NATURE, BIRDS AND CHRISTMAS

I have finished up on my holiday decorating.

I was waiting for the birth of our grandchild.

She did arrive on Tuesday, more of that next post.

My large nest made from two vine wreaths.

I filled with my Christmas ornies and other goodies.

Spools, vintage children wooden blocks and a vintage fishing tin for storing worms.

My centerpiece made with greens, dried milk pods spray painted with gold glitter and finished off with gold and red glitter along some of the edges. Birch branches, gold stars, cattails, a bird nest and birds of course.

I found this wooden mitten at the Christmas Tree Shop. I added some sheep wool to the top of the mitten.

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Holidays

Michele

OUR GRAND BABY IS ON HER WAY TO MEET US

HOLIDAY DRESS FORM

My dress form is decked out for the holidays once again.

I so love all of the fabrics on this dress form from the deep red of the chest to the sheer gold with acorns and holly.

I love the gold ribbon and the color of the feathers.

Do you own a dress form?

Do you deck it out for the holidays?

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

HOLIDAY STUFF

I have not done much decorating so far.

We are expecting a grandchild any day now.

I have decided this year there will be a lot going on and no time or desire to take everything down when the time comes, less is more this year.

I have looked through some photos from other years and thought I would share.

I do have a few of these mason jars out. I love these jars..

This is a little hanging I made for my Figgy last year, so precious.

Santa's train

An all time favorite photo.

A purchase from a yard sale over the summer. See, 25 cents!

Mr Nook has been busy studying for his Captain boat license. The dining room table has been covered with charting maps. He tests on Sunday so I will making a centerpiece come Sunday when the plotting maps disappear.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

I SHOULD INVITE THE MAIL PERSON IN FOR COFFEE

I really should invite my mail delivery person in for coffee. I feel I should get to know this person for he/she is stopping by a lot lately to bring me all of these gifts.

If you follow my blog you know how much I love a good swap!!

These are all swap gifts from some amazing swap buddies.

This tin swap was inspired by Wendy over at Blissangles

This tin is from Lorraine, you can visit her here.

I do believe Lorraine visited my blog, she created this tin with all the things I love. Birds, wildlife and burlap.

I love this holiday tin, thanks Lorraine.

This is the holiday tin I created for Lorraine.

This is a stocking swap, this swap was inspired by Cerri at Littlepinkstudio

I received this beautiful stocking filled to the brim from Stevie-Lynn, you can visit her here.

Stevie-Lynn made the stocking herself, way more than I wanted to take on. It was filled to the brim with vintage goodies. I love these pins she made. I have them displayed in a vintage bird cage. Thanks Stevie-Lynn.

You can see the holiday stocking I created for Stevie-Lynn here.

A button ornament swap inspired by Laurie at Buttonfloozies

This swap had three different swap buddies.

This heart button ornament is from Lorraine, you can visit Lorraine here.

The piece of vintage doily and some of the buttons are from Lorraine's grandmother.

Thanks Lorraine.

These button ornaments are from Debbie at Mosiacmagpie, you can visit Debbie here.

These are beautifully hand sewn. Thanks Debbie, my button floozie friend!!

This button ornament is from Laura. Laura does not have a blog.

I love all of the green buttons and the special gold ones, too.

Thanks Laura.

You can see the button ornaments I sent to these three swap ladies here.

This swap was inspired by the Bloggerette Sorority you can visit this site here.

My swap partner was Cathee, you can visit Cathee at Artandsoul.

She sent along this beautiful gold glitter butterfly.

This beautiful ornament made with sheet music. This is stunning.

Cathee and I are going to do a personal swap together. We have decided to make a bird/nature altered art/collage book and will be swapping the end of January. I will look forward to this.

Thanks Cathee

You can see the items I created for Cathee here.

I sure do love a good swap ;)

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

"OH MY"

This is my craft space this morning, OH MY!!!

I have been doing an online crop over at Bella Creations

The crop started Friday evening and ends tonight at midnight.

