Holiday Scene for the Birds Home Decor from Costume Jewelry

Trees

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This year I decided to finally decorate the bird houses I've been gathering from the dollar bin at Micheal's. My son and I made a little winter scene to brighten up our house for the holidays.

We made mini trees from cone shaped foam forms and garland. I have a collection of small ornaments that would get lost on the big tree so they went on the main tree of our little scene.

My full size tree doesn't have a lot of ornaments that look the same, no package of shiny balls for me. Each ornament is a memory of a person, a place or an event. The same is true on these little trees. The little wooden shoes were from a trip to Holland, MI when my son was three and I love reliving that memory each time I put them on a tree.

Old costume jewelry makes great ornaments
on a foam tree, just stick the pin into the foam.

The small ornaments there weren't enough to do a good job so I raided my aunt's jewelry box, just like when I was a kid. We used pins and earrings to complete the job. It was fun reliving memories of Christmases with my family when I was a kid. Her old costume jewelry makes great ornaments I just stuck the pin into the foam. For earrings I used a but of green florist wire. Easy Peasy.

The buttons on the left hand tree came out of a jar full of family memories I inherited. I'm sure the buttons on that tree were worn on my grandparents clothing at some point. Most of the buttons were the kind with the loop on the back. I found that they looked nicer and were easier to get on.

The right hand tree is decorated with buttons and charms I had in my craft stash, but these also remind me of people I have lost. The golden butterfly reminds me of my friend Vicki, the Kokopelli charm (which you can't really see) reminds me of my friend Nancy.

Birdhouses

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 The bird houses are covered Delta Creamcoat acrylic paint in white or gold . The tallest house was the first one done. It's hot glued to a candle stand, also from Micheal's. I removed the metal insert first so the top of the candle stand would be flat. I used a scalloped punch to make pages from a book look like shingles then I colored them with Distress ink in Old Paper.

For the snow I used Elmer's clear school glue and dribbled it on the roof. Then I poured Martha Stewart fine glitter on the glue. I wish the glue dried quicker because it made awesome icicles before it fell off the roof and formed puddles of sticky glitter patties.

The second house had a thick rope coming out the top so it could be hung. I pushed it into the house and tried to pull it out or the door hole. If I had to do it over again I would have just cut the darn thing. I worked for a good 10 minutes trying to get my fingers in the door whole to get to the string so I could pull it out. Now I have a think rope just long enough to hang a bird house. What am I going to do with this thing?

I painted a mini terracotta pot with the same gold paint I used on the roof as a base. The hole at the top of the house, where the rope came from bothered me so I glued a bead into it. For the snow on this and all remaining houses I used crystal DecoArt Craft Twinkles Writer. The wreath was cut using the Silhouette from my own design and decorated with a bit of baker's twine I got from Crate and Barrel two years ago. You can download the wreath design here: Katemade Designs Wreath.

The circular house is my son's favorite, it also features the wreath and twine decoration. The sides of the house are painted with a mix of white and gold craft paint I didn't like the color so much so I hand painted gold stripes on it. I Mod Podged a scrap of a sewing pattern to the roof and then when it was dry I rubbed the gold paint on with my fingers.

The last house has one of my favorite things; free paper. You know when you used to get the round light bulb, the ones that didn't feature mercury and a curly design? Yeah those. Well they came in a box that was corrugated on the inside. That's what I used to make the roof of the last house.

I sprayed it with gold Krylon Glitter Spray, traced the roof on the smooth side, cut and glued it down. I ran the Twinkles Writer down the edges but it still didn't look finished so I added an embellishment. I colored a little bit of holly from the Tim Holtz Seasonal Grungeboard collection with Distress Ink in Peeled Paint then colored the berries with red Smooch ink. (I don't think you can get this any more I got mine at Tuesday Morning.)

I Mod Podged the walls of the house with the same sewing pattern as the round house roof. Sewing patterns always remind me of my aunt who used to make our clothes when we were kids. The spools the house is on were from her sewing box. This is my favorite house because it reminds me so much of her.

This year will be the first Christmas without my dad and so, according to all accounts, it should be a very difficult time for us. The memories of other relatives and friends these decorations have evoked are helping me deal with my father's absence. I know there will be more than a couple of tears shed at Christmas Mass and as we sit down for a family meal that day but it is not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. At one point in his illness I had an overwhelming feeling that whatever happened Dad would be okay, that his future was bright and our lives without him would be okay at some point as well.

