Blessings To You and Yours

May your Thanksgiving Day be a blessed time. A time of family, good food, friends, fun, faith and fellowship. I'm thankful for your friendships!

From our home to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

PS. Don't shop too much on Black Friday!

Christmas Diorama Ornament Tutorial

This ornament was a throw together. Do you have junk drawers, drawers were long forgotten things go to disappear, rolling around until POOF you're looking for something and you see all the 'NEW' items? Yeah, this is an ornament of those.

And yes, I'm stuck on the deer theme it seems this week. They're just so cute!

I went looking for a particular art pen. While searching unfruitfully I might add I found all the 'ingredients' to make this cutie ornament: jewelry boxes, broken ornament, plastic deer, strips of forgotten poetry and more.

What is needed:
jewelry box
acrylic paint & brush
glitter
new plastic or broken snowflake ornament (or cut out your own)
scrap paper
jewelry box fluffy stuff inside you put the jewelry on
plastic deer (or other animal or whatever you wish)
opt: plastic mini wreath (I found mine at a thrift store as button covers. I pulled those nasty covers off the backs and voila! Wreaths to use!)
Date stamp
India Ink (I used hot pink)
glue
cork and/or thick coaster
opt: star jewelry

1 - Paint the inside of the box. Paint the outside of the box a different color. After it's dry add glitter on the inside back and 3 inside sides. I left the bottom inside unglittered so it would be easier to glue other things in.

2 - From scrap paper, cut out a Christmas tree. Glitter it. I didn't have any of those lovely pop up glue dot sticky thingies so I took a wine cork and cut a slice off of it with a knife. Gluing that to the back of the tree, I attached it inside the box.
3 - Cut a slice off a jewelry box padded stuff. Glue it into the bottom of the diorama.

4 - I had a plastic snowflake ornament that fit perfectly inside the box but i had already glued down the tree. So I cut part of it off and slipped the snowflake in behind the tree.
5 - On scrap paper with india ink, I used the date stamp to add 'Dec 25'. Slip it in the snowflake and glue down.
6 - Glue the little wreath to the front of the box (adds depth.) If you don't have a wreath, maybe a small pompom with glitter? Or draw a wreath or add a jewel there.

7 - Again, no pop up glue dotty things so I cut some miniscule slices from a coaster. Glued them together, to the back of the deer. I then added glue to the deer's feet and then I glued him inside the box. I did dip his nose in the red india ink, just so he would resemble Rudolph!
8 - I found a nice vintage star piece of jewelry on the end of a hair pin. Add it to the top of the tree. It just as easily could be a paper glittered star if that is all you have.

9 - While searching for other things I found this bag of printed and tea dyed strips of paper that say 'Where thou art, that is home.' I glued several of those strips around the outside of the box . I then added a layer of glitter on top.
Fini!

Recycled Holly Wreath

Seeing as this is my 3rd Christmas tutorial post in a row, we're going to pretend I planned all this and we'll call it my Christmas Art Series. On to Number 3...

My daughter Phee wanted to make a wreath for her door. She's a Doctor Who fan, so everything must be in Tardis blue most of the time. I just happened to have what she needed. She is also wanting to make recycled ornaments for her tree so she did the same for the wreath (recycling cardboard and clothing.) I've tried to take detailed pics as this is an easy project.

Needed:
cardboard
tulle
stapler
red and green fabric (we used red felt and a pair of kids corduroy overalls)
acrylic paint & brush
scissors

1 - Cut a circle out of cardboard. Hers is about 10-12" wide. About 2" in, cut an inside circle. Discard center. Paint the wreath shape with a acrylic color matching your tulle. Phee went with aqua.

2 - We had a roll of 6" wide tulle. If you don't have a roll but big pieces, cut into 6" widths. Phee took the tulle, measured around the wreath, inside to outside and cut a piece that left room for her to tie it in a knot on the wreath. Continue cutting and knotting pieces until the wreath is as full as you want.

 

3 - Cut 3/4"-1" red circles for berries.
4 - Phee freehanded holly leaves out of the corduroy fabric. They're about 1 1/2-2" long.

5 - Staple the 'berries' to the holly, stapling 2 holly leaves to 2 berries for a cluster. Phee made 3 of these clusters of holly & berries.
6 - Staple these clusters to your wreath at evenly spaced intervals.
7 - Hang and enjoy!

In case you're wondering what her wreath is hanging on, it's her bedroom door. Over the summer while she was at camp, hubby and I painted her door to look like the TARDIS from Doctor Who. It came out pretty darn snazzy if I do say so myself! She says if we ever move, she's taking her door. Have door, will travel! lol

Embroidered Deer Ornament

The other day I bought this magazine off Ebay. It's an older Sew Somerset, I think from Spring of 2013. Anyway, one I didn't have. The cover intrigued me right away. I've been enamored with deer lately. Wanting to make things or paint things with deer. It gave me an idea for an ornament. Here's my best attempt at a tutorial.

I found this pattern on the internet:

However, I only wanted 'Bambi' for my pattern, it looked so much like the magazine's cover! I right clicked the image, saved to my computer. Then I pulled it up in PicMonkey (A free image altering site.) and cut off the image of the mother. I saved to my computer. I then pulled the image up in my Open Office (like WORD) program and enlarged it a bit to fit about a 1/4 of an 11x8 1/2" paper (around 5x6"). Then I printed.

I traced the deer image on cream felt, cutting it out. I then pinned it to hot pink felt and cut 1/8- 1/4" out from the cream, making a pink edge to the ornament. I set the pink aside.

Using light and medium brown embroidery thread (all 6 strings) I added french knots to 'Bambi's' back. So cute! It's been forever and a day since I did anything remotely resembling embroidery so I watched this youtube:

I added a bit of stitching to his ears and his face for an eye and I guess his nose. I think I would have liked the nose stitching a little closer to the end, but ehhh. It's fine.

After the deer was as complete as I wanted, I pinned the pink background to the deer. This hides all the stitching and knot tie offs. I then watched this youtube for the blanket stitch:


Working my way around with brown embroidery thread, I blanket stitched starting at the neck, to the middle of the back. There I inserted the ribbon hanger and stitched over it to secure it in place. Yu might need to add a few hidden stitches so the hanger is definitely staying. I finished up the stitching ending where I started.

I like how it turned out. I'm half thinking of going back and adding a few stitches for hooves but we'll see. I'm already working on something new so I might call it done!

Easiest Ornaments Ever!

So my daughter Phee talked me into buying her a real tree for her room this year. What can I say, I'm a pushover. Wasn't hard. Those real trees smell awesome!

She has decided she wants to make ornaments for the tree out of already used items. Cereal boxes, old clothing, items that need a new life. I've been pinning as many ideas as I can find to my Christmas Pinterest board.

Tonight's ornament actually wasn't any I found. We came up with it just gathering things I've had laying around. Easy to make. All you need is:

Children's wooden letter blocks
tulle
silver bells
scotch tape
embroidery thread
opt: needle

1 - First of all, pick out your letters (Phee went with a Doctor Who reference.)
2 - I rolled clear tape in between each letter just to give them a bit of support staying together
3 - Cut a piece of tulle about 2" wide and a length double the length of the blocks plus another 6-8" for the top tie thing.
4 - Loop the tulle from the bottom of the row of letters to the top on either side, kind of like it's in a sling. Tie it tight on the top. Leave a bit of room and then tie again, making a hanger for the tree.
5 - Thread a needle with embroidery thread. Push needle under the tulle on the bottom of the row of letters and pull the thread thru. Take off the needle and tie on a bell tightly. And you're done!