Woodland Winter Ornaments

Hello friends - it's a quiet Friday night at my house. We have been working our tails off this week getting all your orders out. Just a few left to send out tomorrow and then the rush is done. It's time to relax, to make gifts, to finish decorating, to enjoy a few treats and most importantly to spend time together.

I always feel like my Christmas celebration starts Christmas Eve and goes through the week after Christmas. That's when life slows down enough for me to catch my breath. When I let wonder wash over my weary soul. It's the time when I stop and listen instead of rushing. It's my time to reflect and dream of the year ahead. I let the weight of winter settle in and enjoy the call of ancient times that the winter solstice brings.

The busy, crazy days before Christmas fly by in a buzz and I enjoy the anticipation but the stress of preparing can be draining. So I eagerly look forward to the quiet and rest after the celebration is over.

But for now, I'm a whiz of an elf. Making things from morning until night with lots of fun side projects sneaking into my daily to-do list. One such project were these fun ornaments that I created for our tree.

The painted wooden pendants are from Summer Wind Arts, a little gift to myself last month. I paired them up with my tiny snowflake beads, which have been a favorite of mine this season. 

I brought in a little more color with waxed linen in green, English cut glass and brass electroplated hematite. They remind me of cozy, knitted sweaters for some reason. 

This little guy, in an action shot.

My beloved snowflake beads.

Being a Michigan girl, I've always loved snow and snowflake patterns. This year we are enjoying a green Christmas. After two very rough winters, I'm cool with this. I'm sure it will snow soon enough. A white Christmas does holds it's own kind of magic, but a late snow in the season is just as beautiful and inspiring. 

I'm off to create for the rest of the night, I have some special gifts to make for the girls on my list. How are your gift-making adventures going? Are you done yet? 

Have a great weekend!  

Merry Christmas

I hope your holiday is filled with:

*

joy

love

hope

peace

wonder

feasting

laughter

miracles

surprises

merriment

family

Wishing you the best and brightest for the New Year!

I'm off to enjoy my holiday vacation and will see you in 2011.

The Ghost of Christmas Future

We are about to say goodbye to 2010 and I'm looking forward to a very exciting 2011!  Big changes and new adventures are coming my way in the next 12 months.  Did you know you can get a calendar with a year's worth of my art work?  Check it out here.

And speaking of the future - I'd like to introduce you to the bead magazine of tomorrow.  Handcrafted Jewelry Studio eMag is a new online publication from Interweave.  I didn't get past the 4th page before my socks were blown off!  It's so not like a pdf that you would download, it's completely interactive with videos, projects to download, clickable features and you can click right to products on the web that are shown in the issue.  I think that's one of my favorite parts.  I wrote a polymer clay beadmaking project for this issue - you can see a sneak peek above.  I even picked up some tips for tools that I have been using for years.  It's filled with good stuff - I promise!

What's your favorite adaptation of the Dickens' classic?  I think mine is Scrooged with Bill Murray - it's so funny and how many times around here do we say, "like Niagara Falls baby!" I did enjoy the latest one that is out, The Christmas Carol with Jim Carrey.  We watched it in 3-d and it was unexpectedly good!

God bless us, every one!

The Ghost of Christmas Presents

Wrapping presents - now that is something that can haunt you this time of year!  Sure you need to get it done, but you can have the package as awesome as the gift with just a little bit of effort.  Don't worry, I'm here to help.  First check out my Wrap It Up treasury, pictured above.  Second, take a gander at my packaging post from the Art Bead Scene a few weeks ago.  And thirdly, because I really do love ya - here are two sets of free gift tags to download and print out.  Print them out on card stock or sticker paper, cut them out, punch a hole and add them to your gifts with twine, raffia or ribbon.

Click here to download.

Click here to download.

Hmm, do they look familiar?  Yes, the gift tags were inspired by my beads!

More Bead Ornaments

I just couldn't stop at two!  I have two more ornaments to share with you today.

First I created a pair of filigree ornaments with brass pieces from Paloma Antigua.  There are all sorts of great painted filigree pieces in this shop!

I added a glass bead, rhinestone rondelle, one of my disk beads, a bead cap and a fire polished glass bead to an eye pin. I attached the hanger and filigree with 13mm jump rings.

The filigree is super lightweight so it won't weigh down your branches.  The filigree comes in sets of 2 so you can make for your tree and one for a friend or give them as a set.  I could see them done in several different colors and given as a special gift.

The second, is missing any art beads, but I have these round beads I need to use up.  The ceramic rounds were on a bargain table at a local bead show and I ended up getting two strands of these huge beads that I will never use for jewelry.  Sometimes that the danger of shopping at a show!  After I made the nest, I attached a wire hanger and tied on a bit of silk ribbon.  LOVE these! I want to make a dozen or so of these for my tree. 

The nest is created with steel wire and the curly wire work on stop is done with a softer craft wire in a bright silver finish, both are 20 gauge.  If you don't know how to make a nest here are two tutorials - 1 & 2.  I do kind of a hybrid of these two styles.  The nest is about 2" wide.

The back side of the nest.  I have a set of tiny teal birds that my daughter and I made a few years ago, they will look so cute on the tree with the nests.  I could see these on top of packages too instead of bows.

So how are you doing with your holiday decorating?  Is it a major affair or do you keep things simple?  My only requirement is a real tree - I need that fresh pine smell to feel like it's the holidays!