Wordy Wednesday - down the rabbit hole

 I'll preface this by saying, feel free to laugh at me.  I do (laugh at myself) so you won't hurt my feelings.  I have to admit that I seem to have developed an addiction to Facebook videos.  Blame it on the cat blogs and live stream curling for the first dip of the toe into that world.  But, I've discovered there are far more and these days it's all about DIY Christmas decorations.  It's a rabbit hole!  I'm totally amazed at the creativity of these people and in my own small way have tried to emulate.  The local dollar stores are getting in more craft items, ornaments, and other items.  My craft room has seen many additions in the last couple of weeks.

These photos are the items I've completed in the last week.

This is a gift for Eli's other Grandma.  I send her photos every year with her Christmas card, but this year I thought I'd frame one of them for her.

I purchased an inexpensive wooden picture frame at Michaels.  The scrapbook was on sale for 33 cents a sheet (so of course, I bought several sheets - different patterns).  The little cars are actually buttons that I bought in a large package from Michaels a few years ago.

I used Modge Podge to glue the paper to the frame and for the sealing (it dries clear).  I didn't do a perfect job with cutting the paper, as you can tell by the photo, but looking at it across the room, it looks fine.  I cut the little plastic piece off the back of the button and hot glued the to cover the more visible seams.  

Next up, is this little snowman made from small styrofoam balls purchased from the dollar store.  The balls were white, but patterned, so I painted them white so they appeared more solid.  Using the paints I'd picked up at the thrift store to paint the eyes, mouth, buttons, and nose.  D has promised me a bit of homemade play dough, colored orange when she next visits.  I want something that is 3-D; I'll just repaint the nose part white and hot glue a dried play dough nose in its place. 

The ribbon I had from another project a few years ago.  The arms are pieces of a pipe cleaner from a Halloween pack of items from the dollar store. I cut it up and twisted a small piece onto the larger ones and poked the arms into the styrofam ball.  

The hat took me a bit of thinking. I used the cardboard from a toilet paper roll, cutting three pieces, two circles and a small length that I rolled up for the main part of the hat. I painted everything black, and hot glued the pieces together.  The beads are from a pick that I used when D and I made the spoons.  The whole thing is hot glued to the top of the snowman's head.  I did need to cut a small piece off the bottom of the snowman so he would stand on his own.  I told D I want to make a few more of different sizes so I'll be looking for styrofoam balls.  This was a really fun project.

Last, but certainly not least are these ornaments. There are three in the photo, but I actually made four. I plan to give one to my SIL, two will likely be added to gifts for friends, and the last I'll keep for myself.

I started with four small artist's canvases from the dollar store but I used the backside for these.  I did paint the canvases black on the full canvas side, and just the top half of this side.  The little trees were from the dollar store as were the ribbons.  I found the snow at Canadian tire when I went to pick up bird seed.

First, I painted the frames with a mix of red paint and red glitter glue (on sale at Walmart). I used some painter's tape to keep from making a mess on the canvas.  After that dried, I decided to paint the canvas with the black paint and used the painter's tape to keep the paint off the lower portion.  

While these were drying I decorated one of the little trees using pieces of a garland that I found at the dollar tree and a button from another package I'd gotten at Michaels several years.  The little piece on the back of the button actually slid right over the top of the tree and is held with a bit of glue.

I painted the star in the sky and glued a piece of the snow onto the frame before adding the trees. I didn't care for the way the base of the trees looked so used a bit of snow to cover...it almost looks like they are in a snow bank.  The bow and the ribbon (also purchased at the dollar store are hot glued to the frame.  

These took me most of a morning to finish due to the drying time and my dithering over how they should look.  I did have to re-do the stars in the sky, as I wasn't happy with the first attempts.  Good thing black paint covers well! Looking at them I can see I few minor tweaks are needed to improve the look.  

If I were to estimate the cost for all of the projects, I'd say I spent about $20 on materials.  But I still have bows, garlands, ribbons, paint, paper, styrofoam balls, pipecleaners, buttons, etc. galore for future projects. I guess I'll need to watch more videos!

Next up - I've got some wooden coasters that Eli will decorate the next time he's here.  I have to get some knitting and crocheting done.

Take care and stay well everyone!