Sunday, December 5, 2010

Decking The Halls: Tree 3...The Formal Tree

I was obsessed with Christmas decorations from childhood. No one knows why. And the Mumster ( aka Mom) and my since departed Daddy, both knew they had a weird kid (for a LOT of reasons beyond Christmas!). I even had my own tree in my room as a kid so now you'll really think really me ungrateful, but it was ALUMINUM! And our  big tree was artificial and I longed for a real tree but I had terrible asthma and allergies and as a parent myself know now that my parents did what was best for me.

But from the time I first lived on my own, I've had a real tree  and over the years it's gone from whatever decorations I could afford  (which some years was barely the ribbon) to a collection for which I am grateful and love, but which has been built over time, including several years of day after Christmas 50% off shopping!

It's kind of hard to see because it has a lot of clear crystal and glass ornaments on it so they blend in. But IRL, they catch the lights and we often just sit in the quiet of the night and think back on the years they represent. 
Another collection I've built over the years is one of Santas. It's not uncommon  for me to get special ornaments or Santas for birthdays, Mother's Day, or just when we're on a trip. If there's a Christmas store somewhere,  I'll find it.
A few of the Santas hanging out together
And the big boss Santa who makes sure the others behave
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Friday, December 3, 2010

PEACE

OK I'm a little out of control and Mr. Chocolate is afraid I'm going to hang a banner on him. But  since I was compelled to buy both packages of those Jolee's snowflake stickers I used for my Vintage-y Music-y ornaments, I couldn't just let them sit there right? 'Course not. So what surface wasn't yet adorned with a banner? A mirror in our bedroom! And since it came from the great Barn o Pottery, I decided to do a PB-esque banner.

To the craft cave! Oh did I mention I've been to Starbucks? Cut out the letters to spell PEACE on my Cricut using a metallic pewter cardstock. Cut out ovals using the same cart ( Plantin Schoolbook) from a vintage cream cardstock. Cut out slightly bigger ovals from white. Ran the white ovals through:

my 5" XYRON. This is a very versatile size XYRON if you're looking for something to put on your Christmas list. Glued the letters to the cream ovals using this which is part of the superfantabulous Elmer's/XACTO giveaway I won from Craft ENVy. It's a double sided glue pen with one side for wet bonding and the other for dry bonding! Oooh la la.
This allows better control of adhesive to things like letters because it works just like a pen. Some people go all squibbly over shoes or clothes. I go all squibbly over things like this. OK shoes and clothes too but I'm just sayin'.

Pulled the backing off the bigger ovals and stuck the smaller, lettered ovals on, then added one of the snowflake stickers to each letter:. You'll have a sticky edge left. I poured silver glitter on that, then attached to a cream ribbon using glue dots:
These stickers are REALLY detailed!
And here it is strung across our  mirror:
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 UndertheTableandDreaming

Vintage-y Music-y Snowflake-y Orny

These ended up on my railing garland , the pics of which turned out terrible so not going to post them, but will post the pics of the ornaments and the steps to make. Start with one of these:
Paper Mache Ornament
Cover with sheet music and edge in silver glitter:
 I found these very cool metallic snowflake stickers by Jolee's at Michaels in their clearance bin. They only had two packages so of course I bought both.
Stick one in the middle of your music covered ornament and they come with self adhesive rhinestones, so I plopped one in the center of the snowflake and: 
Vintage-y Music-y Snowflake-y Orny

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A Little Knick Knack 




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 UndertheTableandDreaming

It's BFF...Blog Feature Friday!


Got a little off track last week. I blame it on the tryptophan, but back on schedule this week to feature a blog that's newer to me and I want to share with all of you. This week's BFF is Gwenny Penny named for its founder Gwen.

Gwen describes herself as:  A full-time mom of two little girls with an insatiable desire to make stuff. I can totally relate to that insatiable thing! And I found out that she and I might just share a brain ( although she got the math smarts because she's a former math teacher) when she said this on her blog:

I absolutely love fabric and paper. I have stashes of both that have never been touched because I don't want to cut into them. I am working on getting over this.

