Christmas Twig?

This year we are going for a retro upscale Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Not something you can just purchase at the local Canadian Tire store. We're gonna make one!

First we found the old galvanized bucket we had kickin around.
We filled the bucket with pebbles and stuck the twigs in there. Then we poured plaster of paris over the pebbles and twigs to hold things more firmly.


Got some cheap white spray paint from the hardware store and started spraying.............. and spraying..........and spraying...................... well...... you get the point. It took a while.

I covered my hand with a bread bag so I wouldn't need to soak in solvent before work to get rid of the paint. It worked well, gloves would have been better and not gotten in the way of the nozzle so often.

Huge Tip!
Wait for a day that's not windy. Most of the paint blew away but I got several face fulls of white and my hair should have been covered. I look like I've had a sudden shock and now have grey patches.


Here is our Christmas twig inside. We're going to have it right in the front window.


We added turquoise, green and silver balls first.


Here we've added red balls, turquoise birds and some mirror snowflakes but it's hard to see. Sorry about the picture quality I've been really frustrated by camera problems.

Mom put our home made elves from a few years ago on the tree as a joke. She thought I wouldn't like them........ But I do! I like them on there. What do you think? Are the elves too kitchy?

** Edited to add project completion pics**

Mr. Jimmy and I went to Canadian Tire and purchased three strands of 100 light white chorded tree lights. We picked the warm white glow. I think we still need 50 more lights or so. The branch in the back didn't get any lights at all.


Here is a progress shot of the mantle this year. Mom made the cool paper drifty snow and put the Elf dolls I made her years ago up on top of her new polar bears.


Sebastian isn't sure what to make of this inside the house tree. I hope he doesn't get too confused.


He's a cutie........ Maybe if we bribe him with treats he won't use our Christmas tree as a pottie.
:/

More Breadmaking and a Special Momento Mori.

Wanted to share something with you today. It's getting closer to Christmas and we'll soon be making things for each other as gifts. I wanted to start sharing some of the gifts we've made for each other in the past and I'm starting with my favorite first.

I made this a few years ago for my Mom. It is a remember doll, and is a portrait of my Grandma. She was pretty fabulous and we miss her a bunch.

I printed a picture of Grandma onto some Lazertran Silk and transfered the image onto some flattened transparently coloured Fimo soft. Then I wrapped the Fimo with the face image around an unbaked egg shape of Fimo soft and blended it into a smooth head shape being careful not to smudge the image. I baked it and built the hat and body after. This little doll sits in the living room most of the time but at Christmas she is our tree angel.

Mr Jimmy has never made bread.....

:O

I know!!!!
So I'm showing him how today!

He's really getting into the kneading part. he said that it's therapeutic.

He seems to be enjoying it a bit too much?
:)

Things of today.... or what to do with a day off.

I got the day off work!!!
got up good and early........ er.... um.... if you consider 9:30 am early.
:)


I'm making some delicious whole wheat - flax seed - sunflower seed bread.

Whole wheat bread recipe

Here is the recipe I used.... and altered.

I replaced 3/4 cup of white flour for ground flax seed.
I added 1/4 cup of molasses.
I added 1/2 cup of sunflower seeds.
YUM!!!

We've put ourselves on a budget....... been spending WAY too much on groceries. We figure we'll save a few bucks by making our own bread two or three times a week. It's not even that hard or time consuming and it smells sooooooo good!!!

We are also trying to loose weight. Halloween always leaves us with a few more pounds on the rump roast than we need. I'm also still dealing with body changes after the gallbladder loss and the quitting of smoking. I'm getting round!
The bread baking might not be helping us lose weight.
:/

Fully baked delicious bread! Seriously, I wish you guys could smell this!

I know I should wait till meal time but I just can't.
Sooooooooo good!

I have pointed out my blue mylar nails of the previous week. I do love me the stiletto shape.

I tried to get a close up of the thumbso you can see the sparklie mylar, sea shells and gold leaf embedded in there but it came out blurry. I need to put some surface paint on these ones soon.

