Peppermint Paddy Snowman

Theresa McFayden had a little tutorial painting a snowman on canvas for Christmas time.  I thought "I can do that" !  I took a few liberties as I didn't have all of the same supplies to use in creating this little guy.  I had two 5"x7" canvas boards on hand and used them.  This is one of them -- the other was already in a box and in the mail when I remembered that I should take a photo.  This one went to my good friend, Sharon, as she loves snowmen.  I covered the canvas with a print out of Joy to the World music and gessoed over it.  I cut circles for the snowman and the tie out of old book paper to insure that I would have the size correct for the size of the canvas,  then painted with acrylic paint.  The hat and feet were freehand, a lot of dry brushing for hi-lighting, then modpodged and sprinkled glitter glass to finish.  The dots around the outside are done with a "seam marker" dipped in black paint.  I think he's kind of "folk-artsy".

White Christmas full of Buttons

Sometimes, inspiration leads to frustration !! What I expected to be a fairly simple ATC Christmas ornament to construct became an all day affair yesterday !!  I modpodged paper and lace to a card, glued ruffled lace in a triangle for the tree shape, then layed vintage and new white buttons out onto that shape.  After much ado, I was finally happy with the layout and glued them down.  I especially like the vintage button at the top -- it was "one of one" in my collection of white buttons.  The tiny satin bows were also frustrating, even with the bowmaker.  I may redo the NOEL label.  I am happy with the hanger, however.  Fine silver wire wrapped around the handle of a small paint brush to produce the "springy" look proved to be the easiest part of the entire project.  I added a few seed pearls with a touch of glue to keep them in place.