Christmas Countdown 2 : Christmas Tree#24- Last Minute

Advent Blog Day 24 - Last Minute.
I have a friend who always says " If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done!" Today's post is for the 'last minuters' and the busy - some great ideas with spectacular results, all using materials you can find easily around the home and assemble quickly with minimum equipment....

Go for a quick walk and find some branches or collect some bits of wood from your garden or shed.... just a single branch with a few shop bought decorations or some acrylic paint can create some magical effects.

Branch with lights

Bits of wood decorated with paint

Wood, string and a few ornaments

Most people I know have balls of wool, yarn or string in a stash at home , just stack them up and there's a Christmas tree like no other in your neighbourhood. In fact, you only need one ball of string or yarn to make a small table top tree.

Woollen yarn - ready for knitting

Balls of wool

Tutorial - Table top tree with one ball of yarn

For paper lovers - forget using the paper doilies for Christmas fare and don't throw out those magazines and newspapers...

Paper doilies in a window

Magazine pages and newspapers

Or look amongst your office supplies for those sticky notes , or for a really personal Christmas tree , use some family photos with lights to impress your relatives.

Sticky notes ( post it notes)

Family photos

Party balloons could be the answer to your last minute festive tree or just suspend from the ceiling some of those baubles you have in your Christmas decorations box.

Balloons and more balloons

Suspended Christmas baubles

Chalkboard tree

One of my favourite last minute Christmas trees does involve a little bit of effort - this chalkboard tree could be decorated with stickers or handmade paper ornaments to make it truly festive and sparkly. This chalkboard 'diy" tree does mean, however, painting a wall with chalkboard (blackboard) paint first, unless of course you already have a wall like this .

I like this idea because not only can you create your own Christmas tree, but you can create a whole scene, regardless of the weather outside.

Chalkboard Christmas Scene

Oh and I wish I hadn't sent off my coffee mug stand to the charity shop last week....

Wooden coffee mug stand - I used to have one just like this!

I am a little sad writing this today, as tomorrow is the last of the Advent blog for another year.... there are so many more crazy, bizarre,unusual, beautiful and exotic Christmas trees to share but we have run out of days. Hope you have enjoyed this little exploration of Christmas tree ideas ... I have. Please join me for one last post tomorrow.

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks .... The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or my husband or from off cuts gifted to us from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks. Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...

Textile Art Tips

Background : Today is Tuesday - Tag day. I belong to a very talented group of artists who weekly produce a small work of art as a tag. We post photos of our tags on the Tag Tuesday blog . Currently our theme is alphabet, and we each could decide on our own sub-theme. I chose Australian plants and each of my tags is an experiment with a textile art technique. Here are February's tags and a brief descriptions of the techniques used. Technique 1 : Heliographic Art (Sun Painting) as in the photo above - close up of Tag E . When special sun/light sensitive paints are applied to wet fabric where objects have been placed on top, the outlines and shapes of the objects are transferred to the fabric. In this example I placed dried Eucalypt (gum tree) leaves on top a piece of originally white cotton painted with yellow and orange" Setacolor" transparent paints and left it in the sun for about an hour. I then cut one of the leaves out and ...

Fragments

Some days are just your lucky days - today I was very fortunate and privileged to open the first ever Australian exhibition "Fragments" by UK Fibre Artist Sue Hotchkis . Here is a little about the techniques of this amazing textile artist from her own website ... Working intuitively with print and stitch, marks, textures and colours are exaggerated, intensified to reveal the detail and complexity within the images. Materials are deconstructed using modern methods, ripped, burnt and dyed. Time is invested in their reconstruction; pieces can take from a week to several months to create. Whilst being aesthetically pleasing the work can also act as a metaphor for deterioration and ruin, associated with urban decay and ultimately death and loss. They evolve organically, built up with layers of print, cloth, paper, and stitch into three-dimensional abstract forms that hover between object and image; to create a unique, visual and tactile lan...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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