I have not spent all this time at it. I attended a craft show in our community yesterday, it was a great day.

I have finished up a few items for this crop, more on that later.

The crop is themed Holiday of course so I am surrounded by red, silver and gold mostly.

I have never joined in on a crop before, it is proving to be a lot of fun so far.

Well, I must get going I have much to accomplish today, bye for now.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

RECYCLED HOLIDAY GREETING CARDS

Have you ever wondered what to do with your smaller scraps of sheet music?

I have cut down into strips to make holiday garland.

Have you ever wondered what to do with your holiday greeting cards?

I have been saving ours for a few years now. In the past I have managed to use some of them in collage work.

This year I have decided to make gift tags using the greeting cards.

The tags come in all sizes, some have a variety of strings and ribbons for hanging and others are for taping to packages.

I really like how most of these came out. Some cards I was able to get 2-4 tags out of one card.

We are having our local holiday craft show on Saturday. I will be in attendance with a bunch of these tags and the sheet music strips for making holiday garland.

I was sure to put some aside for my own use.

I am sure most of my blog followers are aware of this but just in case there are a few out there that are in need of some inspiration, I wanted to share.

Other years I have made and sold these snowflakes made from sheet music. I am so sorry, I can not remember where I found this tutorial it was about three years now.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

HOLIDAY STOCKING

This is a stocking I created and filled with stash items for a swap partner.

I love the image of the little boys. I have used this image a few times in the past. Last year I made a hanging for a friend, a picture of that is my header for the holidays.

The little boys are family members of Mr. Nook's. The few people in the family I have asked don't know exactly who these children are. I am sure they do look like family members but which ones??

I purchased the stocking at Michael's, filled with paper ephemera and all sorts of fun things.

I trimmed the top of the stocking with white and green vintage lace.

Finished off with a red, white and green tule bow, gold snowflake and a red glitter bell.

Can't forget the little rusty bells, I love rusty bells!!!

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

OLDE CROW AND A SNOWMAN

Here are a few holiday ornaments I created for a swap partner.

An olde crow all decked out for the holidays.

My swap partner loves snowmen so I created this hanging for her.

I recycled a holiday card.

I took apart the card and ended up with the snowman, the bucket of birds, the tree and the house.

I glued a vintage doily to a round piece of white cardboard. I then placed and glued the pieces of card to the doily.

I added sheep's wool around the bottom, a red feather, some tiny pine cones, rusty little bells and beige colored yarn.

Using my tag punch I punched out of the same card, the words "Merry Christmas", tied with vintage lace and a vintage button.

I really loved this card and was glad I could use it for just the right gift.

I love recycling holiday greeting cards.Thanks for stopping by.

Michele

BUTTON FLOOZIES

Now that my three swap partners have received their packages I can show you the "Holiday Button Floozies"

This was a swap I entered over at BUTTONFLOOZIES

We had three swap partners to send a button holiday ornament to.

Here is a organza bag filled with vintage buttons, each paper doll has one of these.

I made these paper dolls using an image from my personal collection.

The skirts are made using vintage linen dinner napkins.

This music note ribbon I had left over from last year, I love this ribbon.

I had a little of this green vintage trim in my stash, happy to have found a use for it.

The bling on her hat is a pair of vintage earrings I found at a yard sale.

Her shawl is made from soft beige colored yarn.

This floozie's skirt is made from a dinner napkin and embellished with pieces from a doily.

Her shawl is made from gold organza ribbon.

Her skirt is embellished with a very unique vintage button.

She also has her bag of vintage buttons.

I so loved making these holiday ornaments.

This floozie has the most beautiful holiday hat one has ever seen, made with a vintage holiday earring.

Her shawl is made using a piece from a wedding dress.

Her skirt is trimmed with more holiday ribbon I had on hand.

This skirt is embellished with white and green ribbons and a few buttons.

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving Holiday.

Thanks for stopping by.

Michele