A Blast from the Past

Several years ago at about this time of the year, I was swamped up to my eyeballs!  My girlfriend Julie and I rented a booth at our Junior League’s Christmas Market to sell our candles, gifts and the banners I was painting.  It was a lot of fun and a wonderfully creative time for me.  I would paint canvas banners 10-12 hours a day to get all of my orders finished and ready for Christmas.  Looking back at this picture of our booth makes me tired! 

I painted banners for about 3 years and most of them were custom orders…here’s a peek look back at them all.

 

     

Here are a few more pics of other paint jobs I have done.  Above is a camp trunk…

A welcome baby sign I rented out…. and painted our church on old slate roof tile.

Wall art to send to college with my friend’s daughter…and custom painted Uggs.

Art to match my niece’s bedroom a bench I painted to match my client’s room.

The Gluing Bee

“I’m dreaming of a glittery Veterans Day,  just like the ones I…” uhm, whoops!   Wait a minute here, waaayyyy too much glitter dust on the brain these days.  You would think Christmas was in just a few short weeks with the 3 inches of glitter and hot glue strands covering the floor of my friend’s dining room.  Today is Veteran’s Day and thank you to all the Veterans who have protected our country no matter what the cost.  However, it is also a Wednesday and that means my friend’s daughter is at school today…a perfect time to get some work done on new decorations without her wanting to “help us”…if you know what I mean!

Here’s the scene…I am freshening up Jennifer’s Christmas decorations with more color and we are keeping it all in the jewel tones family.  Below is a wreath that I found at Big Lots (made of sisal like a bottle brush tree) and we hot glued small glass balls to them, tied them up with a fuscia ribbon and will hang three of them from the windows in her breakfast area.  She would love to hang them up now.  The Queen says no.   

Jennifer wants “wow” factor at her front door.  I thought a big ornament wreath chock full of glitter and glam would do it.  It’s YUMMY and if I could pop it in my mouth, I would!   For this I wrapped a straw wreath with silver glitter ribbon and started with the largest ornaments first. 

 

Love  the colors!   Jennifer and Janet worked on gluing miniature ornaments (ok-cut up Mardi Gras beads and mini ornaments from Hobby Lobby) on the dyed bottle brush trees.  Stay tuned for those next.

More cool finds….love this beautiful wreath of peacock feathers and this non-traditional Christmas tree skirt below…

What I’m working on these days…

For Thanksgiving

I saved these slate tiles from our church when the roof was replaced this year and painted a picture of the church on it to be auctioned at our Ladies Auxiliary Bazaar.

 

What’s a girl to do with bags and bags of Mardi Gras beads in her attic?  Make beaded Christmas trees for her friend’s Christopher Radko collection.  Another Jennifer project…we saw an idea in a Christmas magazine that was no where near a cute as this.  It took lots of time to put it together and I think she is still pulling all the glue gun strands from the tree.  But it was worth it…it looks perfect  with all of her Radko ornaments.

  

We spray painted a paper mache cone black and hot glued Mardi Gras beads in a pattern that complimented her ornaments.

What a yummy mess!  Look at those colors!

Here’s the finished product.  The big pink beads at the top and bottom were the beads Jennifer through from her float at her first Mardi Gras Parade. her float at her first Mardi Gras Parade.

 

 

Swanky Santa

 

Dying bottle brush trees…

     

And a candy colored wreath for Jennifer.  I got her started by wrapping a straw wreath with silver glitter ribbon and then major glue gun action on the shatterproof plastic ornaments.  Are you seeing a pattern here with the colors on this entry…vibrant jewel tones for Jennifer this year.  We are “freshening up” her decorations by enhancing with a major punch of color.   Stay tuned!

Technorati Tags: Christmas,decorations,wreaths,bottle brush trees

The girl is getting crafty!

My friend Jennifer has had enough of me having all of the fun in the crafting department.  If you recall from her daughter’s Pink Princess Party,  I made decorated letters of the guests to give as a parting gift.  Jennifer decided she wanted to make a decoration for her front door with the same idea…and look what she came up with!

This is just the beginning for her.   She is now determined to conquer more in the crafting world.  Now she’s taking on Christmas…with the help of her crafty friend!