Christmas Thank You Cards

Hello Everyone. My computer has been on the fritz and then in the shop for most of the last four weeks and it's so good to be back. I could not figure out how to blog with my phone. I don't know how some of you do it. 

I have a ton-o-backlog on things to share but first I thought I'd start with Christmas Thank You cards as we all probably need them right now. I haven't sent mine but today is the 12th Day of Christmas so I don't consider them late… yet.

I've never made Christmas thank you cards with festive holiday paper… it just seemed odd.  Christmas is over.  But it's already strewn about  and making a mess of your crafty space and it kinda works so… 

Over on the MishMash blog I saw that Michelle had added a typed sentiment under a "Winter Wishes" element that said, "and I hope you feel better soon." Which was brilliant. So I grabbed my dribs and drabs left over from the holidays and added little thank you addendums to them. Love!

***

I thought I'd share this not-very-sexy but motivating health thing I'm doing. When it comes to eating right, I prefer to look at my week instead of any given day. That way you don't have to panic if you have a nutritionally questionable dinner on Monday since you might have a powerhouse veggie soup on Tuesday. 

A lot of food theory stresses the importance of variety in your diet and it's something we're focusing on. I jot down what whole foods we eat and try to make sure each of those columns are lengthy. This is last week. We're still coming off of Christmas junk food so I know we can do better but it's not bad. 

 

What I love is that it's easy to see we were pretty skimpy on the fruit (lots of veggies though) and legumes so this week I'll make sure to add some into the menu. It's a terrific system.

As this is our second week I made one small change; I separated whole grains and starches into two categories. Our goal would be to have the 'whole grains' list exceed the 'starches' one.

I'd love to hear how you are mindful to keep variety in your diet and if you send thank you notes for Christmas presents.

Warmly,

~~~Nicole 

Nosegays or Tussies

I took some time off from stressing about my endlessly breaking appliances and made some nosegays (or tussies depending on what era you're from) which I think will be adorable gift card holders or perfect neighbor gifts when filled with chocolates or other treats.

My appliances hate me. Last week our dishwasher broke and our fridge door shelf broke. We fixed the dishwasher and are waiting on the shelf to come in when we had a mini-flood in our kitchen. I opened the cupboard under the sink and saw this:

Um… not good. So this morning a plumber was re-piping our sink (sorry, I don't know plumbing vernacular well enough to say that correctly) while insulation dudes were spraying insulation in our attic, while my kids were homeschooling and my work-from-home husband with a co-worker who flew in from CO and was working from our home tried to do a video conference call, in my dining room, to Buenos Aires. Are you sensing the frantic nature of  my life.  Did I mention that all the while my dog, sensing we were under attack, was barking and crying like a banshee? 

Okay, back to nosegays… and peaceful Christmas cheer :-)

Can you believe they start with plastic dollar store Christmas trees? 

This is another project from SPARK your Christmas and I can see using it for many holidays beyond Christmas, can you just imagine how cute they'd be for Valentine's Day or Easter?

Recycled Canvas: Deer Head

We had a spot in our house that needed a little Christmas cheer but I didn't want to spend money on another Made in China decoration. So I found a painting that I really wasn't happy with and used it as my base for a Christmas canvas. 

Here's the original canvas, yes, it could be finished into something cool, but it would take a ton of work.

Since the deer trend is still going strong, and everyone has a tutorial for it, I'm not really sure if it's worth sharing another, or for that matter who to credit other than, well, everyone + Pinterest.  But I will give thanks to the most recent tutorials I've enjoyed and been inspired by. Thanks to Margie (see my last post with those other deer heads I made) and to Lolly Jane.

Here's how I did mine:

I made a huge buck head stencil and mask with an image I found online. I used my projector because there is no way I could free hand this and a giant sheet of bristol paper. Now I have a giant deer head stencil. I can see spray painting this on everything!

Use wash tape to secure the head to the canvas and trace around it. I have better luck tracing masks rather than stencils but it's up to you.

Add washi tape to mask off stripes.

Using a smaller brush, paint around the outline where the black stripes will be. You always want to paint away from the tape not towards it. 

Fill in the black lines with a larger brush. Since the background is so fun I didn't do a 'perfect' job painting the black lines. If the nooks and crannies stayed unpainted it was okay by me. I also didn't refill my brush towards the outside edges so it would have more background showing through.

This step was unnecessary but I wanted to get a sense of the deer head so I painted it with white acrylic. Since I was going to be painting it with blue acrylic I didn't really need to do this.

FWIW, it still looks pretty crazy.

Paint the head (not the antlers) blue. 

The white paint was still wet and it created a lot of nice variation in the color.

Add in some darker (ultramarine) blue to the left side, defining the shape a bit.

Then I blended in some light teal paint to bring the two colors into harmony.

There was a lot of blue paint leftover on my craft mat so I grabbed some tags and a stencil and used up the paint. I know they'll come in handy.

I brushed Mod Podge, somewhat haphazardly on the antlers and sprinkled them with champagne colored glitter.

Then I covered the colored stripes with a thin layer of gesso applied with a makeup sponge. I chose gesso instead of paint as it allowed the background to show through but to be toned down a lot creating a more cohesive and less jarring piece.

Then I rubbed off some of the black paint with a baby wipe to expose little sections of the background.

Here's pic with me so you can see how big the canvas is

And here it is above our door

I really love adding homemade decorations to our Christmas stash. This will be fun to pull out year after year.

Before and After:

Crafting Christmas Decor

I've been crafting up a storm for Margie's SPARK Your Holidays class. It was so awesome and a great value. She really packs her classes with content and next to no filler. I love that lady!

This is my Junque Garland. So much color! 

And I made these deer heads on top of some backgrounds I'd made last month.

Here's how it looks all together:

And here's the garland being used on the table I set up for a local craft fair:

We also made these adorable table top trees: 

Here it is (in daylight), gracing my side table in our front room.

Have you been crafting your holiday decor?

75% OFF Cyber Monday Sale

I have oodles of beaded spoons for sale, 

75% off

Cyber Monday Only

Here's a direct link to the shop section: 

CLICK HERE