Holiday Decor and Folklore of the Nisse

 

Mr. Chocolate and I come from very different cultural backgrounds, yet we intersect in Scandinavia. His mother was fierce about the origins of her Norwegian ancestry (despite it having been several generations back), which dominated his upbringing. I lived in Denmark in college. So, when we married, I had a love of many Danish and Scandi traditions and he loved their annual tradition of the Nisse coming to visit the night before Christmas Eve. We've kept that tradition going throughout our marriage and raising our son. 

If you're unfamiliar with Nisser (plural), which is what they're called in Norway and Denmark (Tomte) in Sweden, here's some background:

The Story of a Cultural Icon

As he learned it growing up, they're mischievous elves who in return for leaving little gifts, get very cranky if rice is not left out for them. Being a Creative, when we adopted this tradition, I made a production of it. When our son was small, I'd leave notes written by the Nisse indicating whether he was happy with the rice dish we left out. We left it in the same spot every year, and while currently, we've stopped that since the boy is a man now, he and I still do Nisse gifts and act silly about it. 

When I got a new SVG from Craft With Sarah's Countdown to Christmas daily free file, it inspired the idea for this project. 

Supplies:

• Sturdy Box
• Cardboard Scraps
• Misc. Embellishments: Icicles, Greenery, Wreath
• Acrylic Paints
• Hot Glue and Glue Gun

I started with this empty box bottom I'd been using to hold some stuff. You want a good sturdy box that can stand up. 

I cut some strips of scrap cardboard to use to cover these gaps in the box. I put one on each side of the front, and then on the sides. 

I happened to have a couple extra Dollar Tree icicles leftover from another project I'll share this week, and glued them on each corner. I wanted to keep this rustic, in keeping with the folklore origin, so I went with a palette of brown, white, and evergreen. I made the roof out of scrap cardboard. Attached with hot glue and angled each side to meet in the middle which I joined with more hot glue. 

I used the dark brown to dry-brush the front and sides of the box. I grabbed a white paint pen and doodled a design.

This was also a great way to use up some paper scraps. I grabbed some that went with my theme and used them for the door...the thing that started all of this! 

I didn't cut all of the layers from Sarah's file. After all, I wanted this to be rustic and simple. I put the door together using foam squares to give it some depth. 

I had one of these chipboard pieces left over from another project so I dry-brushed it with white and attached. I also found an "N" in some leftover alphabet stickers, so I subsequently added it on top. The wreath is a resin piece from my mystery stash but a small bottlebrush wreath would work too. 

I painted the wreath green, then dry-brushed with a little white, and cut some of the branches from a Dollar Tree Everygreen pick and glued them to the corners. I also had a DT Reindeer ornament from another project, which I glued to the front. I thought I was done but I showed it to Mr. Chocolate (who loves it) and he suggested a sign. Back to the craft stash! I had this little snowman from a Michaels post-season sale. Drilled a hole in his head to hold a piece of bamboo skewer to which I attached the sign. He came up with a play on words that could mean the Nisse has an Inn or the Nisse is in, since in our version, the Nisse neither spells nor writes well. 

So now this will go in our designated Nisse Spot and we'll see what he or she leaves this year! 

 Glædelig jul! 

Repurposing: Upcycled Cigar Box Tea Storage II

 

I mentioned in another post that there was a part II and here it is. While I was busy ordering a special tea for Mr. Chocolate, little did I know that a sweet friend who'd taken a trip to London with her family last year, would be sending us a wonderful assortment of teas from there! Natch, they needed storage befitting their origin.

Supplies:

• Cigar Box
• Acrylic Paints
• Vinyl
• Digital Images
• Crown Embellishment

As I mentioned in my other post, I get my cigar boxes from Total Wine. They're usually on a wall behind the registers. Just take them to the register. 

We might live in the Copper State but it's also a Turquoise State with several turquoise mines so this is an homage to that, plus I love the color! I sanded over the parts of the label I couldn't remove and then painted with Waverly No Prep Paint in Lagoon. I painted the inside edges in case my paper calculations were off. 

The upside to being a paper hoarder, I mean having an extensive scrapbook paper collection, is you have papers for every color project! I chose this marbled paper (Recollections) with gold foiling for my interior, measured, cut, and then applied using Mod Podge Matte. 

Once the inside was done, I dry brushed some white and gold paints on the exterior and then gathered my embellishments. I found a tea sentiment and teapot in Cricut Design Space, cut those from black and gold vinyl as shown, and chose a metal crown from a pack I bought at a stamping show.

I positioned and applied my vinyl, then using Loctite Gel Superglue, applied the crown.

The box had an oval shape engraved in it and debated about covering it with paper but I decided it made a good frame for the crown. 

So that's the story of Tea Box I and Tea Box II and we will each enjoy many tea times to come!

Sharing At:

A Stroll Through Life

Hometalk

Sundays on Silverado

Repurposing: Upcycled Cigar Box to Tea Storage I

 

As much as I may ever joke about my Iced Mocha addiction, we drink a LOT of tea in this house. On a trip last year, the place we stayed had this tea Mr. Chocolate fell in love with. It turned out to be something that had to be specially ordered so I got him a big box for Christmas and it literally came in a cardboard box. Well, that wouldn't do! I have a stash of cigar boxes and knew they were perfect for this project. And stay tuned because there will be a part two I'll share this week.

