Santa's Little Helpers Tag Set

Today we had the first snowflakes to fall here in Northwestern, PA. Huge wet, fat flakes that melted as soon as they hit the ground. Brrrrrrr, it's cold too! Right now we have wind chills tonight in the 20s. It's kind of got me in that Christmas mode.......
Working in traditional reds and greens I made these "Elf" tags tonight. I made the tickets on the tags with MS Word (autoshapes). As a kid I was infatuated by elves and begged for a pair of curly toed elf shoes every Christmas. My mom and aunt would hunt all over for a pair but never had any luck finding a pair :-( I still haven't given up the dream of owning official elf shoes, but I must say at 40 years of age I'll only be wearing them in the confines of my studio!

It's a 151st Post Give-Away!!!!

To celebrate the 151st post on my blog (this post) and enter the give away. Just leave a comment about the Christmas ornament in the post before this one and let me know what your favorite ornament from your childhood looked like. You will then be entered into a drawing for this ornament.....

It's never too early to start to think about decorating!
SMILES-
Tootie

Christmas ornaments from your childhood....

When I little, I remember my aunt Dede had several Christmas ornaments that were these balls cut in half with a tiny scene inside of them. One had a little deer in the snow, the other one had a decorated silver bottle brush tree while another had a snowman dancing in the snow. I was fascinated by them! I use to stare at the tiny scenes and daydream about the little word they lived in. To me, these ornaments were better than snow globes because you could actually touch the things in their own little world. I always wanted to add things to them.......see I even had the crafting bug at 6 years of age! LOL! So why am I telling you all this? Because of the ornaments I made tonight! I cut apart a plastic blue glittery ball with my band saw and this is what I came up with.......

The little snowmen are flocked with black plastic top hats! What do you think of them? This one is available on Ebay now. Post a comment describing your favorite childhood ornament!

Red & Aqua Elf at Work!

Yesterday I was a red & aqua elf at work in my studio. Working in a creative frenzy of paper, glue, markers, glitter and paint created quite a mess on my studio table as well as the surrounding floor (time to get the shop vac out!) I'm pleased with the result and plan to post these ornaments on Ebay later on today (Sunday, November 4, 2007). As I've said before I love the retro feel of the red & aqua and the nostalgia the colors and subject matter evoke. What do you think?

A Decorator Named Jerome
Oh, how he loved to decorate in reds and silvers and blues,
his retro Christmas window displays were always buzzing holiday news!

This assemblage was created with a copy of a vintage photo, hand colored, backed with chipboard and book text. He is sitting on a block, painted red, distressed on the edges and embellished with vintage style decorative papers. The tree behind him has a slight glitter to it (hard to see in the photo). It is decorated with a glittery silver and blue balls as well as two small shiny red glass balls with tinsel hooks. The base of the white twig tree is wrapped in aqua tinsel.

MaryBelle's Winter Wonderland!
MaryBelle 's Winter Wonderland,
she created with just a wave of her little hand.
The snowflakes which fell from the sky,
piled up on the ground so high,
that she created her new best friend....
a frosty little round guy!

This altered art tin is a tribute to the wonder of winter in all of it's frosty glory! The little girl is a copy of a vintage photo from the 1940's. I just love her smile! She is embellished with red glitter and touches of snow on the top of her hat and coat and her muff is a red chenille stem. Her little friend the snowman is flocked white with a black top hat and touches of snow. Both are standing in glittery snow with a background collage of aqua blues and red, snowflakes cut from book text and an antiqued sign stating "Winter Wonderland". The opposite side of the tin sports a copy of a vintage photo of a boy and the snowman he built, only the sky has been hand colored blue. A vintage snow girl and round "Wonder" sign complement the picture all on a red and white polka dot background.

This is the top and bottom of the tin (top with snowmen)

Best Christmas Friends
A reindeer he was not,
but it was a red nose he sought.
She broke out the glitter,
which made is nose shimmer
and now her best friend thinks he's so hot!

This assemblage is created from a paper mache' box, with wooden wheels to create the wagon. The little girl and dog are copies of vintage photos perched on top of a wooden block, encircled by aqua tinsel.

Tweets the Christmas Bird

The Snowflake Fairy

Spectacular Autumn!

