A bit late or very very early?

 

Yes, it's a Christmas decoration :-)  I did start it in late December, but then Christmas itself got in the way and I never got around to finishing it! 
It's inspired by an article in Craft Stamper a little while ago, the designer had decorated a block of wood about 6" x 4" x 2".  So I bought a 6ft length of 2" by 4" timber for around £10 and got DH to cut it into 6" lengths, 12 altogether.
The magazine project involved stamping on card and layering the images onto the block, but I decided to paint mine.  I wanted to try out a crackle effect and used Paperartsy crackle glaze, the base coat was a deep burgundy acrylic, after that had dried I applied the crackle glaze with a palette knife - I had never used the stuff before and the first side I did is not great, that's why it's at the back LOL.  When that had dried I applied some Paperasrty fresco paint in Irish cream over the top and it just about crackled as I watched, amazing stuff!
The borders and the tree are diecuts, Dienamics and Memory Box, I also die cut a trellis to go on each side and the back - forgot to photograph that - the small decorations over the tree are made with some of the 'waste' from that die-cut.  I put red crystals all over the tree.  The top has an embossed piece of card stock to hide the end grain of the wood.  All the cardstock pieces are attached and sealed with Mod Podge.
I got the lovely handle from Amazon, they have a staggering amount of drawer handles, would you believe :-)  The feet are proper box feet from a specialist seller, though the carriage charge was horrendous - next time I will buy several sets of four rather than just one!  DH drilled the holes for handle and feet, I didn't trust myself to get them straight :-)
I don't want to put it away now!
Hmmm ... now what shall I do with the other eleven blocks?!!!!

Christmas decoration

Just a simple decoration :-) I painted the triple frame with Viva Decor in Emerald Green, then it sat on my desk for about a week whilst I got around to digging out the large christmas brads I had intended to put in each frame. However - disaster! The brads were an entirely different and clashing shade of green, they looked awful.

So back to the drawing board - I rummaged in the "Christmas bit and bobs" drawer and found these poinsettias and also some old background paper I had forgotten about. I cut the paper to fit - you can't really see much of it, but the white card that came with the frame would have been glaringly obvious! After putting the poinsettias in each aperture I decided it needed something else, so I added the red pearls.

And by the way ...... poinsettias don't count as flowers ...... they are part of Christmas LOL.

Christmas Decorations

A while ago I bought some blank chipboard tags with the intention of making some sort of decoration with them. In the end, I decided to keep it very simple (something to do with running out of time...........!)

I painted each tag with two coats of acrylic craft paint on each side, 5 tags in burgundy, 5 in green. Then I stamped and embossed using a Hero Arts cling background stamp and a gold embossing powder. Next a protective coat of acrylic varnish, again on each side. The letters are Basic Grey monograms, I coloured them gold with a Krylon leafing pen, then stuck on jewels in wine or green. To fix the letters, I used strong double sided tape.

They are now hanging above the bay window in my living room and I am really pleased with them :-)