Supplies:

• Wood Cigar Box (Total Wine sells these for cheap!)
• Acrylic Paint
• Scrapbook Paper
• Mod Podge (I used Matte)
• Vinyl
• Embellishments

Although I haven't gotten any recently, I think Total Wine still sells their empty cigar boxes. I've gotten them for as little as $.99. You can also sometimes get wood crates and other boxes too. These have run me $4-5. 

I grabbed one I had in my stash, sanded any rough edges and then painted using Waverly No Prep Acrylic Paint in Truffle. 

Love this paint so much! I kept the outside pretty simple because Mr. Chocolate is the opposite of me when it comes to blinging things up!

I measured the scrapbook paper I chose (and yes, when I applied it I had a little gap but it'll be covered by tea so...) and used Mod Podge Matte to glue it inside the box. Then I taped off the bottom and went around the edges with silver. 

I chose silver vinyl (Cricut) and an image from Cricut Design Space, sized and cut.

I placed it on top of the box to make sure it was well positioned and then applied using my scraper. To finish, I found some self-adhesive metal studs. 

I let the vinyl design be my guide to where I placed them and applied them until I was satisfied. 

Of course these bougie tea bags are slightly larger than normal so I had to rearrange to close but the most important thing is, Mr. Chocolate loves his box! 

I mentioned there's a part two coming. It was a very Tea Christmas! Stay tuned.

Sharing At: 

A Stroll Through Life

Hometalk

Sundays on Silverado

Goodwill Finds: From Plain to Pretty Candleholders for Less Than The Cost of One

 

I continue to "upscale" my Halloween decor.  Since PhD Man left for college I've switched out a bit each year. This year I knew I wanted some more candleholders to give height and depth to my Halloween decor so, masked up and went to my local Goodwill to see what I could find because as Makers, we're not going to go pay big money for the look we want right? 

Supplies: 

• Thrifted Candleholders 
• Acrylic Paints ( I used Craftsmart Dark Grey, Black  and Martha Stewart Metallic Titanium)
• Antique Gold Rub n Buff

Here's what I found: three un related pieces that would work together

I have no idea what the one on the left is made of but it's heavy ! I cleaned  my finds to get any residue off and then got to work!

Step 1: 

After cleaning, removing stickers etc. paint with a base coat to make everything match. I used Craftsmart Acrylic paint from Michaels in Dark Grey:

I like how they almost look like cement but I wanted more shine. 

Step 2:

Once they were dry, I went back over them with Martha Stewart Metallic Titanium (also Michaels). But then they were too shiny! So I dabbed on a black glaze and wiped off to age them just the right amount. I'm like Goldilocks...too matte...too shiny...just right.

Step 3: 

I wanted to bring out the detail and the raised edges so I grabbed the Rub n Buff from my Faux Spooky Candle project and went over the raised areas, finishing the "buff" part with a soft cloth. 

I'm so happy with how the turned out and coordinate not only with each other but the rest of my decor! While I made these for Halloween decorating, I kept them versatile enough that I can use whenever. Total cost: $9 for all three pieces. 

Until next time...

Eclectic Red Barn

Halloween: Trash to Treasure Spooky Faux Candles

I've been on a bit of a "roll" lately. Pun intended. I have several projects I'm excited to share starting  with this one: Haunted Faux Candles made from repurposed craft rolls. We'd hoped to make another trip to Disneyland around this time but 2020 had other plans. Subconsciously, I think some of my Halloween ideas came from fond memories of things like the Haunted Mansion which this project reminds me of with its Gothic spookiness. 

Supplies: 

• Empty Craft / Wrapping Paper / Paper Towel Rolls. I used empty vinyl rolls and an empty roll from some tulle. I prefer these to paper towel rolls because they're a bit thicker and heartier. 
• Paint. I used Craftsmart Acrylics from Michaels
• Hot Glue and Glue Gun. Stash
• Rub n Buff. Available where fine art supplies are sold

Step 1: 

Drizzle hot glue along the top of your rolls to resemble dripping candle wax.

There's no right or wrong way to do this just drip drip here, drip drip there. 

Step 2: 

Once the glue has set, paint with color of your choice. I used white as shown. 

At this point it's personal preference how many coats of paint you use. I went back over with another coat then dry brushed with silver and black to age them. 

Step 3: 

Once you're satisfied with your candles, you can stop there unless you're me. I wanted to make these look elegant so I decided to highlight some of the candle drips using Antique Gold Rub N Buff. You can also do this with acrylic paint but there's a luster with the Rib N Buff that I love! 

It just so happened that a couple of the craft rolls were the right size to hold real tea light candles ( I won't burn these because "fire hazard" but I like the look) 

Where tea lights won't fit, you can rest an ornament. 

Next time, I'll share the candleholders I did for these! Until then...

Eclectic Red Barn

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