Make Your Own Glitterboard Village! Here's My Green and Red Mansion

Glitterboard Mansion for Kelsey and Neilio., originally uploaded by icklebird.

Book title where you can find this template and a few others: Vintage Christmas Crafts by Sara Toliver. ISBN # 1-4027-2791-7.

I was excited to give this to Kelsey and Neil yesterday for Christmas and Kelse said something very sweet-she said that she knows her son, Brooklyn, will spend lots of time gazing at it as he grows up and will have memories of it from his childhood-I think I will have to make more for them now! : ). I also hoped they didn't think I was a little bit coookooo since I went a little overboard on the crafting for gifts this year-weeeeeee! I also made a "Let it Snow" banner and gnome snowglobe for each of my closest friends!

Make Your Own Glitterboard Village!

Glitterboard Mansion for Cherise and Ricardo., originally uploaded by icklebird.

Here's the book where I found all the templates at the library: Vintage Christmas Crafts by Sara Toliver. ISBN #1-4027-2791-7.
(Priced at $14.95 on the cover)

There's three different styles and three different houses for each style. Templates are to be photocopied and enlarged. I wound up copying them at full size, cutting each piece of the pattern out and then enlarging them individually so I could make mine bigger. Seems like the most time-consuming factor was tracing the pattern and cutting it out but it would have helped to have had some extra X-Acto blades handy! I used the box we got our animated lawn doe in for extra sturdiness. Avoid using super fat cardboard because it buckles and separates. I found that the crystal clear glitter looks more like the traditional mica houses and lets the paint colors show through for more color variety. The little houses were painted and covered in matching colored glitter for a Liberace effect : ). I coiled up a white pipecleaner for the wreath and topped the roof, the ground and the tops of everything with fake sparkly snow paint! I think I'm going to have to get more templates ready-these are addicting! If you do make one from the book and remember me=email me a link to a picture! : )! Happy Glitterdays!

The Ostrich and the Carousel

The Ostrich and the Carousel, originally uploaded by icklebird.

Something to do in Vegas for the holidays! It's a rare find to have something to do with your family that feels 100% right. You know your money is going to a good cause here rather than promoting big industry gambling and tourism. Head over to Opportunity Village and their Magical Forest for an evening of lights, cocoa, and train rides. Izzy obsesses over the carousel. It's crazy how my life evolves around trying to find ways to make her go crazy like she did when she saw the carousel for that second visit. There was also maze, burlap bag "arctic" slides, and a meandering walk through a decorated forest. Strangely, as you get closer to each decorated tree, you realize it's decorated with plumbing parts or frisbees with logos because each tree or elaborate mini cottage with elves is an advertisement from some local sponsoring business. It reminds me of Bonnie Springs (see my flickr set-Old Nevada) in some respects--nothing is quite...right. The elves are old and dirty, the nativity is missing it's manger, the burgers are 75% cardboard : )-

Birdies in the Woods Tree Trimming

Birdies in the Woods Tree Trimming, originally uploaded by icklebird.

There's one reliable source for crafty ideas that I know I can turn to for inspiration and that's Martha Stewart's Holiday Gift Ideas Edition. I flagged about ten different projects to try. This one evolved from her vintage looking gift wrap embellishments (there were also pipecleaner stockings and twisted candy canes). I didn't realize how oversized my version was until I finished and realized bedecking it with a little bow wasn't going to cut it! So I pulled out my collection of random holiday miniatures and wallah! Super-Opulant Charm (remember opulant is my fancied up word for...gawdy!). I can see the potential for these to have a backing of felt and an elaborate holiday scene with snow and glitter in the donut hole opening! When I asked my husband what he thought of these, he said it was "pretty, but, is it a brooch?" with a concerned look on his face! The running joke in my family is that I am likely to turn anything into a brooch despite it's enormity or it's obvious gawdiness. Hmmmph! Truth be told, I never can tell if it's pretty or ugly! I just know that I like it.