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Tag Archives: Wood Art

Christmas Ornaments for the Kiddos

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Happy Epiphany Day! Wikipedia has some interesting things to say about it here.

Two or three years ago, I bought these super cute plain wooden Christmas ornaments. I finally got around to decorating them and giving them as Christmas gifts to all the special kiddos in my life.

This first one is for my friend Jillan’s daughter Lillie. I didn’t have an appropriate photo to place in it, but Jillan was excited when Lillie opened it as she gets Lillie a photo ornament each year and she hadn’t gotten one for 2010 yet.

Lillie's Ornament

The next one is for Jessica.

Jessica's Ornament

This one is for my nephew Cameron. I got a picture of him and Santa from my sister’s blog.

Cameron's Ornament

Trevor’s ornament is like Jessica’s ornament. Even though Trevor didn’t like Santa, I thought it important to commemorate the experience with another picture from Sarah’s blog. You might notice that Cameron and Trevor’s Santas are different and that is because she tried multiple times to get a photo without Trevor crying.

Trevor's Ornament

My niece Aspen’s photo is not with Santa since she, like Trevor, didn’t like Santa, but Julia didn’t get a commemorative picture. Instead I used a holiday photo Julia posted on her blog. You might notice the photo quality is better with these last two ornaments. There’s two reasons. I took these last two photos on a different day when the sun was shining more. And two, I didn’t think about photographing without the plastic “glass” in the frame of the ornament until I had already wrapped the above four ornaments.

Aspen's Ornament

The last ornament is for my nephew Dawson. Even though he is already 10, I hope he doesn’t stop visiting Santa any time soon.

Dawson's Ornament

I initially planned to do the snowmen and Christmas trees with glittered cardstock, but after doing one of the snowmen that way, I decided sanding the edges was too much work. On the remaining ornaments, I applied mod podge and glitter. The gemstones are adhered using glossy accents, because I wanted to make sure they stuck.

Stamps: Stampabilites Fun Alpha Upper & Lower (for names); Hero Arts Cleardesign Numbers Two, Zero, and One (for year)
Paint: Apple Barrel Black & White; Folk Art Holly Leaf and Christmas Red; Elmer’s Painters paint pens
Glitter: Art Glitter Kelly (Christmas tree); Stickles Gold (Christmas tree star); Tree House Studio white ultra fine holographic (snowmen);
Embellishments: Recollections Pearl Stickers Black, Orange, Silver, White
Tools: Mod Podge; Glossy Accents

Thanks for stopping by.

Family Tree Project

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After the big family reunion luncheon celebration, we went back to Granny and Pawpaw’s house to work on a family tree project. The idea for it came from page 214 of the August 2010 issue of my Parents magazine. I think ours turned out cuter since I turned it into a 3D tree. A few weeks before the reunion, I had asked Kay, James’ aunt and organizer extraordinaire, to ask everyone to bring a photo of themselves to the reunion for the project. The adults could bring a couples photo, but I wanted the kids to be individual photos.

Family Tree Project

At the top of the tree is a heart that has a photo of Granny and Pawpaw on one side and on the other side, I wrote their birthdays and marriage date. The top branch is their children. The middle branch is their grandchildren and the bottom branch is their great-grandchildren. I had painted the wooden hearts used for the adults in three shades of green beforehand. On site, we punched out or cut to fit the photos of the adults, mod podged them to the heart and wrote the birthday/marriage info on the back. Some of the adults got into adding decorative touches. Yay Aundra! Kay helped with the photo adhering. I had meant to use an upside down clay flower pot as the base, but I forgot to bring one. The container from an edible arrangment that Granny and Pawpaw had received worked great in its place.

Adult Hearts

The kids, except for the babies and those who didn’t stick around after the luncheon, decorated their leaf or acorn themselves. I had brought glitter glue, sequins and markers for them to use to decorate. The markers didn’t get used and some wanted to paint, even though I hadn’t planned on letting them. I decided that since it was water-based paint, it was okay. Some of the kiddos required adult assistance. Kay, Rachel, Aundra and myself and maybe some others provided that assistance. I wish I had taken more pictures of the ones the kids decorated instead of just the one of my cutie pie, which I decorated. You can see the edge of the one Dawson decorated in the photo below.

Jessica's Leaf

I have to give major props to James. The night before we left for Midland, he drilled the holes in the main trunk for the branchs and cut the branchs to the different lengths. On site, he and his Dad drilled the holes in the hearts, leafs and acorns with Pawpaw’s drill press. Thanks Sweetie!

Jessica Looking at Her Cousin Dawson's Acorn

A Birthday Card and Gift for Lillie

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My good friend Jillan’s daughter Lillie recently turned three years old. She and her cousin Jacey (who is two months younger than her) celebrated by having a carnival-themed birthday party this past Sunday. I wanted to do something special for Lillie. Lillie is enamored with baby kangaroos. I recently bought this stamp set, because I knew it would be perfect.

Lillie’s birthday card was the other thing I worked on the last time I got together with Lori. It worked out well, because I was talking about grass and how I wish I had the Martha Stewart grass punch. Lori brought up that she had this grass-like wheel and it was perfect for the vision in my head, especially once I added the rhinestone flowers to the flowers in the grass.

Lillie's Birthday Card

Stamps: Stampin’ Up Build-a-Roo, Daisy Field (wheel); Hero Arts CL037 Clear Design Number THREE; Stampabilites Fun Alpha Upper, Fun Alpha Lower
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel
Ink: Stazon Jet Black
Accessories: Kaiser Scrapbook flower rhinestones; Stickles Yellow, Xmas Red
Tools: Xyron 5″ Creative Station

I also made Lillie a personalized picture frame with a mama kangaroo and her joey. I am very happy with how it turned out. I would have liked to put something in the lower right corner, but couldn’t think of what to put.

Kangaroo Frame for Lillie

Stamps: Stampin’ Up Build-a-Roo, A*Muse Polka Dot Letters
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa
Paint: Folk Art Christmas Red
Tools: Mod Podge Matte

I had plans for one more crafty thing, but I didn’t quite get to it. I rounded out Lillie’s gift with a stuffed kangaroo with baby joey and a book about kangaroos.

Unfortunately, Jessica didn’t care for the loudness of a toddler birthday party and we didn’t stay very long. Fortunately, Jillan pulled Lillie off to the side to open the gift from us (didn’t want to upset Jacey because he wasn’t opening gifts) and I got to see Lillie’s reaction to her present.

Lillie Looking at Her Card

Lillie Looking at her Frame

As you can see, Lillie very intently looked at her card and frame. Isn’t the little clown dress Jillan made for her perfect for the carnival theme of the party?