Decorating the Mercury Glass You Make

I am back creating luscious projects for the holidays.  For some reason I design and plan a million projects during the day.  By the time I hit the studio my mind goes blank and I sit there, staring at my messy desk, and wondering what to do.  Maybe I used all my good ideas on my Halloween projects?  Oh, no…..

Thankfully I still have lots of creative ideas and Monday I hit it hard and made some lovely projects in my designated color scheme for Christmas 2012….(cue the trumpets)…..aqua and silver.  To me this combination says vintage, sophisticated and beautiful; together they remind me of a Christmas tea,  snowy nights, and FAMILY.

I innocently walked into Michael's one day and immediately a strange light from above washed over the most beautiful aqua dogwood stems as harp music played in the background.  Ok, so that didn't really happen.  I did walk into the store with no intention to get flowers but they were just so pretty and when I saw them I instantly had the vision of what they would look like all made up into package decorations.  There was something about the long stems of teal dogwood blossoms all dusted in silver glitter…..have I mentioned that I enjoy glitter?  I have?  Have I told you exactly how MUCH I love glitter?  Like really really really really love glitter?  I have? Oh… Ok….

paddle wire

So after seeing those beautiful dog wood blooms, I grabbed some paddle wire, white floral tape, and a few Christmas picks including an amazing white-gold vintage looking pick that included pine needles, leaves, and faux berries.  I also got some white/green/blue berries and green more traditional pine needle stems with real pinecones.  Of course I couldn't leave before I grabbed some silver snowflake flower blossoms.  Never heard of such a flower?  Yeah, me neither.  To be honest, although they were sold in the flower section and have long  stems like flowers, in reality they are delicious, sparkly, GLITTER-a-fied blossoms that could only be called a flower in the world of Dr. Seuss and I adore them.  Target has an entire line of Christmas decorations in a brighter teal and silver I knew would be great on my package decorations so I bought the ornament balls in several sizes.  Lucky me..they came all glittered!

Remember the plain vases
(behind the pumpkins)

What did I make with all these terrific supplies?  The first project I made involved elevating some cheap vases.  Remember the pain vases I bought at Goodwill for $1 and turned into Mercury Glass
(please excuse the pictures...too much sunlight).

The sunlight washed out the Mercury Glass but in person- and in less sunlight- they aren't that transparent.  I made them slightly opposite so if I decide to put them next to each other they will look good.  I am not sure exactly what I will do with them but I think they are beautiful.  They scream out to be placed in a vintage house…. like a vintage house in Ann Arbor…. hmmm….maybe I will ask Santa for house in Ann Arbor.  

I made them just as one would make a corsage using wire and floral tape to attach the various stems.  I used hot glue at the end to add the ornaments.  I tried to wire them in as well but I couldn't get them in tight enough.  I suppose if I had worked a little harder the wire would have been fine but why bother when there is a glue gun handy and already hot?  At the end I slipped in little pieces of a silver Christmas garland- I will have to show you how to do that in my next post.  It has become one of my go-to embellishments for the holidays.  I added simple seam binding bows and the pinecones that I glittered myself (I know, shocking, right?).  To attach the flowers to the vase I tied a length of  seam binding around the neck of the vase and left the ends hanging down then I hot glued the "corsage" to the vase and seam binding.  Easy.

What else do I have to share this week? The package decorations, I made oodles.  I also embellished the Dollar Store candlesticks that I made into mercury glass.  Finally, I decorated a basic glass Christmas ornament.  

I am super duper thrilled to see my page views (aka my readers/followers/groupies/audience) steadily rising.  In celebration and to say thank you, I will have a give-away sometime in December; something handmade by me.  

Laters….