Christmas-y Pictures - Yeay!

Hello :) Can you believe it's the third day of December already?!?!?! Today is my daughter's birthday. She turns 10 today! Actually, 3 minutes ago! Happy Birthday Rachelle-Maria Celestial!!!!

This week, I've been busy doing surgeries at work. Honestly, I was very nervous at first- ok, it took me 2 years to try to do one by myself!!! Um, maybe 2.5. But I have finally got it! It takes a LOT of patience and steady hands to be able to work with such tiny things. For example, think of making a tiny hole in something with the circumference of a single piece of thread and then trying to put something the size of a pipe cleaner into it! It seems nearly impossible!! But I've finally done it- not 1, but 4 times! Ok, on to crafty goodness :)

Here is my glittery, blingy, pearly, Christmas-y birdhouse- unfinished!! I set a white snowbird on the perch, but didn't snap a picture of it before I brought it to the auction at Thanksgiving. My b/f's family has an auction every year- everyone who comes to dinner brings a gift or two to donate to the auction and we all bid for each piece. The money raised goes to families in need at his grandmother's church for Christmas! This year, we raised $513!!!! Isn't that just amazing??

I ended up bidding on some great things, too! Sometimes, people will wrap their items, so it's a guessing game as to what's inside. But are surprises fun? :)

I had been looking for more of these tiny birdhouses to no avail, but I finally found some more at AC Moore on Sunday!!! So I snatched up 6 more :) My blog is going to be all blingy birdhouse-d out by the end of the Christmas season!! (Ok, and maybe after that, too )

This is my Christmas ATC for the ArtHaven yahoo group :) Kewpies(!!!!!111one) are my favorite!! It's so funny- I don't like dolls too much- they scare me- but I looooooove Kewpies! So, no Kewpie dolls for me... just adorable pictures of them! lol :) They are sitting in front of my favorite wintry song- Baby It's Cold Outside! Ok, I seriously could not find a digital image of the original vintage score, so I tried to improvise with distress ink. Eh- it's cute anyway :)

Lol- and another tribute to my favorite song :) This is the fat book page I created for Robin's Fat Book Page Swap in Winter Whites! I can't wait to get my book!!! I have gotten one peek so far at one of the pages done by Mary from Green Paper and hers is just stunning!!!!!

For this page, I used a snowflake stamp and flocking powder to create the white snowflakes in the background. Originally, I had mixed the flocking with glitter, but I put too much glitter in the mix [(and then couldn't get it out!!) and had no more of that kind of flocking] and the the images ended up coming out too rough. I wanted the snowflakes to feel soft!!! So I decided to go with the flocking powder by itself. Then I made the medallion out of creamy flocked vintage wallpaper and topped it with a cream colored paper rose. This was set on top of a silver glitter snowflake and attached to my homemade flocked paper. I printed out the sentiment and cut it into a banner shape then glittered the edges. Added the silver and white pom pom trim to the bottom of the page and yeay, done! After doing this, I realized how hard it was only being able to work with limited colors!! For some reason, I don't seem to have very much cream and white embellishments in my stock! Cream millinery seems hard to come by... If you know of a great place to get some, would you please pass on your secrets!! :)

And lastly, here is my Joy banner for another ArtHaven swap! It looks much better in person- the snowflakes behind the glittered letters were misted with a pretty light blue perfect pearls mist and they're so pretty when the light hits them the right way. Couldn't get enough flocking, so I flocked the spots and ears of each deer :) The vintage lace gives it that super girly look, as do the pretty pink and red papers! Speaking of which... I think these papers are from the Basic Grey line- Eskimo kisses. Isn't is sweet?!

I hope you've enjoyed my little update :) Thank you for stopping by!! Be careful shopping out there, and may you be blessed with good parking spots! lol :)