Late yesterday afternoon I took a walk in the beautiful little park close to my house. It's a great park and has the only free golf course in the United States. Can you imagine that? FREE!!! Autumn is a wonderful display of colors here in PA. The leaves this fall are not as bright as normal, it's probably because of the lack of rain this summer. Fall makes me think that Mother Nature threw a party and cast about confetti in the form of leaves to decorate nature! When I walk about in such beauty I find that it inspires me in my art. I'm sure other artists feel the same way......

A Series of 4: Black, Red, Grey and White

This is a series of 4 ATCs I made to celebrate the upcoming winter season. I love the contrast between the red, black, grey and white and the black and white winter photos. I sprinkled them here and there with ultra-fine crystal glitter but its hard to see in the photos! They are available on Ebay: Snow Baby Card, Boys Playing in the Snow, Boy and Collie, Snowy Village.

Snowflake Ruby the Christmas Fairy

Snow Flake Ruby will help you decorate your Christmas tree!

Her name is Ruby and this little Christmas fairy is perched on a super thick cream colored snowflake with her tiny leg dangling over the edge with her blue Mary Janes on. She is a copy of a vintage photo that has been backed by chipboard and then book text, hand colored and embellished with white paint trim and a polka-dot hat. Her wings are semi-transparent leaves with silver glitter. The snowflake is attached to a light blue mini clip. The snowflake is embellished with red & silver sequins and a silver snowflake sequin. She would be adorable clipped to a tree, package or bag! This ornament measures 3.5 inches tall and 2.25 inches wide.
I just posted her on Ebay! Starting price is $2.99!!!

This is the back view of the ornament.....

Pink, Green & Red Christmas Tags!

After the horrible craft show I went to this morning I had to come home and create something that wasn't a snowman or burgundy and hunter green! So this is what I came up with! I really like the pairing of the apple green polka dot paper with the red and pink. They are available at the Honey Girl Studio Shop. They are bigger than normal tags measuring 4.5 inches by 2.5 inches. Great for writing a message on the back or recipe.

The Jingle Bell Fairy

Nanook of the North

Christmas Party Girl

Holiday Love

Where has all originality gone?

I just came home from the area fall craft show at our local high school. There were about 70 crafters set up and as I walked around perusing the tables a few random thoughts jumped into my head.....and here they are:

1. Where has all the originality gone? It seems the formula to the crafts at craft shows anymore is this: buy fabric snowmen from the dollar store or local craft store, glue to a wooden painted base beside a small artificial tree with lights and splatter the whole thing with white paint to make snow! There had to be about 15 tables with these kind of items. It's the same tired old stuff!

2. No Christmas ornaments were to be found other than the crudely painted Steelers and Browns ornaments! What happened to ornaments at craft shows???? And I'm not talking about the $45 a piece ornaments, I'm talking about the $5 to $10 ornaments that really showcase a little detail and imagination. You know, the ones you really want hanging on your tree or to give away as a gift.

So my craft show trip was a bust this morning but as I was driving home I was thinking, "thank God for the online network of artist and crafters I have discovered because they have imagination, originality and creativity"! Reading some of their blogs and seeing their work is just like a tall glass of ice cold water to a very thirsty woman! In closing, I'd just like to post a heartfelt "thank you" to all of my talented cyber friends who leave comments on my blog and feel that it's my privilege to visit their blogs as well!

I've Been Naughty Ornament!

Don't you just love the look on her face?!?!?! This nifty little Christmas ornament is 4 inches by 4 inches and is composed of a coaster, decorative papers, a copy of a vintage photo (hand colored, circa 1952) antiqued around the edges and sprinkled with glitter. There is a tinsel hanger on the back of it to hang on your aluminum tree! She is in the Honey Girl Studio Shop right now!

Christmas Tags

These little gems are 2 sets of Christmas tags I made today......hot off the Honey Girls Studio bench! They are available on Ebay, I just posted them. Click here and here to view them.

Inspiration, Snowmen and Garlic!

Greetings from a perfect autumn day in Western Pennsylvania! The leaves are a blaze, the sun is shinning in a cloudless deep blue sky and a breeze is rustling the leaves. It's times like these that inspiration seems to sneak up on me and whollip me up-side the head! Such inspiration happened to me last week when I stumbled upon the most worderfully vintage style decorative papers. They have a 1950s-1960s feel about them. Naturally I knew I'd have to incorporate them into the "Fresh Vintage" Christmas tree ornament line. Here's what I came up with....

