Michael's Holiday Craft Contest - Week Five

I am sorry that I have been missing this week.  I didn't feel well early in the week due to three nights in a row of "party food/rich restaurant food".  After recovering from my tummy woes, I had yet another evening out with hubby and his business associate and I had to go into my office for a day.  But... In the midst of my busy week, I have been working a couple of projects.  The larger of the projects is this wall collage in my entry way for this week's Holiday Crafting Contest at Michaels.

For those who haven't been keeping up, this is week five of a seven week contest sponsored by Michaels on Facebook - Michael's Craft Some Holiday Magic Contest.  I have entered four of the five weeks and actually won week two.  Each of the seven weekly finalist will be in a final run off to win a Cruise.  I may be calling on all of you in a couple of weeks for help and support me in my attempts to win the cruise!

Each Monday morning Michael's releases three new mystery items that must be used in that week's project.  This week the three mystery items are WIRE, PHOTO FRAME(S), and WRAPPING PAPER. 

I took ten photo frames and framed seven family Christmas photos from throughout the years.  The oldest photo is my husband and his little brother with Santa in 1966; the newest is from last Christmas.  Two of the photos are family Christmas photos and two of them are my children with Santa - 18 years ago and 7 years ago (when the older two were in high school).  I used wrapping paper as matting behind the older photo of my children with Santa, and trimmed it out with peel offs (see above).

For the remaining three frames, I used wrapping paper, cardstock stickers or Cricut cuts to create Christmas scenes to add a whimsical touch to the collage (again see above).

I embellished nine of the frames with artificial greenery, curled wire, mini-ornaments, and HO-HO-HO red ribbon.  The embellishments not only added to the overall holiday feel of the project, but they also gave me a way to incorporate the final mystery element - wire.

The final addition to the entry way wall was three vinyl words cut with the Cricut, JOY, CHRISTMAS, and PEACE.  While I truly do not expect to win the contest this week (there are some cut projects posted), I was happy that both my husband and my daughter really liked our holiday collage.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving!  I hope you are having a wonderful day with those you care about most.  I have all three "children" home, my husband, our dog, Duncan the wonder dog, and my "grand-pup", Magnus!  It seems like a house full even if it isn't!!!

Earlier in the week I promised to post more photographs with better visual details of my North Pole house today.  Click on any of the photos to see them larger.  The house was cut using the Happy Hauntings spooky house. I know there ARE 3-D Christmas houses on other cartridges, but I like the details on this house and thought it would decorate well.  I especially like the to roof sections and the widow's walk area.   I cut the sides of the house in red Swiss dot Bazzill card stock and the roof and porch pieces in smooth white card stock.  Everything was cut at seven inches.

I used Zip-Dry glue to assemble the house, because it does dry so quickly.  I also found have paper clips and mini binder clips available to hold sections together while they dried to be beneficial.  I love that Provo Craft included step by step assembly instructions in the back of the Happy Hauntings handbook. 

After I assembled the basic house, I began to decorate.  The first step was adding the snowflake buttons to the edges of the roof pieces.  I used a 1/8th inch hole punch and punched eleven holes in the edges of the roof (because I only had 12 snowflake buttons and I did not want to risk one breaking and not having enough).  I added glue to the back of the buttons and inserted the button loop through the little hole, securing the buttons to the roof. 

Next I began adding Christmas buttons: Rudolph, two wreaths, and two candy canes.  I glued the red candy canes to the roof section around the gable.  I added Rudolph to the very top roof section.  I placed one of the button wreaths on the front door and the other over a circle window above the side porch. 

Next I used gold thread and hung the mini lights on the widow walk railings.  I added dots of glue to the thread to secure it into place.

At this point I still had miniature evergreen trees, bushy evergreen wreaths, eight strips of red beads, a bag of iridescent shred, and a bag of iridescent snowflakes.  I decided to glue iridescent snowflakes to the sides of the house.  I am not sure where this idea came from, but I really liked it and added snowflakes all over the house.  I set aside the remainder of the snowflakes.  I then added red beads around the top roof section, the balcony edge, the side porch roof, and the front porch rails and steps.  I added fuzzy wreaths to two windows and to the cellar doors.

I applied big swirling loops of glue to a deep red charger and spread some of the shred onto the glue.  I then add big swirling loops of glue over the shred and set the house in the middle of the charger.  I glued the  miniature trees around the house to the charger. 

I found my leftover iridescent snowflakes and using small dots of glue, I added the snowflakes over the shed and around the edges of the charger. 

The last element added was the North Pole sign.  I found a leftover holiday cardstock sticker and wrote North Pole.  I stuck the sticker onto a strip of clear plastic and affixed it in the shred. 

I was truly very lucky that the house came out this nicely.  I think one of the big factors was the iridescent snowflakes and the shred.  I was lucky to happen across both at the craft store!!