Friday 14 November 2014

Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Hello and welcome to Magpieheaven! I do seem to be getting very caught up in Christmas projects now that November is here! Over at Unruly Paper Arts I have a little Christmas house featured as part of this month's Readers' Art Quest. I do hope you will feel inspired to take a look at what all the very talented columnists have come up with and join in with something Santa themed too.
I decided to decorate this little wooden house. I painted it first with Gesso and then had fun adding Tim Holtz clear Distress Glitter, tiny red gems, charms, a scrap of hessian mesh and an MDF heart. There are some Robin's Nest paper leaves in nice Christmassy tartan too. Earlier in the year I gathered these tiny pine-cones while I was on a country walk and this seemed the perfect project to use them on. I do wish you could see how the whole project really glistens like sunlight on snow when the light shines on it!
I painted some shrink plastic with Fresco Finish in Guacamole and then stamped with my favourite Aritistic Outpost Snowy Woods Image so that I was able to fit this onto my little Christmas tree decoration. One of the shrink plastic leaves at the top features a Sandra Evertson Petite Whimsy too - a quirky version of the fairy on the Christmas tree!
For a Christmas stocking, I took a little Eyelet Outlet brad, which was meant to be a Wellington Boot and transformed it with some Gesso and gold dimensional paint!
Because I plan to hang my little house on our tree, I decided that it needed an interesting back so that it can be viewed from all angles!
The Robin's Nest paper I used had a really good texture and the tartan is traditional without being a predictable Christmas choice. 
Thank you so much for stopping by today. I do hope you will be able to share a Readers' Art quest 'make' that features Father Christmas and possibly win the lovely prize from Amazing Crafting Products. 
I was petrified of the Department Store Santa I was taken to see by my parents as a tiny girl. My mother still has a photo of me with the trace of a tear on my cheek, reluctantly sitting on Santa's knee in my little matching hat and coat!  He is imagined in so many different ways now, though, and over the years I've come to love these images of the kindly saint who, according to legend rescued the young and vulnerable from horrible fates. When our son stopped believing in Father Christmas he said, 'I shan't stop believing in the spirit of Christmas, though.' Santa, whether you believe in him or not, remains the embodiment of magic, sharing and joy, which is the spirit of Christmas!

12 comments:

  1. Sweet little house ornament Julie Ann! I don't know how you do it- your creativeness and inspiration never stops! heehee I love that Santa and his quote! xo

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  2. Hello Miss Julie Ann, see I'm not the only one who believes your creativity is boundless. Your Christmas house is full of magic, sparkle and wonder, oh I'm in love with the tiny fairy she even has a brelly, now that my idea of a Christmas tree with a fairy on top. I love the plaid leaves and backing, all the red bling just pops on there, that mes, I had to google that, I think I have a few small rolls of it, with the gesso on it, it looks totally different, I'm going to start using it now, makeong your welly into a stocking just brilliant, it's going to look fabulous on the tree with all the lights shining on it, thanks for sharing , so much inspiration, Miss Too made a gorgeous sparkly bag, I'll have to stop by and give her some love. Hope you have a wonderful weekend my dear Friend ((( BIG HUGS )))..

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  3. What a wonderful, sparkly, magical Christmas piece!

    :)

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  4. What a brilliant Christmas piece Julie Ann!! I love to made sunlight on snow the scene and very interested your childhood story. xxx

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  5. This is lovely julie Ann. I love the green shrink plastic plaque. When I was little I was scared of men with beards so I had to close my eyes when the firemen went down the pole on trumpton because the last one had a beard!

    Lucy x

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  6. Fabulous little house ornament, it had to have sparkle as it's Christmas! Some beautiful little embellishments and a fab childhood memory, that's what the 'Spirit' of Christmas is all about, reflection and making more memories.

    :-) xxx

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  7. It's gorgeous & Christmassy Julie Ann!
    Have a lovely weekend
    Alison x

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  8. Hi Julie Ann... love your Christmas house... The shrink plastic stamped imaged turned out wonderful !!! And I love the addition of the mesh, gives it such a lovely bit of texture !!

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  9. How lovely - the slightly quirky take on the traditional red and green, and my favourite AO stamp - I love this little house. I'm sorry to hear F.C. disturbed you as a child. I can't remember ever being taken to see him... but we always wrote our Christmas lists to him on Advent Sunday in good faith. We still do!
    Alison xx

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  10. So lovely and sweet and full of Christmas magic dear Julie Ann ♥ the little heart and square with the red baubles made me think of frosted lebkuchen.
    Thank you for sharing your creative genius along with your words which are always rich and interesting too!
    oxo

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  11. I have no idea how I missed this.....glad I've found it now! This is truly Christmas - that image, the wonderful elements, the colours....altogether make a wonderful addition to your tree decorations! Hugs, Chrisx

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  12. Wow such a gorgeous unique decoration, I love all the snow effects and the pop of reds, it's brilliant. I still have a photo and memory of a Santa I visited when I lived in Ireland, I was 6 and my nephew was 3 and we both were sat on Santa's knee who was completely and utterly drunk. I can still remember it, he couldn't manage to get a word out and kept nearly dropping us. Everytime I see the photo I smile. I guess the saddest thing about it is I thought Santa was normal because of my mum being an alcoholic, but still it's a wonderful memory, thank you so much for reminding me. Hugs Kezzy :-) xxx

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