This is "Zoots". His passion is selling vintage Christmas ornaments and he has what some might say, is an unnatural love for tinsel. Zoots is compised of 1/4 inch baltic birch wood, painted light ivory with a hand painted face and then embellished with text, decorative papers, rubber stamps and cutouts. Everything is then sprinkled with ultra-fine glitter! (which is difficult to see in the photos!) He is 7 inches tall from the tip of his hat to the end of his body and 4 inches wide at the bottom.

Zoots is available on Ebay right now. So click on the word Ebay and check him out!

Now on to garlic planting........

I use to think I wanted a Christmas tree farm but now I'm thinking a garlic farm would be much easier to take care of and even more profitable!

Late September and October are the times to plant garlic here in Pennsylvania. Today was such a glorious fall day that my husband and I decided to put a bed of garlic in. It will grow all winter (slowly) and then when sprink hits it will really shoot up. July is the time to harvest it.

Here's a quick picture tutorial on how to plant it.....

First prepare the bed by turning over the soil and adding a sprinkling of 10-10-10 fertilizer.

Next split the garlic bulbs into individual cloves (leave the paper covering around each clove). Notice I have on blue rubber gloves so I don't smell like garlic! Oh! That's a scary picture of me!

Then plant each clove, pointy side up about 2 inches deep (that's my Gary doing that). Now sit back and wait until July to harvest it!

Happy Sunday! I hope you are doing something you love to do today!

The Candy Cane Maker......

Armed with his copper bottomed pan, candy thermometer and beret perched upon his head, he works tirelessly in his cozy little kitchen creating "Bob's Original Candy Canes".....they are the most pepperminty-est in the land!

This little ornament is created from layers of decorative papers on a piece of baltic birch wood. Little "Bob" is a copy of a vintage photo from the turn of the century in which a sprinkled superfine glitter on his lapels and stockings (sort of hard to see in this photo). The candy cane is a chenille stem. I still need to attach the hanger to the back of this ornament.

See there really is a Bob's Candy Cane company! In my opinion (I consider myself a candy cane aficionado) Bob's has the best candy canes! When I start in creating my Christmas ornaments I make sure I have the Christmas tunes on the iPod and a ready supply of Bob's Candy Canes! Really gets me in the Zen-Christmas-mode!

How about this little dude? I've named him "Ansel". Doesn't he just look like an Ansel? This ornament reminds me of the happy hours that my cousin George and I spent flying down the pasture hill on our sleds when we were young. My Dad would always tell us "watch out for the mean bull!!!"......but I digress, that's a whole other story for a whole other time.

This is a copy of a photo from sometime in the late 1950s-early 1960s. Just look at that bulky snowsuit. He looks like a little blue Stay-Puff Marshmallow boy! Remember wearing one of those one piece snowsuit and waddling around like a penguin?!?!? I hand colored the photo, backed it with chipboard, added cardstock shoes and glued him on a little wooden sled which I painted blue with red polkadots and glued decorative paper to the top of the sled. I will tie a red ribbon on the top of the sled to hang it on a tree. The snowflakes are cut out of paper and dusted with ultra-fine glitter. Just another addition to the Fresh Vintage Ornament Collection.

The joy of Ansel flying down the snow covered hill on his Flexible Flyer!

Well, I have to get back to the studio but "smiles" until the next entry!

Tootie

Sneak Peek of the "Fresh Vintage" Ornaments

My new line of "Fresh Vintage" ornaments is coming along nicely. These ornaments are finely detailed, whimsical and will make you say "I gotta have that one for my tree". All the swinging cool cats will have them dangling from their Douglas Fir! They have a vintage feeling with an updated look, that's how I can best describe them. I've tried to use decorative papers that have a 1950s feel and the vintage photos I've used are split into two groups: 1950s & 60s and 1900 through 1940. The colors are also split into two groups: traditional red & green and red & aqua. These ornaments are truely mixed media as I've used chipboard, papers, tinsel, little embellishements, tin container, paper mache' and let's not forget the magic glitter! November 1st is when the ornaments will be on the Honey Girl Studio Shop self. I will also be posting on Ebay and will have notifications on my blog. Enjoy the sneak peek.........and spread the word......Fresh Vintage Christmas ornaments from Honey Girl Studio make for a very retro Christmas! I would enjoy hearing your feed back. Leave me a message and you will be in a drawing for one of these special little ornaments! Oh yah!

Sneak peek........

Look for the Honey Girl Studio Circle Signature on the back......