Good morning, everyone!!! Paul's been up since 4:30 and since he is not a master of stealth, I've been up since then, too...and since Carly is apparently half bat, she's been awake at LEAST that long. She's still in her room reading (very loudly, hoping I'll invite her out here, which I have no plans to do before at least 6am) and I'm just taking my time. It's nice to have coffee in my watermelon mug and not in a travel mug while rushing out the door.
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ANYWAY, I love copying the cool creative stuff other people come up with. I'm not really that creative myself, but I'm an awesome imitator. For example, I made the wreath below for Halloween and it looked great (from the street) on our front door....by Halloween, though, the large amount of rain and high humidity had totally overcome my three coats of lacquer (this is NOT a project I'd recommend for outdoor use in Louisiana, for example...oh gross your front door would be covered in fire ants and waterbugs...EW!) and the candies were starting to melt and drip sticky orange goo on my welcome mat. A couple of enthusiastic candy corns jumped ship as I opened the door and actually stuck to the WALL on the inside of my house. Funny? Yes. But still a little annoying.
So...THIS is what I'm going to try and copy-cat for Christmas. I'm really excited about sourcing the frame and figuring out how to make that tree...I might end up making it a little differently just because I don't know about my wire-bending skillz, but we'll see. Either way, it's fun to have a project. My Christmas cards are 80% complete, and gift shopping is d-o-n-e and this is my reward for actually being on top of things. =)
4 comments:
Depending on the size of the tree, a black, plastic coated hanger should work beautifully. Well, you'd actually need two - one for the triangle frame and one for the cross stretches. Use needle nose pliers to bend the ends and get jewelry dangles from Michael's for the bulbs. It shouldn't be too hard at all. Oh, and I *really* like it. I may try something similar myself.
Oohh very cool!!
To create the Xmas tree. Buy yourself a soldering iron and some solder and, if you don't have one, a basic pair of wire clippers at the local hardware store (cheap, cheap – you don’t need a high end temperature controlled iron). You'll need a piece of plywood or wood surface at least 18"x18" that you can hammer ten penny nails int. Hammer 3 nails into the wood at a distance apart from each other representing the points f the tree (triangle). Take a long piece of straightened coat hanger (bent straight by mallet if necessary) and bend it around the nails until the ends meet at a corner or the apex. Solder this point. Do not remove wire or nails. Solder cross support pieces of cut wire hanger across the tree. The nails should hold the project in place. Use a pair of needle nose pliers to curl the ends before you solder them to the frame. The frame is an old picture frame, so hit the flea markets or garage sales to find one you like and pop off the backing. Attach the tree to the frame by another piece of soldered wire, or tie fishing wire and cover with a glued on star. Super glue a piece of cut red or green plastic to the back of the wire tree frame to really make it pop. Maybe hang some mini candy canes as well as ornaments. Cut the power cord off an old appliance and strip the plastic coating on one end then wrap the exposed wires around a metal portion of the tree frame then plug cord in. This will keep people from messing with it more than once.
FYI the notes on "how" to make the x-mas tree were written by Mike. He thinks he's hillarious. Giggled when you finally posted it. Um yeah, he's really five.
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