Styrofoam Cone	Delta Creamcoat Acrylic Paint	Tim Holtz® Distress Ink Pads	Elmer's Washable Clear School Glue
Martha Stewart Crafts Glitter	Mod Podge	DecoArt Craft Twinkles Writer	Silhouette SD
Baker's Twine from Crate & Barrel	Krylon Glitter Spray	Tim Holtz Grungeboard	Smooch Pearlized Accent Ink

InLinkz.com

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Happy Holidays,

I live with ghosts and I want them to be happy

I live with ghosts. They reside in the furniture and fabric of items I have inherited over the past few years. Some ghosts were invited in and I live with very happily others showed up this summer and I'm sure I will find a few in the boxes of Christmas decorations.

The Welcomed Ghosts

The secretary that lived at the top of my aunt's stairs has been haunted for years with the bits and bobs and books of relatives I never met. I met these ghosts when I was a kid. The secretary, which originally belonged to my grandfather, was my playground when conversations during family visits turned to parish gossip and other subjects I didn't really care about.

I was fascinated by the receipts, cards and dried flowers pressed between the pages of books on the shelves. I was curious about the button hooks, blotters, and other minutia I found tucked into the drawers and cubby holes of the secretary. The yearbooks of people I thought I knew and scrapbooks containing photos of people long gone offered hours of pleasant pondering. What was high school like for my grandmother? What was it like to walk around in such a long skirt? Who are these people and when was this picture taken?

I would present my findings to my grandmother and ask questions and she would tell me stories of her youth and her life with Frank, my grandfather.

The switch cover that
was used on my grandmother's
stairs now lives in my dining room.

My grandmother died 25 years ago and everything that came out of her house (which was also my aunt's house) reminds me of her. Small items and big furniture, they all belonged to her.

I have a shelf in my kitchen full of items that were not big, important or valuable but hold memories of life in her house. The planter that was used to hold the collection a rubber bands that rarely ever got used. The pitcher used for milk on the dining table because the gallon jug was too heavy to lift while seated. The bowls and mixer that were given to my grandparents as wedding presents in 1929. I am happy to have these ghosts here, because they remind me of a woman who met her maker a quarter of a century ago.  Even though they didn't come into my house until five years ago.


The items in my house that remind me of people who died within the last 5 years are not so welcome. The loss is too recent, the sorrow too strong.

An Uninivited Ghost

When I lived in Chicago I had a great friend named Nancy (long time readers may remember her). She was like a second mother to me. She thought I needed more color in my life, my uniform of denim, black and oatmeal were not enough for her. She also saw that I needed a place to keep my TV and stereo and growing music collection so she gave me a pair of big dark book cases she no longer needed or wanted. I joked that I was going to paint them purple and my father nearly had a heart attack - "YOU DON'T PAINT WOOD!"

For years the bookshelves she gave had been just shelves holding games, knick knacks, bric-a-brac, cloth napkins and candles. Now they also hold her ghost. Nancy died a couple of years ago but her ghost didn't appear until my father died.

The dark shelves made me think of her everyday which would make me think of my dad, my aunt and uncle, and the three other friends that have died over the last 5 years. When you are grieving the loss of several people when you miss one you miss them all and it can be a bit overwhelming.

I got tired of feeling sad in my own dining room. So I did a very Nancy thing and I painted the bookshelves. (Apparently I can paint veneer over press board.) I chose a bright color she would most definitely approve of - Turquoise. Not the turquoise of native southwestern jewelers but the extremely bright turquoise chosen by IKEA designers. Nancy loved IKEA, they were both Swedish imports and an IKEA run to pick up authentic Swedish foods and another bag of tea light candles always made her happy. This color makes me happy because it reminds of good times with her instead of making me sad that she is gone. I don't feel I have exorcised her ghost, I've just made her happier. 

Nancy's daughter wrote about her mother's unorthodox memorial in How to Send a Viking to Valhalla. There are pictures and a fabulous description of what it took to put together the greatest memorial service ever.


I promise I will get back to crafty posts and tutorials soon. Illness and sadness have been just a bit too much to bare lately.

Happy Crafting,