Home For the Holidays......

I love being at home. It's nice to travel to different places and see different things but it's oh so nice to come home.  These ornaments are inspired by the "homebody" in me!

 Chipboard covered with decorative papers and embossed with silver embossing powder with stamps.

 Burlap house with a tinsel roof.  I made the birds and keyhole from shrink plastic.

Are there any other homebodies out there like me?

Burlap Trees.....

I've been kind of obsessed with burlap this season and got a little carried away with making trees out of it!   I cut out chipboard and covered the front and back with burlap.  I used Mod Podge to glue on the burlap first by using a paintbrush and layering on a good amount of Mod Podge then laying on the burlap then painting on another thick layer of glue.  After it was dry then I cut it out.  

 The fun part was digging into my junk stash and putting the embellishing touches on them!

 The trunks are made from an old folding ruler that was cut into pieces.

A Use of tiny boxes

A friend sent me the cutest little house pendant in a little cardboard jewelry box recently and it got me thinking.......hmmmmm I could make ornaments out of the box and make my own little wooden houses, and that's just what I did!

 I covered the boxes with scrapbook paper and glued thin tinsel crack around the outside of it.  Then I made the houses out of wood and covered them with paper and ba-da-bing.....it's a sweet little ornament!

Have you recycled anything and turned it into an ornament this year?

Merry Christmas!!!!

Wishing all my friends in blogland a very Merry Christmas!

Digital card made with elements (except for the snowman) from Christmas Cheer by Tumble Fish Studio which can be found at Deviantscrap.com

Bottle Brush and Book Text Trees Galore!

Cream and white galore! Who uses the word "galore" anymore?  I guess I do!  I probably get it from my mom b/c she uses it too!  This year I made a drastic departure from the traditional way I usually do my mantle.  I've always done it in pine roping with red and green baubles and beads but I felt I wanted something more peaceful this year.  So this is what I came up with..........

I got this very cool piece of pottery at a flea market for a dollar.  It has a cream colored base with a bumpy white texture to it that reminds me of snow.......

A very tall hymnal music and text tree.  The white candles were also a flea market find for one thin dollar.

Peat pots make great little containers!

I bought a whole bag of green bottle brush trees and dipped them in a solution of water and bleach for about 15 minutes.  Large wooden blocks of wood covered with various decorative cardstock is a great way to elevate the trees.......

This is a big cloche I made out of chicken wire to go over the tree just to balance out the tall tree at the other end of the mantle.   I cut the paper strips a little wider and cut the tips with pinking scissors for this tree.......

The white lights are doubled over and then wrapped with a cream strip of tulle.  The use of the tulle diffuses the light and gives a soft glow.

This piece was created with chicken wire molded into a basket shape, glued to a candle stick base and filled with moss, tinsel and a glittery bird (with a hat, because all birds should wear hats).

So that's my mantle for Christmas 2011! What do you think?

It's Christmastime!  Here's my newest creation which I used a book for a base in which I glued the pages together.  How about that clock face?  It's backed with chipboard and it stands up by itself.  

I used the Nestabilities "gears" to cut out the gears from brown cardstock.  The house I made out of cardstock and glued burlap to the roof.  I think it makes it look like a thatch roof.  The bottle brush tree was green so I dunked it in Clorox and dyed it out white.  Now let's talk about the picture.  It's a picture from 1911.  I think they are sisters?  I backed the clear flat backed marbles with glitter copper colored paper and glued them down with clear calking hit with glitter.  That calking is cheap and works great to glue stuff together and really looks like snow. 

Merry Christmas!

A Red, Grey and White Christmas......

Just playing around with Tumble Fish Studio's Frippery Kit.  I created these collages with elements from her kit and then backed them with heavy chipboard and trimmed them out with thin tinsel to make them into ornaments.

Holiday Digi

Playing around with a new kit by Tumble Fish Studio called Frippery.  

I converted everything to black and white.  I'm thinking about turning this one into a small ornament with silver tinsel around it.  

Have you every noticed how we use the word "display" when it comes to Christmas decorations?  Would you still use the word display if only hung up one Christmas ornament? LOL!

What's your favorite thing to display at Christmastime?

Winter Wonderland Book......

He's ready for the snow.........are you?

The base of this piece is a book!  I painted an old hard covered book light blue, glued the pages together and printed out a title for the spine and glued it on.  The snowman's face has been hand sculpted out of paperclay and painted.  I made the hat and scarf from a scrap of felt.

As I was glueing the pages together I tucked glittery snowflakes between the pages here and there to peek out.   I secured a hanger on the back and he's ready to hang on the wall!

Rock-n-Roll Santa!

Jingle Bell Rock! I glued all of the is stuff backed with grunge board onto an old record!

Many of the images I got from Tumble Fish Studio's  Christmas Cheer Elements which can be found on Deviant Scrap.

Don't you just love the vintage-feel of the this Santa?!?!?

Jingle Bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock.................

Chicken Wire Basket Tutorial

Hey it's time for a little tute! Since it's time to do some serious Christmas crafting let's get down to it.......

You need a piece of Chicken wire about 18 inches long and 2 feet high.  Put a dish towel down so you don't scratch your table or counter top.

 I use these big tin snips to cut the wire.....

You will need  a bowl that measures 6 inches across and is 4 inches or more deep.

Flip the bowl upside down and place the chicken wire over it.

Start to form the wire around the begin to mold it around the bowl working your way around the bowl.

 Grab the wire and the bowl and flip it over so that wire is still molded around the bowl.

Now you are going to use your wire cutters and trim about 2 inches from the edge of the top of the bowl the whole way around and discard the wire you cut off.

It should look like this.......

Now for the scratchy part.  Start to form the edge of the wire around the edge of the bowl. Press firmly.

Time for a trim job again!  Trim the wire flush to the top of the bowl. Remove the bowl.

Now take a small pair of pliers ( used round nose) and bend the wire over so it won't poke you.

Your bowl should look like this......

I took three, 16 inch pieces of 18 gauge wire and roughly twisted them around to make a handle.

I put a piece of burlap in the bottom, filled it Spanish moss, glittered up a dollar store bird, added a hat and stuck him in a peat pot filled with tinsel.  I also attached a cotton batting and cream felt flower to the handle.  The whole assemblage was then glued to a glass candle holder base.

What would you put in your chicken wire basket?

Would you like more Christmas ornament inspiration?  Then click on over to see what fabulous ornaments Tracey has made at Glitterbug Studios.

Birds....birds.....birds.....

Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la! Four calling birds!  No I'm not working my way through the 12 Days of Christmas!  These ornaments were made with the Sizzix bird die.  

Chipboard layered between 2 pieces of decorative paper then cut with the die.  I used glitter paper on the wings.

This one is my favorite one.......

Three French Hens....two Turtle Doves......and a  you know what in a you know where!