Christmas is coming...

Well, it's not long really, is it?!

The time is coming for the mantel to be re-done for Christmas time, so I have started on some crafts to adorn it.  And what says Christmas more than Christmas trees?

I do like to use things I have to hand wherever possible.  Last week we got rid of an old double bed, so of course I removed the legs from the base before it was thrown out!  I removed the threaded pieces from the bottom where they were attached to the bed, and thought they had a vaguely Christmas tree shape.

I got out my green and red craft felt.  After applying white glue to the entire leg, I placed it on the felt and rolled it up, then left them all to dry - the red ones were done a little later so only the green are shown here.

Once all 6 were dry, I trimmed the felt around the bottom, up the back "seam (which needed another bit of white glue to get it to stick properly on most of them) and the top I trimmed about 3/4 inch from the top of the actual wooden leg.

To finish the top, I snipped from the top of the felt to the top of the leg 4 or 5 times and then using hot glue, glued each piece down to cover the top of the wood.  Here they are all ready to be decorated!

The decorating was super quick thanks to my glue gun - I gathered up a few craft bits and bobs in red, green and gold (yes, I am going for the traditional Christmas colours this year), and here's what I came up with:

For the first one I used a spare piece of ribbon left over from last year - I glued it at the top then wound it around, finishing by gluing and trimming at the bottom.

Next, I used some little jewel stickers which I originally bought for my spooky spider eyes back before Halloween - luckily, the majority of the pack was green, red and a pale green/gold.

Next up was some gold craft thread - similar to the ribbon tree, I glued it at the back then wound it around before finishing it again with glue at the back.

Then I raided the button box looking for red, green and gold buttons - I didn't find any gold ones but did find some interesting green and red ones - trusty old glue gun again, and voila!

 

I had a small length of red ribbon from somewhere - I decided this one should have a bow tied around it to look like a Christmas tree present!  I say "tied" in the loosest sense of the word, I am a bit rubbish at tying bows so I assembled a nice neat one with hot glue and then attached it on top of a ribbon band I glued to the tree itself.

Last but not least, I gathered the green scrap felt I had left over plus one other mid-shade of green, and cut some narrow lengths.  I again glued them with hot glue, starting and finishing at the back seam.

 

This project was so super easy and quick, the only lengthy part was waiting for the white glue to dry on the wooden legs - if you do this part before bed and let it dry over night, all to the better!

You may not have spare bed legs lying around(!) but fear not, this could be easily achieved with rolled up cereal box card, or foam cones are pretty cheap at the dollar store or craft store - if you go down that route, you could also use pins and sequins to decorate, I obviously couldn't stick pins into the wood...

I like this little collection of Christmas trees!  I swithered about finishing them at the top with stars, but decided against it.  I may change my mind when they actually go up on the mantel.

They don't look fantastic from the back, but hey, who's gonna see the back?  I think they look awesome from the front, and that's the main thing!!

Nikki x

Linked with


Chic on a Shoestring - Flaunt it Friday #79
Remodelaholic's Annonymous #97 
French Country Cottage - Feathered Nest Friday 
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Tater Tots and Jello - Weekend Wrap Up Party 
Be Different Act Normal - Show And Tell Saturday 
Craft Envy - Saturday Spotlight #68 
Uncommon Design - Home For The Holidays

TARDIS junk art

Today I was planning on showing you my fall mantel - all the Halloween decorations were taken down first thing Tuesday (I hate keeping decor up once the event is over, I have to grind my teeth to keep the Christmas tree up until after New Year) but no such luck - I find myself without a working camera - Grrrr!

My little point-and-shoot seems to have a wonky charger - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  This week it doesn't, even my pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes are trapped on there :O(  I'll keep working on it.

I would dearly love to buy a fancy big SLR digital, but it's just not feasible at the moment.  So, I had a look on kijiji yesterday and ended up with another little point-and-shoot, just to tide me over.  I picked it up today to take some pics and there is no memory card!!  I really wish the seller had mentioned this...

I am hoping by the weekend I will either a) have the charger working for the old camera, or b) an SD card for the newer camera, and I can show you my Autumn mantel!  In the meantime, this is the only thing I currently have pics of on my laptop, which you haven't already seen - junk art!

It's not much of a tutorial, but you don't really need one for junk art - just go with the flow!

Junk art is great fun, for kids and adults alike (although kids may be better with white glue instead of hot glue) - it's great to get the imagination working!  There really are no limits to what you can make, it doesn't have to be WHO related!

I had a plain wooden frame which I painted a dark red, and then the board which is the backing of the frame I painted directly with blue, getting lighter towards the middle.  You can see the texture of the board in the picture above.

I drew a rough shape of the TARDIS/11th Doctor Logo and raided my junk pile - I keep all sorts of weird garbage like pieces of plastic, zippers, broken things etc, just for this purpose!  I played around with the layout and broke out the hot glue.  FYI, you can see the logo better if you squint your eyes, haha!

Some of the "ingredients" for this were: broken crayons, pieces of kinder toys, broken beads, pieces from an old board game, marker lids, those black plastic thingys which have twist ties wrapped through them in new toy packaging, a plastic bubble blower, glass beads, zipper pulls and more.  I keep a box of empty ice cream tubs where I sort things by colour, I throw things in there as I come across them - I have even been known to pick things up off the street and bring them home to wash them!

It was finished with a silver sharpie which I used to write "Bigger On The Inside" (which, of course, it is!) and some random dots to represent stars in space.

And that's pretty much it!  I have another few pieces of junk art I'd love to share with you, when I can get some pictures of them!  Have you ever made juk art?

Nikki x

Linked with

Momnivore's Dilemma - Creative Juice Thursday #46
Somewhat Simple - Strutt Your Stuff 
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