Christmas decor Archives | Page 2 of 2

Taking a Dip on a Wednesday Afternoon

by Wendy Scheel | Oct 14, 2015 | DIY

I was working in the studio today putting shelving paper in some drawers and I found some things that I didn’t even remember buying.

I love a great deal and I must’ve bought these paper mache ornaments after the holidays. They were probably a quarter a piece and I bought 8 of them. Two bucks tucked in the bottom of a drawer. Cha-ching.

You know how all of those random videos pop up on your Facebook account? I never really know how I get so many of those but I guess I clicked somewhere and now I get a variety of videos.

The other day, one popped up that showed a guy dipping a deer skull with antlers into a bucket of water that he had sprayed layer upon layer of paint. It was pretty cool.

So today when I found these ornaments, I thought, “Why not give that a try?”

I collected an old beach bucket, 4 half used cans of spray paint and the ornaments.

I had silver metallic, a textured white, a black and a gold spray paint. No rhyme or reason to what I picked.

I filled the bucket 3/4’s of the way full with tap water. Then I started to spray each of the paints, one at a time, layering them. I probably sprayed for 30 seconds each. It makes a lot of paint mist in the room so make sure wherever you’re doing this, it is well ventilated.

After you have a nice amount of paint in your bucket, take whatever you are dipping, and well, dip. 🙂

I wanted these ornaments completely covered so I dipped all the way to the top.

When the item is covered as far as you desire, gently blow the paint away from the top of your item as you pull it up out of the water.

I dipped all eight of my paper mache ornaments but I only liked 5 out of the 8. I am sure that even Martha Stewart has some rejects. 🙂

The metallic paint was super cool and although the white didn’t attach as well as I was hoping, the texture in the paint gave the ornaments some character.

Each one is unique, just as I had hoped.

My Christmas tree this year is going to be white, silver and gold. These ornaments might find themselves on the tree or maybe even in a wooden bowl or around some candle holders.

On a personal note, today is my 3 year Anniversary for having a shop on Etsy! Be sure to check out my SideNote Saturday post on the 17th to see how far I have come. 🙂 But as fair warning, if you have little children, cover their eyes. 🙂

Who knew a set of rustic candle holders could be so exciting!

by Wendy Scheel | Aug 17, 2015 | New Products

I shared with you in the recent past that I bought a drill press! Well, I have been putting that drill press and miter saw to work again. And this time, I have to say that I have totally outdone myself. How could that possibly have happened you wonder? Hold on.

Our neighbor Jimmy works at the local tree farm. His wife Nikki wanted some new pillows. I needed some trees. So just like an old fashioned trading post, we traded some white birch trees for some red geometric patterned pillow covers. Win-Win.

At the tree farm, they periodically thin sections of trees to encourage the best and strongest trees to thrive. These reduced trees are then recycled into mulch and used at the farm greenhouse. Jimmy rescued these trees so I could repurpose them into candle holders. He dropped them off the other day. He even cut off the twiggy branches that I don’t need. What a guy!

Each tree was between 2-3 inches in diameter. A few in the 3 1/2 to 4 inch range. My next step was to simply cut them into 2, 4 and 6 inch heights and set them aside to dry.

My drying time frame wasn’t exactly scientific. I moved on to other projects and when those were completed, maybe two weeks?, I returned to the drill press to complete the candle holders.

Each birch holder has a spot drilled in big enough to insert a tea size candle. They fit snuggly down into the wood, and are replaceable.

Each and every candle holder is unique to the section of branch it came from. No two sets are alike. They are not polished or disturbed in any way, giving them a true rustic appearance.