Snowy Dollar Village

I've always  been intrigued by those elaborate Christmas Villages, but they are very costly not to mention time consuming to put up and take down. This year I was surprised to find some cute little Christmas village houses and accessories at the Dollar Tree. I purchased a few but they needed a makeover to fit in with my color palette.   I painted them white and added snow only to the roof of the houses.

I tried to create a snowy winter scene. I just painted the houses white, then sprinkled a mixture of railroad model snow, glitter mica snow, and Epsom salt on the roof. Here's a before shot of the houses,

I've found a lot of diamonds in the rough at the Dollar Tree. If you want to see  a couple of my previous Dollar Tree makeovers click here and here.  Thanks for stopping by. I'll be joining these great parties this week,

                         

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Romantic Candles

 I've bought a ton of holy candles from the dollar store, with the intention of  altering them in some way. I finally came up with a quick and easy way to give them a soft and romantic look.

All I did was wrap a doily around the candle, add a heart shaped smaller doily to the front, then I stamped a tag glittered it around the rim and tied it to the candle with cotton twine.  It was easy and fast and what's even better than that...I love them. I'll be using them in my Christmas buffet arrangement. If I don't change my mind that is. This is the candle undressed,

I know we've all seen or bought these at the dollar store or grocery store. I like them plain and dressed up.  I think I'll do a few more in different ways, it was a lot of fun.

I'm working on a few more dollar store makeovers. I'll be sharing them soon. Thanks for stopping by. I'll be joining these great parties this week.

                                                     
                                                       
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Christmas Peat Pots

This year I'm trying to make most of my Christmas decorations using things I already have. I've got lots of peat pots, so I thought I would make a few tiny ones to hang on the tree and a few larger ones to place in vignettes. I've always loved  altered peat pots and have been anxious to try making a few. I was so inspired by the ones Dawn at The Feathered Nest makes and Rosemary at VillaBarnes creates that I finally tried a few.

 I used lace and trims purchased from thrift stores and pieces of torn vintage sheet music. I lightly glittered them using clear and silver glass glitter and also glitter snow. I added seam binding to the small pots for hanging on the tree.

 These are the larger ones, I thought these would be cute in vignettes. I added some of my sweater acorns to one, maybe I'll add one of my flocked bottle brush trees to the other.

These little  guys are going to hang on the tree. They were all dry brushed with gesso, then I added stamped sheet music to some and plain sheet music to others. I added rhinestone chain and embellished some of them with earrings that belonged to my mom.  

I'll be making a few more and then its on to the next thing. Thanks for stopping by. I'll be joining these great parties this week,

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My New Old Basket

I have a desperate need for places to store my vast and some might say obsessive collection of decorating books. While cleaning out my shed I discovered a basket my mom gave me years ago. Light bulb! it would be perfect for storing some of my books. The color and look of the basket was cute but I'm kind of going in a more Scandinavian/ Shabby/ Farmhouse look. What to do? paint of course.

I base coated the basket in a gray gesso and paint mixture, then dry brushed over that with multiple layers of the white paint/gesso and the grey gesso/paint mixtue.

This is  the before. I'm guessing this basket is about 30+ years old. Mom used it for sewing supplies.

I  transferred a grain sack image from The Graphics Fairy  to the top using the same method used here and here. Then I dry brushed and sanded over the images after I added the stripes. I was aiming for a worn patina overall.

I like the way it turned out. If I decide not to use it for books maybe I can use it to store napkins and place mats. Well back to Christmas Crafting!

I'll be joining these great ladies this week,


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                                           Savvy Southern Style

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                                          Craftberry Bush

                                         My Romantic Home