realized that this year I need 16, not 15 ornaments. I should have clued in earlier because I had accidentally cut 16 pieces of fabric, the 8.5" x 11" red cardstock sheets each accommodated 8 tag shapes and the 12" x 18" craft foam sheets each accommodated 16 tag shapes.
In about a month I'll pull everything out again and construct the 16th ornament.
PS. Finished the 16th ornament. (Two days of stitching and one day for finishing.) Opted to make cording using 5 strands of white and 5 strands of red floss.
