Winter Wonderland & The Brownie's Christmas Tree

Winter Wonderland

Baby it's cold outside!

 Good thing the Retro Ornaments Matchbox Kit  from Alpha Stamps has been a lot of fun to work with to keep my mind off how bloody cold it's been.

I used the Big Chunky Matchbox with Window for Winter Wonderland. Instead of having the box slide in and out of the cover, I just glued the cover to the matchbox. Mainly because I needed to hide the hot-glue  mess I made when I was attaching all of the greenery at the top of the box.

Now there was much more "snow" (that I had just enough of) and a teeny tiny vintage snowman in the box, but That Damn Satan Cat was left in the garage overnight. When I tried to get her to come upstairs before I went to bed she ran and hid from me, damn cat. Anyways she knocked the box off of my worktable during the night... snow (that of course I hadn't glued down yet) was scattered all over the rug and the miniature snowman was nowhere to be found.  Pure evil that cat, and she lives to irritate me every. single. day.

Mercury Glass Stickles outline the opening of the box, and Diamond Stickles are applied on the acrylic snowflakes to give them a little sparkle. It is a bit hard to see in the photos, but I intertwined the silver leaf ribbon with Tiny Leaf Garland and Star Tinsel. Once everything was dry, the top of the box and front of box was given a dusting with Diamond Dust.

Supply List

Before heading onto the next project, we will have a brief  intermission with lovely music while you go and grab a cuppa! 2nd project follows below the video.

The Brownie's Christmas Tree

Looking very cheeky and pleased with himself after decorating his tree!

If you haven't heard me say it before, I'll say it here - I absolutely L*O*V*E  The Brownies by Palmer Cox. Am so crazy about them, I can't look at them without smiling. 

For this project I used the Small Chunky Matchbox with Window. The tree, oh my gawd that tree. What a pain in the arse. I think it took me longer to decorate than my full sized tree! It may not look like a lot of work - but it is. The beads are 3 or 4mm, have to be picked up with a pair of tweezers, then dipped into glue and if you're lucky...the bead will go where you want it on the first attempt. If it does go where you want it - then you have to hope that it stays. Teenie-weenie stars are also applied with the tweezers. Trying to add glue to the tree without globbing it all over everything to add some Diamond Dust once the beads have dried is maddening. The entire process from start to finish is pretty much like trying to tie your shoes without any thumbs. However, once you finish it you'll love it!

If you love Brownies as much as I do, Alpha Stamps has a digital download of 12 different images that are adorable. (See my supply list below for the link.) I colored this Brownie's hat and jacket with Holly Stickles, Diamond Stickles on the trim of hat and a green colored pencil for his body suit.  

Supply List

Since I couldn't get any of the pictures to really show the shiny sparkle of the Diamond Dust, I made an Oscar-worthy video to try to show it.