412 An Ornament Exchange, A Tree Trimming, and Cheapo Crafts

Last weekend Katie participated in an ornament exchange with her two best friends, Kaitlyn and Mia. Kaitlyn's mom came up with the idea to have the exchange, and she is the one that hosted it.
As usual we put off buying our ornaments to the last moment, and when we headed to Hallmark at noon last Sunday we were in for a rude awakening ... Hallmark does not open until 1. Luckily there is a Marshall's just next door and they had really cute and UNIQUE ornaments. I will never complain about shopping in Marshall's. I love that store! It satisifies my need to save money and get great bargains, and it always feels like you are on a treasure hunt.
But I digress ... we found the perfect ornaments for her swap (and a couple for her teacher and one for Katie). We had to rush back because we were already a little late for the start of the party. I am so glad I decided to walk in with Katie because I was able to snap a couple pics. Who could resist taking pics of these beautiful best friends?!They had stuff laid out for the girls to make their own bags of trail mix, though I think the majority of the mix was Jelly Belly jellybeans.And of course the main event ... the ornament exchange. Katie got really cute ornaments, and /i think the other girls liked their ornaments, too. Katie got Mia a penguin glass ornament and Kaitlyn a high heel shoe ornament. Katie had already given Kaitlyn one of my handmade owls, and Mia got one of her own as well.This is Katie's ornament choice ... the other ornaments were this same type/style.Tuesday night we finally brought the tree out of the attic and began to decorate it. The kids lost interest rather quickly, and they spent the rest of the night trying to get on the Naughty List. I did love Connor's choice of the first ornament to hang. That Santa has been a part of my Christmas for as long as I can remember. And yes, Connor is wearing his Halloween costume. Ironman gets into the Christmas spirit, too.Katie went for a more recently acquired ornament.Wednesday afternoon I got a sudden urge to craft. (Oh, and I had my follow up appointment with the doctor about my meningitis and encephalitis on Wednesday. Doc gave me the all clear. It will still be awhile before I am running at 100%, but I am on my way) I did not have the sudden urge to go too far out of my way to craft (and I didn't want it to cost a cent - you know, other than all the stuff I have already bought). To be fair, that is rather easy since my dining table looks like a craft room gave birth to triplets on it. I gathered up a few supplies I had just lying around. A couple plastic ornaments and a stack of chipboard coasters that have been lying around forever that were begging to be Mod Podged fit the bill exactly. A couple old books that I didn't mind mutilating and my box of random buttons and I was ready to play. It may not be high art, but I had fun ... and when Katie and Kaitlyn joined in they had fun, too.Of course Katie hid from the camera (she is the blue blur in the background) so you would never know she was having a blast.Katie made the next two ornaments.Connor made this next one all on his own.Those plastic ball ornaments were hard to cover, but I love the result. Just Mod Podge and some book pages torn into wee pieces. Thank goodness the pieces are tiny ... I would hate for someone to try to read it. Yes, I used an old Lavyrle Spencer book ... And I couldn't resist the urge to use a bunch of buttons to cover another ornament (we used E6000 for the buttons)Okay ... so I might have a slight button addiction.
So ... that was a little picture heavy, but it was full of Christmas goodness. Hope everyone's holidays are shaping p to be wonderful!

407 I Have (crafty) Trust Issues

Ever since I have been sick I have not picked up a paint brush, but the other day I was feeling the urge to play with some paint. In order to do that I had to uncover my paints and brushes in my "craft room" ... and I do mean UNCOVER. My "craft room" also tends to become the dump room. You can't find a place for it? Stick it in Mom's room. I am the guiltiest at doing this. So, underneath Connor's outgrown clothes and a pile of random craft material I found my paints and brushes. One of the random craft products I found was a stack of chipboard alphabets I had purchased back when I thought scrapbooking was what I wanted to do (luckily all those supplies are coming in handy for mixed media work). It gave me an idea, so I grabbed a set and headed downstairs to play.

I usually paint trees that have lost their leaves, but I am feeling all "second chancey" lately, so I thought I would paint a tree budding with renewed life. Just as winter is truly hitting down South we need a reminder of Spring anyway.

I adhered the letters to my 6"x6" canvas with E6000. That is some pretty heavy duty adhesive. Most people would probably just continue on from there, but as I mentioned, I have trust issues. I am always afraid that anything I attach will fall off, so I have to use multiple methods. Sometimes I glue AND sew something, but this time I decided to use a different method. I used the good ol' fall back of Mod Podge and tissue paper. It has multiple perks. One, those letters are NEVER coming off. Two, the tissue becomes see through with the Mod Podge and provides a good base color. Three, it provides some texture. One problem, I liked the way it was looking with just the word and the tissue paper. I was hesitant to paint over it. What if I didn't like my painting as much? (sorry, I was doing an IV treatment while I painted so all the stuff is laying on the table ... along with the more basic mess) But I went ahead and started squirting paint on it. Yes, I use the real artistic method of squirting it right on the canvas a lot of the time. And this is how it came out. A bit different than my normal paintings, but it is growing on me. This will be put in my etsy shop as soon as I can get a good picture of it. And hopefully my mojo will come out of hiding.