Christmas crafting

I recently went on a Christmas crafting frenzy so I could stock my space at the shop with some cheerful goodies for those early-bird holiday shoppers. I gave you a sneak peak of some of them in this photo a couple of posts ago.


And today I'm going to give you a closer look.

I've said it before and I'll say it again- I am not terribly original but I can copy just about anything. Most of these projects were inspired by others, so I'll be sharing the links to them so you can try these projects yourself if you want.

These mason jar snow globes are an Anthropologie knock-off.

I made some more this afternoon and considered doing a full tutorial, but they're just so easy it seemed silly. So if you want to make some, here's a mini-tutorial.

You'll need:
mason jar (mine are from Hobby Lobby)
mini fake trees (got mine at Dollar Tree in a 2-pack with one big and one small)
any other little items you want inside, like mini pine cones
fake snow (any craft store)
glitter
hot glue gun and sticks
ribbon or rope to decorate

Hot glue your trees and other knick-knacks to the inside of the lid. While that dries put a little fake snow and some glitter inside the jar. Place some hot glue along the very inside edge of the top of the lid (where the top of the jar will touch once it's screwed on). DON'T put the glue on the threads of the lid. Carefully screw the lid on tight. Tie on some ribbon to decorate it a little further, shake and enjoy!

Moving on...

I really love old sheet music and have collected quite a few vintage hymnals. I found one recently that had the edges of the pages dyed red, which was perfect for these Christmas crafts. I used it to make some ornaments (inspired by Miss Mustard Seed).





And a couple of nice big wreaths.

These book page trees on timber bases look pretty cute clustered together. (Inspiration found here.) Instead of folding every page like the linked tutorial says, I just cute through the pages with an Exacto knife from the top inside corner to the bottom outside corner (or an inch or so in from the corner for a skinnier tree). Each tree also has a skewer glued inside the binding, which fits into a hole that I drilled into the base. That way the trees can be more secure on their bases for display but can come apart for storing.

Here's a closer look at the candles like in the photo above. The possibilities for these are endless! (Tutorial found here.)

Remember my thrifty finds from this post? Here's what I did with them.

These silver pieces were pretty cute as-is, but they got a little polish before going into my space at the store.

Did you know that plain old white toothpaste is a pretty good silver polish? That's what I've used on the last few pieces of really tarnished silver that I've cleaned up and it works great! Just smear it on, let it sit then, wipe it off with a clean, dry cloth.

This artichoke finial just needed a little spruce.

So I painted the base of it a creamy white, glazed and distressed it and then used some Antique Gold Rub 'n Buff on the center designs.

I forgot to take an "after" photo of the gold candlestick in the photo below, but it also got painted creamy white, then glazed and distressed. For now I'm keeping the silver photo holder.

The wooden box got some new rope handles and some lovely French typography on the side. (Oh, and there's that newly polished bud vase next to it!)

The typography was an image from The Graphics Fairy (of course) and I used my tutorial to transfer the image onto the wood.

I have to admit, even after all that Christmas crafting, I'm not really in the Christmas mood yet. It's after Thanksgiving and I have no desire to pull out my Christmas decorations. I hit a thrift store today and found a few boxes of vintage ornaments that prompted the cashier to ask me if I was setting up my tree this weekend. I felt kind of silly when I said no.

Still, I listened to Christmas music on my Pandora station while making snow globes. Hopefully the mood strikes soon! Are you in full-blown Christmas mode yet?