Getting in on Christmas in July

After making those haunted houses, I saved one of the domes for a Christmas ornament.  I couldn't help but make a tiny gingerbread house to slip into it.  I've always loved the look of a gingerbread house with all the white trimming and the colorful candies.  But baking and making one in the traditional way never quite worked out for me.  I could never get the frosting to flow right or the layers to stick together.  At the end mine always looked like a lump of mess.  So I  gave up on that skill a long time ago.

For those of you like me, all thumbs and no fingers, you'll appreciate this little paper gem.  I had to resize the file to fit, but it only took a few attempts before I got it where I wanted it.  I made some "snow" from glue mixed with baking soda and white paint.  After adding it to the roof line and around the bottom, I sprinkled it with glitter to add some sparkled.  I still need to add some ribbon to the base, but I haven't quite figured out how I want to do that.

Dollar Tree Cloche

I'm no longer much of a shopper, but every now and then I try to stop in the Dollar Tree when they get their seasonal merchandise in.  I always manage for find a do-dad or two for my crafting.  And you can't turn down anything that only costs a dollar!

A few weeks ago, I stopped in for some picnic wear and meandered over to the floral section.  I never even saw what flowers were there because I spotted a few tiny acrylic cloches that I knew I had to have.  There were only a few left on the shelf so I can imagine that other folks felt the way I did.  I snatched up what was left and headed to the check out.  

Because I work pretty much in paper only, I turned on my computer, powered up my Silhouette software and scrolled through my Halloween files.   Lo and behold, the perfect file appeared.  Apparently I purchased it some time ago and pretty much forgot about it. But now, it was exactly what I was looking for.  I had to put a little elbow grease into resizing it, but only a little.  It pretty much must have been designed with a container like this in mind.

I cut the basic shape out of black cardstock, backed it with purple velum to catch the light, and cut some bats out that I covered in purple glitter so that they would stand out.  I attached the bats with strips of transparency so that they would have the appearance of flying.  Glued two tiny pumpkins in to add another little zap of color and whah- laaah'.  A tiny 3D Halloween project that can add a touch of décor to any surface.  I can think of sooo many uses: sit it on a shelf, nestle it in a table centerpiece, surround it with fallen leaves,  lift it on a pedestal in a window...what ever.  

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