Guest Designer for Frilly and Funkie! Oh! Christmas Trees!

Hello, crafty friends! I'm so excited today to be joining the girls over at Frilly and Funkie as Guest Designer for Cec's challenge theme "An Altered State"!  I decided to transform a yard sale Styrofoam cone, some old sheet music, jingle bells, and half pearls to make my Christmas trees. I ended up purchasing two additional cones from my local craft store, because everyone knows you can't have just one tree! I saw trees similar to these on Pinterest a long time ago, so I can't take credit for the idea.  But it was fun making them  in my own personal style.

These trees are going to be gifted to my daughter's voice and piano teacher for a table decoration for his Christmas recital, so I wanted to include a nod to music. Here's the before photos...

I started with my sheet music, which I cut into strips, then swiped on Picket Fence Distress paint randomly.  Next I added random areas of texture paste, and sprinkled with Rock Candy and Tumbled Glass Distress Glitters.  When dry, I rolled the strips on a skewer to make curls, which I cut about every 1/4 inch to make "eyelashes". You can see an example of this on the cone pictured above. The strips were hot glued around the cone in layers.  I wasn't happy with the brightness of the sheet music, although it is vintage.  I spritzed the finished tree with Vintage Photo distress spray to make it more vintage looking.  So much for my attempts at a glittery look!!!  To get some of the glam back I sprayed with Ranger Perfect Pearl spray, and gave it a good dusting of DecoArt Glamour Dust. These trees really sparkle in real life, but I just couldn't capture the glitz with my phone camera.

I followed this procedure for all three trees, however I grabbed the Rusty Hinge spray by mistake to spray on the smaller trees.  Because I was spraying outdoors on a terribly bright day, and therefore color blind, I didn't realize my error until I brought them inside! Yipes!  One vintage tree and two rusty ones!  Raise your hand if you've ever made that big of a goof before! Too late to start over, and cursing like a sailor, I marched those trees right back outside and gave them a blast first with Vintage Photo spray and then with my brand spankin' new DecoArt Shimmer Mister in White. Agggghhhh! It came out in globs! Oh, well...I just threw some Glamour Dust at it while the mister was still wet and called it done. (If anyone has tips for me on how to use my mister, I welcome your suggestions!)

While my soaking wet trees dried, I proceeded with the embellishments.  For the largest and smallest trees, I used half pearls as Christmas balls.  To alter them, I brushed on Ranger Multi Matte medium and shook on Distress Glitter in Tumbled Glass and Pumice Stone.  Once dry, I misted with Vintage Photo Distress spray.

For the medium sized tree, I altered some shiny gold and silver toned jingle bells.  I wanted the gold ones to appear silver and the shiny silver ones to have an aged look.  I used silver Mixative and Mushroom alcohol inks on the gold bells, and when dry, very lightly dabbed on Black Soot Distress paint.  I used Mushroom alcohol ink on the silver bells followed by the Black Soot paint. It's very subtle, but does give them a vintage feel. In the first photo the ones on the right are the "before"; the ones on the left, after I used the alcohol inks but before I added the paint.  The second photo is an action shot...Roger, the cat, took a swipe while I was photographing! Tee Hee!

The violins (maybe they're really cellos, but I want them to be violins) are from the Tim Holtz Little Things stamp set, inked with Jet Black Archival ink,  and blended with Vintage Photo.  I fussy cut them and edged in Walnut Stain Distress ink. Although I did not take photos from all angles, the embellishments continue around the trees, so they would be pretty from any vantage point.

"Sleigh Bells Ring" is part of a Close To My Heart stamp, which I inked with a marker, so I could just get the quote and not the entire image.  I stamped this on scrap card stock and hand cut the banner.  I  blended on Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain and flicked on some water.

"Christmas Carols" is part of a Tim Holtz Holiday Collections image, also using marker so I could isolate just the quote from the image.  Again, I hand cut the banner and inked as above.

The quote on the largest tree is from Momenta and inked in Archival, Jet Black. The flag was hand cut, inked with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain and added to a stick pin I covered with Pumice Stone Distress Glitter.

Each tree is topped with  back to back Tim Holtz' Snowflake Rosettes and Mini Snowflake Rosettes. These were cut from white card stock blended with Tumbled Glass distress ink.  Once assembled, I spritzed the backs with Perfect Pearls spray in Turquoise and smudged a little on the center's, too. I swiped on texture paste, and while still wet, sprinkled on Rock Candy Distress Glitter.  When dry I smudged with a little Walnut Stain Distress ink.

 


Sadly, my trees were not inspired by cheerful Christmas memories of  when I was younger, because we did not celebrate Christmas.  I try harder to make my own family's Christmas really special with traditions and special decorations (and lots of them!), so my kids will have good memories.  I remember as children, we were not even permitted to sing the Christmas carols sung at school or participate in Christmas plays. I always felt so left out at this time of the year. So these trees are sort of a "So there, take that!" to those bad memories I have of Christmas time as a kid. Happily, I  have lots of good Christmas memories from when I was finally able to make them for myself! And I DO believe in Santa!

That's it for today!  I want to thank Cec and the girls at Frilly and Funkie for inviting me to join them today! Be sure to visit these talented artists to see their amazing transformations!

I would like to enter this into the following inspiring challenges:

Mixed Media World MMW#9 Anything Goes

Try It On Tuesdays Create a Scene

-Use Your Stuff Challenge #200 and a Blog Hop! "Celebrate!" I reached REAL deep into my old stuff for the largest cone, the sheet music, all of the elements and for those sentiment stamps!

-Country View challenge # 33 The Colour Blue

-Our Creative Corner "Topsy Turvy" My topsy turvy is the mistake I made using the wrong color spray to start and the unfortunate way the Shimmer Mist came out, which all just turned out fine in the end! I hope this makes sense!

-Stamps and Stencils "Remember, Remember"

Altered Eclectics Anything Goes Mixed Media/Altered Art

-Sparkles Christmas Challenges # 59 Christmas Decorations

-Natalie and Amy's #38 "Winter Scenes"

We Love to Create #23 Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes

Thank you for dropping in today and for all your wonderful comments! Hugs and Blessings!

Sara Emily

UPDATE:
Yippee!!!! Top Three!!