Crafty Christmas Countdown: 4

 Sometimes, I go to throw something away and am struck by it's possibility as a craft supply. That's what happened with this body wash bottle. Already a cute shape, when I looked at it I could see it's refashioned into a lady gnome.

And here it is, repainted.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 5

 I have a small collection of decorative plaques in different shapes I've picked up to paint. These round ones are pretty universally useful.

Sometimes I go in with a plan; other times I just sort of slap paint on the plaque until it looks like something. This was more of the latter sort. Still, I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 6

 A couple of years ago, my big puppet build was a cranky fruitcake. It remains one of my favorite puppets, though this year's may give it a run for it's money.

From a simple foam tube ....

to a yule log cake.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 7

 I'm a fan of atypical decorations. Things you won't see in every house. So when I spotted these fabric jellyfish I was inspired. I started with a circle of Christmas patterned flannel.

I gathered the edge into a dome, stuffed it, and closed the bottom with a smaller circle of fabric.

Some rickrack and bias tape give the jellyfish tentacles.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 8

 I don't consider myself particularly macabre. I'm not super into Halloween. But recently I've found myself rather taken with the plastic animal skeleton decorations you find in stores in the fall. I've collected a trio of them I didn't want to put away when we decorated for Christmas so I've been trying all month to think of a way to incorporate them into our decor. I started by making them a sleigh out of cardboard and construction paper.

A hat, some cord, and a couple of pompoms turned the skeletons into Santa and his team. I even suspended the bat from the ceiling with a little string.

 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 9

 Several years ago, I used to upcycle promotional buttons with wire, sequins, and the like for craft fairs. After I ran out of buttons, I got out of the practice. I rediscovered it this week, though, when I found a random button and some Christmas fabric.

The first step is to spread glue all over the front and around the perimeter of the back of the button. Stretch your fabric tight over the glue and leave it to dry. I usually put a weight on top of it to hold the fabric in place. Once the glue is dry, trim any excess fabric and glue down any loose places. Then add your embellishments. For this button I added a couple of custom cut sequins. I prefer to use a stronger glue, either E6000 or hot glue, for this step. Once the glue is set, seal coat the button.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 10

 I never really got the fascination with nutcrackers, but I have to admit they present a real opportunity for personalization. I purchased this nutcracker painting kit, struck by the fact that he has cymbals instead of a sword or staff.

Wanting to do something a little different with the decoration, I decided on an ice king theme for the paint, focusing on light blue, silver, and white.