Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Button Christmas Tree Tutorial...

                       
I've been making trees to go with my decorations this year...I got this idea from a magazine that I thumbed through a while back at the library....what could be cuter than a button tree!

Because I've collected buttons for a very long time...I have quite a stash...so I grabbed my jar full of green and poured them out on the table.
I used pearlized head long sewing pins...I had about 200 pins already.... but I had to run to JoAnns mid project to get 200 more!

I also already had a 12" styrofoam cone on hand...but it was white so I quickly painted it green.
I used a blow dryer for quick drying of the paint!...(i'm impatient that way)


I simply placed a button on the bottom and held it in place with a pin....easy peasy!

I placed my larger buttons around the tree first to spread them out ...
I continued to make rows...

...until complete!

I place a large button on the very top of the tree where it's flat. I can stick up the pins a little to tie a bow on at the top or to glue on a star.
I love how it turned out!....and I like how all of the colored pinheads look like ornaments on the tree...don't you?


Another tree I made is with scrapbooking paper and a paper cone.
I got this idea from my local craft store Roberts....they had one sort of like it on display.
I bought the 12" cone at Michaels.
I used 2 sheets of 12 x 12 green glittered paper and cut it into 1 1/2 inch strips....I then used a scallop edge punch by Stampin Up for all of the edges of the paper strips.
I cut the edged strips 3 scallops wide and curled the edges up with my fingers so that they would not lay flat against the cone...

...put some glue gun glue across the top of paper segment and began glueing them into rows starting at the bottom.

I overlapped each paper a little for good coverage and nice dimension.

I continued around the tree...
...nearing the top now...

At the very top row, I trimmed my paper only one scallop wide so that it fit nicely....
I will show you how they look together in my family room alongside my painted houses in my next post.
I hope you try these fun and easy tree projects....I still have a few more different tree crafts to do and I will show you when they are complete...
until then....happy decorating and Christmas crafting my bloggy friends!
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Monday, December 6, 2010

A Sweet Christmas on Vintage Monday!...

( *warning...if you are diabetic...you might want to skip this post...LOL)
I've finished with my decorating and todays post is just the beginning of my show and tell that I will be posting all week....I'm sure you know that all of my Christmas decorating is full of vintagey goodness!
Cookies will be added to Santa's plate above as the baking begins next week!


I've been unwrapping all of my sugary sweet decorations that I use in my kitchen...these are large old fashioned candy canes that I glittered (yes...i love glitter) several years ago and pack away carefully each year to use over and over again....


Canning jars filled with candy waiting to adorn baked goods that will be coming out of my cottage kitchen...


...in the meantime...they are sweet and sugary to look at among the Christmas decor.


This little ferris wheel sits under the kitchen tree...a gift to me from my kids a few years back.
It goes around and plays music along with the voices of laughing children...sweet!


Do you want to see my kitchen tree?...here are a few pics...(some of them fuzzy ones...lol)

















And what would Christmas decorating be without a sweet sugary quilt?

My "How to Bake a Gingerbread Man" quilt.



This is my favorite gingerbread man recipe that I embroidered ....

Then supplies and ingredients to make them are appliqued throughout the rest of the quilt...


A large vintage mixing bowl...

Use REAL butter...not margerine!...

Measure everything carefully....



Be careful not to get any eggshells into the batter:)

...and don't forget to sift the flour...

Mix until smooth and roll out....

Place cut cookies on a large cookie sheet for baking...
Make sure that you use your favorite vintage cutter...shown below:)

Prepare frosting to pipe onto cooled cookies.

Decorate with red hots, chocolate chips, M&M's and gumdrops.


I used white Jumbo Ric-Rac on the borders of my quilt to look like piped frosting.



A sweet addition to my Cottage during the Christmas season!...
Are you on sugar overload yet? Got a sugar buzz?...I warned you...lol.
Tell me what you think of my sugary sweet Christmasy kitchen decor...I'm just dying to know!

(*pattern info)...You can purchase my pattern from Nadine at
Material Girls.

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