Christmas is only ..... days away!!

Hello Friends

I am sure the Elves up in the North Pole are working flat out in readiness for The Man in the red coat to deliver lots of presents next month and much the same can be said for crafters across the globe.  I saw quite a few desks on the WOYWW hop last night with Christmas projects on them.  

I thought I would share a little something I have made this week and has been in the planning stage for quite some time.  Hope you like it..... 

Shall I let you into a secret?  This Wreath is actually old and recycled!  Yep!  The wreath is willow and I originally decorated it some 4 maybe 5 years ago when I first had my Silhouette machine and discovered Perfect Pearls!!  I cut out lots of leaves out on the Silhouette and then inked them up and sprayed them with Perfect Pearls.  I also made some wire spirals and paper beads, which I had learnt how to make the first time I went to Cornwall. 

And here you can see the wire spirals and paper beads (also recycled).  The flowers are primarily made from metal, some with chipboard bases for firmness.  Some of them are made with metal sheets left over from a project I did in Cornwall nearly 2 years ago and some of them with metal card which I had from Paperartsy when I renewed my subscription to a certain magazine (CS) some time ago.

My new TH Poinsettia dye has been used here with an extra layer at the bottom of chipboard which was covered with paper, inked and stamped.  I wanted to ensure that the poinsettia did not try to wrap itself around the willow wreath.

All the metal was inked with TH alcohol inks, stamped with various stamps, embossed with embossing folders, sanded and then layered using hot glue.  Once I was happy with the flower shape I arranged around the wreath, wrapped the wreath in ribbons, added spirals and beads which were wired in place and then set about attaching the flowers, leaves, pinecones and rosettes using my glue gun. 

Here is a SU punched flower which was actually left over from my recent Halloween Mail Box project which I added some "snow" using my Ranger paint dabber.

Some of the paper beads I used as centres to the flowers and the various snowflake buttons and elements were brought back from the US by my friend last year.  The rosettes were in my box from making them last Christmas for my Christmas Album cover.

Unfortunately these photos were taken in the house so the sheer shimmering effect cannot be appreciated in these photos.  I have sprayed the whole Wreath with Perfect Pearls Heirloom Gold mist which has given it even more shimmeriness!

Thanks for sticking with me to the end!  I hope you like my Wreath and maybe you will feel like making one yourself.  It really is quite simple though a little fiddly.  Also, be careful when using hot glue to affix the metal layers....the metal gets hot too when you push the top layer down with a finger.  Use a pencil instead! 

I am entering this wreath in to the following challenges:-

Compendium of Curiosities - Texture fades

Frilly and Funkie - Chipboard and Metal

Snippets Playground - Snippets
CC101 - Altered Metal 

TTFN

Hugs

Hettie