O Tiny Christmas Tree! O Tiny Christmas Tree!

Seeing as I rarely post to this blog (are you all super sad?), I decided to show you a little project for Christmas time.  Something in advance!  woot.

For starters, this is a simple little project using just a few items/tools:

• gold thread
• a Tim Holz bottle brush tree (comes in a pack of 5)
• Heidi Swapp Gold Lame' Color Shine (I am almost OUT!! yikes!)
• a handful of Freckled Fawn wood veneer star-ish shapes
• hot glue gun (and glue)
• a cardboard box

Start Here. :)

I started out by spray painting the wood veneer star shapes. (NOTE: I ended up needing 50% more than are pictured here.) I usually put a scratch paper in an old Studio Calico box. The pizza box style is great to catch the over-spray, and compact enough to close up and put out of sight when done.

A couple squirts was enough.  I just pushed them around to cover on both sides.

This Color Shine is seriously amazing. The goldey-shiney-sparkley goodness is unattainable in photographic form!

 I then hot glued the little stars along a length of gold thread.  Word to the wiser-than-me: don't squeeze a crap-ton of boiling hot glue onto your fingertips and scream like a little girl.  I'm sure you wouldn't anyway, but take it easy out there.  I spaced them approximately (because I did NOT measure) 1/2 inch apart.

 Now, I am not one to brag - but I am a genius.  The little tree kept falling over.  They are made out of whisps of the wind or something.  So - BAM! - my genius thought hits me: "Stacey, use those removable Glue Dots that you have never used and are entirely useless for nearly* everything else you do!" So I applied on to the tree "trunk" and it worked! It really did! It stayed standing!

(*note: to be fair to the otherwise lovely Glue Dot Corporation, once I used these particular Glue Dots to hold an envelope closed so I could open it again)

 Look how cute this tiny little garland turned out! Gold. Bam! Instant awesomeness.
I also glued one of the stars to the top.  Every tree needs a topper.  Amiright?!

String the little garland around your tree, and voila!  So beautiful and simple.  AND GOLD.  I'm dreaming of a white (and GOLD) christmas.


Just add Frankincense and Myrrh.


Much love and cheer,
Stacey

Ac - cent - tu - ate the Negative.

But do not e-lim. In-ate the positive.  USE BOTH!!

Figuratively, both negative and positive experiences in our lives shape us into the person we are. 

Literally, both negative and positive scrapbooking items can shape up into amazing layouts! 

Yes, I spend too much time thinking about scrapbooking.

Below you will see some simple snapshots of my utilization of a scrap piece of white cardstock, some Heidi Swapp color magic letters, and HS Color Shine:  

I lined up the letters SO CLOSE together, because my cousin and I used this phrase as our hash tag to link up all our Instagrams of our Hawaii trip together in June 2013.  Check me out if you want: Stacemaee.

NOTE: When setting the letters, be gentle and don't push them down.  This way they will not stick to this paper & can be used on another project!

I used Pink on the left and faded it with Coral on the right.  Just a few sprays each will do...

Remove the letters...
And you will have two great items to use!

I trimmed the misted cardstock down, cut a triangle notch out of the right side to create a banner, and handdrew a fine black line around the edge for some definition.

And here's my final project with it!
 (this page has all Fuji Instax photos, FYI.  They are so fun!)

And here is the next page & use of the actual letters:

Because the box I spray/glitter/emboss in had so much powder and other overspray, the letters were not very sticky.  I was worried they would fall off, or that my hand would fall off trying to glue each one individually.  SOoo, I just ran it through my sewing machine.  Super easy, as long as the sewing machine is already out!