Here is the first Christmas Fascinator. I got the blingie festiveness from Michaels craft store and put it all together with E6000 jewlery glue. It's on a hair clip so I can wear it in my hair or on my work coat as a brooch.

Roses Added.

Here are the roses and veining I add3d to the blue mylar and seashell with gold leaf nails.

The nails are built out of gel and the flowers are sculpted from acrylic liquid and powder. Each petal seems to intersects the previous row at about the same spot in each flower. I think they look almost like the seashell flowers in Asian art..... or like goldfish scales.

It's the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
Remembrance day.
Just wanted to take a second and say thanks.

Transitional Nails.

I have removed all traces of Halloween art from my nails.

I used gels to encase some pretty mylar, seashells and gold leaf flakes.

I think they look icy. Like the weather. I want to put some white veins or scales into these ones. We'll see what happens, I'm too busy visiting right now.
Maybe tomorrow.

The Mom Bird!

Here is Maggs Making Grandma have eyebrows and eyelashes. Maggs is the expert on these things in our house.

Mom is gluing on the bottom beak.

and now the top one.

There you go then. A side view of the beak on.

Mom adding some feathery goodness to the edge of the beak.

The whole shabang!
Mom looks great in my stuff.

This shows how we did the pumpkins with depth. Poke holes into the pumpkin to mark the pattern then scrape away the skin layer inside the pattern. We created depth by putting a light inside the pumpkin and scraping away flesh to create lighter and darker areas.

Halloween bread. I burnt the tops of the white loaves because we got a surprise Halloween visitor!
Auntie Shelley rang the back doorbell dressed as a gray dragon princess!
Best Halloween EVER!!!

Pumpkin Carving Day!!!

We carve jack o lanterns every year on the day before Halloween, or Devil's Night.
This year it is taking almost the whole day. We carve a bit then rest, then carve a bit then eat....

Here are the pumpkins so far.

This is Mom's pumpkin so far. It's freakin' me out a bit!
She doesn't like it and has started another. I hope she finishes this one I think it's gonna be pretty cool.

This is Mr. Jimmy's Cy kin. He is cheerful.
I think James is going to define the eye with a bit more carving once he can put a light in there and see things better.

Here is the start of Maggie's Kitty Kin. She'll be back to carve more once it's darker outside.

Here is my Nosferatu pumpkin. Doesn't look very good without some light in there.
I got the idea from this fantastic site called
Zombie Pumpkins
They have some pretty skilled pattern makers over there.
I added depth with multi layer cutting.

Here he is with the sunlight shining through him. I need to define things a bit more, but I'm pretty happy with the results.

PolymerCAFE Magazine Update

YEAY!!!!

I received my copy of PolymerCAFE Magazine today!!!

It's BEAUTIFUL!!!

and not just because my Angel graces the front cover!
This magazine has the BEST step by step pictures for technique that I have ever seen in any publication. I am completley thrilled to have been included in the long list of amazing artisans who have graced the pages of this magazine.

Grab yourself a copy and let me know what you think.

:D

Halloweenie Nails?

Ok....... so I'll try harder next time.
:(

Halloween Decorating..... very late this year!

Mom and I did a big Halloween decoration push today.
We've been busy with other things and we are about two weeks behind. Usually the place has been gussied up for weeks by now.

We used hot glue to stick styrofoam skeleton parts to the front yard tree. Then we added a plastic cape and a sword........ he kind of looks like he might be a ring wraith.
:D

Here is the house so far. There will be more closer to the big night.

Mom got some plastic skull head decorations from the dollar store. We cut out the eye socket parts and put red plastic in there and wrapped it around the front porch light.


A little table vignette. The candelabra has a little purple sparkle spider in a black sparkle web. We have to carve the pumpkins yet and add the giant bowl of candy.

Porris Bentspine is all ready for the festivities. He is holding a Hubbard squash that will be soup soon. It will be replaced by a Jack o Lantern and he will probably be moved to the lawn.
I apologize once again for the blurry pictures, I'm still having problems with the camera.