Merry Christmas-time and a few gifts for you!

Are you ready???

Christmas is just a week away now!

We've had a relatively stress-free season this year and

I really like it!

Our boys decided to draw names as our family is growing.

With five sons then add on spouses and significant others

it's really growing quickly!

So with each of us having just one name,

it has really been so easy this year.

Of course, we're all buying for the babies, Clara and Murray.

Plus this takes so much of the emphasis off of "things" but

places it back on just enjoying each other!

I'm having a "Make it for Christmas" Sale in my Etsy Shop!!

Starting now through Sunday evening (Dec. 20th) at midnight,

everything in my Etsy store is 50% OFF!!!

Simply type MERRYCHRISTMAS in the coupon code box

when checking out from my Etsy store

to receive 50% OFF your entire purchase!

You have time to make some one-of-a-kind gifts for your loved ones

this weekend, why not let me help with one of my step-by-step

photographed tutorials? Materials lists are included with each one.

Here's the link to my store so you can take a peek:

MY ETSY STORE!

More gifts!!! A few beautiful images that I've collected over the years.

Click each one to enlarge to the fullest, right click to save to your own

computer...the last few should fill an 8 1/2 x 11" piece of paper for you

to use as Christmas tags for your gifts!

Wishing you a wonderful and very creative weekend precious friends!

hugs and love,

Dawn

A few things to share ~

I wanted to share a few pretty Christmas images with you ~

I've probably posted them before

but you may need to create a few tags for your gifts

and these could come in handy...

Also I finished my treasure/keepsake box!

I thought it would be neat to show you the before photo of the box too :)

It was a basic wooden box that I found at Hob Lob and it was

really pretty to begin with but I had a vision of what I wanted it to be.

I painted the box with vintage white craft paint, added the beautiful label

(that I just can't seem to stop using on projects),

then I embellished it with fragments of lace and seam binding....

adding a pretty pearl bauble to the bow.

This was the inside before...

it was lined with some kind of strange fabric that I ripped out.

Then I painted the inside with the same

Folk Art "vintage white" craft paint to brighten it up.

Next I made a pattern of the inside bottom and lid

and cut fabric to fit both...

And before gluing the fabric in,

I made a pocket to go in the lid from beautiful wedding lace!

Now the box is ready to store beautiful treasures and keepsakes!!

Thank you so much for buying it Susan...I hope you love it!

I'm working on a few egg soap orders and my last project this week,

an altered bottle that's almost finished.

I've been a little under the weather with some kind of scratchy, sore throat congestion that

has really tried to get me down...isn't it amazing how we take our good health

for granted? I hope you are doing well and staying healthy!!

Wishing you a wonderful Friday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Joyeux Noël ~

Here are a few beautiful images that I've gathered
over the past few years ~

beautiful bird sentiments...

they would make such gorgeous tags!

Simply save them to your own computer and open them

in a photo editing/printing software.
You just need to size them

to an appropriate tag size
and print out on cover stock paper!

My favorite angel with text I added

just for you!

Wishing you a beautiful Tuesday precious friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Decking the halls!

We were busy around the farmhouse this past weekend ~

first having a family photo shoot here...out behind the barn!

All of my husband's family showed up and we took zillions

of photos ~ in hopes to get that perfect one of the entire group.

The weather was perfect!!

 

Our precious boys...all lined up at the photo shoot!

Noah and Clara finished decorating our tree...they did a wonderful job too!

I finished another bottle brush tree jar ~ but this one is different!

It features three sizes of little trees, each decorated and glittered....

This one has just been added to my Etsy shop too!

Wishing you a wonderful Monday dear friends...

hugs and love,

Dawn

Another tutorial in the works and a gift for you!

I just love antique Christmas postcards. I have a wonderful collection that my DH purchased from an antique dealer that we were supposed to resell but I just couldn't let them go! (I see that surprised look on your face) The graphics are amazing and some are heavily embossed.

I'm working on a tutorial with a gathering of several ideas but the neat thing about this combination tutorial is that all the images will be included for you to make them!! I've picked the prettiest images and scanned them in to be included. The first item will be these beautiful postcard ornaments that can be hung on the tree or even placed on a gift ~ you can see a sampling of the images that will be included below ~

This is one of the other items that will be included in this tutorial ~ a shaker photo display which is beautiful displaying these vintage images for the holidays but can display photos later. I will include a ton of images so you can make a lot of them to give as gifts! The best thing is you can find these salt shakers at the thrift store or second hand shops and run them through the dishwasher so they are all sparkly clean. (I think sparkly is my new fav word!)

I thought I'd show you a photo from last Christmas of my snowman trio. They are dressed in plaids and oh-so-happy!! Just another version of the Sparkly Snowman ~

And lastly as I was looking through my postcard collection today, I found this adorable illustrated card! I hope you enjoy this one ~ it was quite textured and I tried to tone it down a bit. Just right click to save to your computer!

Today is not one but TWO of our sons birthday! (What were the chances of that happening?!) David who is 24 now and Brad is 22! I love you guys so much ~ Happy Birthday Sweeties!!!

Well, I'm apparently in Christmas mode now!! Not to forget about Thanksgiving though. I just love Thanksgiving! I truly feel that a thankful heart is a happy heart ~

I hope you have a great Thursday sweet friends....

xxoo, Dawn