Northwoods Santas

"Northwoods Santa" Embroidered Artwork Home Decor Wall Hanging

Includes:
Woodland Santa - A Fisherman with a fox.
Nordic Santa - Friends with deer and carries a pine tree
Arctic Santa - Friends with penguin and polar bear

This was originally a kit from Astor Place Heirloom Santas Entitled: Northwoods Santas published by Willmaur Crafts Corp. It is embroidery floss stitched on Perforated paper which is a card stock or heavier weight paper with a counted cross stitch grid of wholes. I've never used this type of foundation before. It takes longer than fabric as it uses a stab or stick method of stitching. You can't pull it through two wholes at once.

Each Santa is carefully trimmed out, mounted on Stampin' Up Black cardstock and inserted into a 4" x 6" opening in an 11" x 22" frame. The frame is black and each opening is bordered by a metal copper lace trim that was painted brown to antique it. The frame has two openings on the back to hang it on the wall.

Nordic Santa

 Trimming the Artic Santa: I found it easier to use an exacto knife. (Yes, I know mine is a little rusted, but the blade is still super sharp.)

Woodsland Santa

 Framed:

~Sarah

Lost Guitar Post! My Guitar Shelves!

Last fall I started to make guitar shelves. Somehow, my post disappeared, so... I am re-posting it.

Tom found a couple guitars at garage sales and brought them home for me. They were not in good shape, so fixing them to play was not an option. I decided to make shelves out of them. This what came of them:

I used my Dremel to cut open the guitars. The first guitar had 2 cross bars in the back when I cut it open. The second Guitar had 3. now I knew how many shelves each would have. I added wooden support bars along the inside to support the shelves. I sanded everything and carefully sprayed the front of the guitars and the inside of the guitars black.

The first guitar I sprayed the hard wood shelves I added black. (Adding hard wood shelves to a curved area with a small opening is quite a challenge when the shelves do NOT bend. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to manage it.)

To complete the first guitar, I went into my scrap booking stash and carefully cut and glued the pages I chose to the back using the guitars natural dividers as section dividers. 

Note: This guitar was the first to sell and has shipped to Texas.

 The second guitar I made had 3 natural shelf dividers. I prepped it the same way as the first, however, I stained the shelves and edged them with black instead. I wanted to highlight more of the natural wood as this guitar had a very pretty coloring. I rotated the shelves so they would show two toned. The neck of the guitar was missing the bridge, so took it from the bottom piece I had taken off and adapted one for the neck.

I found some metal words and Rhinestone musical stickers I chose to use to decorate this guitar.

Note: This guitar has sold and has shipped to Virginia.

~Sarah

My Mother's Girl Scout Mementos

For Christmas, Ashlin and I swiped my mother's Girl Scout mementos. WE found 2 - 12"x12" Scrapbook frames (thanks to Megan). I had Girls Scout Scrapbook Materials in my very large stash, so we sat down and had some fun! WE got all her patches and pins in the two frames with a few added embellishments.

~Sarah and Ashlin

Megan's Jewelry Cabinet

A year ago, we found a beautiful antique maple mirror at an Antique shop.  I thought it would be a beautiful jewelry cabinet for Megan.  Tom agreed.

We got some Maple lumber from a place on the reservation and Tom planed it down. Tom built a box for it and put a natural clear stain on it to enhance the natural  maple wood. I lined the back with a red velvety fabric and added the brass hooks and jewelry hangers. I drilled and screwed in 39 hooks for necklaces, 10 hooks for bracelets and 7 brass rods for Earrings. Tom assembled it using a sturdy piano hinge and a lock.

After Christmas, he hung it on the wall on top of fern strips screwed into the studs as it is such a heavy piece and Megan immediately started filling it.

~Sarah