Me too Gwen...me too...then every once in a while I say: "you just have to cut cut cut!"

Gwen's blog is full of great ideas like this perfect for the holly-days holly wreath:
 for which she has a tutorial you can go check out, and which kicked off a great series she's got going through December 10 called:




Haul out the Holly,Gwenny Penny,Christmas craft tutorials
.
Definitely check that out because there are some great guest posts and tutorials in addition to Gwen's own projects! She also does printables, like this really cute one she did for Autumn:
 And she's a talented seamstress. This pillow is the first thing that brought me to her blog:
 I hope you'll go visit this week's BFF: Gwenny Penny!

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Decking The Halls: Tree 2

Continuing on the tour of Christmas crazy...

In addition to liking the whimsical combo of red and lime, I liked the idea of a woodsy natrual look ( on an artificial tree...I know) so of course that meant its own tree. This one's in our dining room, another 4ft table top tree:


Once again I didn't buy all the decorations at once ( really honey, I didn't) so it's a mix of some I bought and others I made. I used to ice skate so have a few skate ornaments and so this tree has been reserved for them. There are green and brown Martha glass pinecones and small glass balls, as well as these embossed metal doves I made one year:
and paper stars wrapped with copper wire and crystal beads:
The topper is made from leftover faux pears and ribbon from another project, and instead of a skirt, I filled the bottom of the tree / top of the stand with a sugar beaded apple garland I found on super sale somewhere one year:
This little Mark Roberts Woodland fairy keeps watch over the tree:

He's happy that the crazy lady didn't stick him IN the tree like she did some of his friends.

Decking The Halls: Tree 1

OK that sounds a little "Cat In The Hat"...Thing 1 and Thing 2. They're not quite that wacky! And, you're probably wondering: "How many trees does she have"? Don't ask. Just kidding. 4. Well 3 that I do, and 1 that the boys do and I'm not allowed to touch. And 2 are little 4ft trees that I got because I liked the idea of different themes. It's the one time I went out early the day after Thanksgiving to get a deal at JoAnn's.

"Tree 1" is my whimsical tree, with lots of red and lime green. I like the quirkiness of Patience Brewster Krinkles ornaments, but *sigh*, they rarely go on sale so I buy them sparingly. This is also becoming the Santa tree where I put Santa themed ornaments:
My favorite ornament on this tree:
When I decided to add more trees to my life, I didn't go out and buy all the ornaments because that would have been expensive and we make things right? So I did a bunch of these beaded snowflakes in my color scheme:

And part of the fun for me is finding deals after the holidays like a beaded garland I picked up at the Restoration Hardware outlet store for 75% off.  Christmas for me also means Teddy Bears and Mark Roberts Fairies:
HELP! A crazy lady has me in a bowl of ornaments. It's undignified!
At least she didn't put me in the bowl, like the bear!
I want Christmas all through the house so this one sits at the top of our stairs.

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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Decking The Halls: The Mantel

Somewhere, buried in the bins I'm still going through I have some greenery that I'm going to add to this, but it's 90% finished so I thought I'd share it anyway. I changed things up this year and went with shades of green, white, and brown. I shared the banner tutorial the other day.
I used the candleholders and candles that are on the mantel all year round but added small white and clear wreaths to them. 

The "NOEL" framed art is something I showed earlier, in preparation for my Christmas mantel, along with altered candles and my $1 Store footed hurricane vase ( vase plus candlestick so I guess it's $2) filled with epsom salt snow and different shades of green and brown Martha Stewart glass balls. The sugar pine cone we've had for years.
The other side of the mantel has my other all year round candlestick ( re-finished Goodwill find), another altered candle and a glass block I found at JoAnn's this summer on sale for $1.97. I bought all the ones they had of course and luckily Mr. Chocolate was with me because those puppies get heavy, so some will be gifts. The ribbon is from Michael's this year. It has a snowflake print along with a little gold glitter and the green and brown went perfectly with my theme!