Some Treats for your Christmas Stocking!

Well, like every year, it's rush, rush, rush to get ready and in a flash...it's over. It's been a nice weekend, and there's still today and tomorrow to go! This afternoon I'm headed to my sister Stephanie's for a Christmas Eve gift exchange and get together. Can't wait!

I wanted to show you my favorite of the projects we worked on at Tim's Holiday Hideaway. One of my favorites was a Christmas Tree Shadowbox. We painted the outside with Dimensional Pearls, giving it a pearly look, plus some wonderful Grungeboard(tm) Accents. I painted the inside in Denim, Stream and Wild Plum, the outside with Espresso and Mushroom. The front window was edged with Crystal Frost 800, which creates the look of frost on glass...this stuff is neat-it's what was used on the Clear Book.

We also got to paint and embellish faux tin type ceiling tiles that was cut to the size of the back of the box. I can't tell you now many people thought it was real. I painted it with Dimensional Pearls and added Star Dust Stickles(tm)...it gave just the extra glitz needed for the holiday theme of the box. We then slathered the insides of the box with glue and glass glitter. Any bit of light will just make it sparkle.

The best were the decorations. Tim provided us with a bottle brush tree that we decorated with vintage Mercury Glass ornaments that we glued on. That was a little tricky, but a little patience did the trick.

To be honest, the most frustrating part of the project, but the part that I loved the most, was the garland. These were Thicker Cardstock stickers from American Craft that I just fell in love with. Initially we had covered them with Platinum Stickles(tm), but Tim (love ya!) put a piece of paper on mine by accident, so I decided to go with plain white! The trick was to "sew" wire through the chipboard to string the letters. Yikes! I have since learned, though from my buddy at Beadalon, Wyatt, told me about Sbeady(tm) wire needles. I would definitely try that the next time, because I really, really liked the look but at the end wanted to scream when stringing them on the wire.

Some of the attendees were able to insert a small light to the box, but because of the size of my tree, it was too much to add. The top of the box included many vintage bits and bobs. The most wonderful thing was that it made it from AZ to NJ intact!

As an added treat, here's the Beady Links of the week (since it's a long weekend, I'm taking advantage of it as my excuse for not posting them yesterday!)

About.com Jewelry Making Still in need of some last minute jewelry gifts? Earrings are the way to go, and Tammy has some super easy projects to help you out.

Art Bead Scene Elaine wraps up the Art Bead Scene 12 days of Christmas with a joyous rendition of a classic holiday tune, updated with our favorite beading goodies! Come sing along!

Jewelry & Beading It's not too late to make a super-easy sparkly pin for Christmas!

Katie's Beading Blog Visit Katie's blog this week for links to a fun podcast interview, last-minute bracelet idea and the final (for now) installment of Ornament Thursday.

PearlEsq. Track Robin's travels to the traffic-laden trickiness of NYC and the tasty trinkets she turned up at Tinsel Trading!

Savvy Crafter Scurry over to Candie's blog if you've got gifts to wrap in a hurry! This idea puts the pedal to the metal in more ways than one when it comes to wrapping gifts!

Snap out of it, Jean! There's beading to be done! Jean shows a new necklace for her chain maille gallery for her book, Links: all the great beads are made by Cathy Lybarger!

The Impatient Blogger It's the final installment of Ornament Thursday and Margot pulls out all the stops with four fabulous ornament ideas! Check out what this week's roster of talented crafters has in store for you!

I wish all of you the most wonderful of times with your family and friends. I also wanted to thank you for letting me share some of my creative ideas, thoughts and life with you.

Holiday Hugs, Robin