| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| cmandle |
Posted - Dec 10 2006 : 7:01:03 PM
Hello Farmgirls,
Dan and I are making homemade snowglobes for Christmas gifts this year (a la Martha) and ran into a problem with the trees. I bought a bag of miniature trees for a Christmas village from Michael's, but the second they hit the water (distilled water, a drop of glyercin and some glitter), they bled everywhere. That snowglobe turned into a midnight snow scene!
So now I need some trees! I feel like I've been all over town looking for them, but maybe I left a stone unturned. Do you all have any suggestions for places to look? Or better yet, do any of you have some trees that you would be willing to trade?
I'm looking for about 3-6 mini-trees, pretty skinny, but tall is good. Think: peanut butter jar with a reindeer figurine next to it glued inside the lid. Ideally, they should be ceramic or plastic (metals may rust). Thrift store finds would be awesome, but our stores only had those old tree candles (you know, the kind that go with those little singing choir children candles?) and wax is no good. Dan suggested lego trees and I'm almost ready to go with it, but that changes the feel from vintage-y to modern kitschy and I'm not sure I like that yet...
Any thoughts or leads on trees will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks 'girls!
Catherine
http://yogurtandgranola.blogspot.com |
| 14 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| cmandle |
Posted - Dec 11 2006 : 8:24:54 PM
Ooh...that's a good idea. And there is a Dollar Store right next to our Michael's! Next time I'm there, I'm all over it. I'm still tabling the idea for this week since I'm crazy busy getting ready for Jackson's dedication and reception this weekend AND an in-law stay at our home! I may do this the week before Christmas though for some local folks...it still sounds like a lot of fun and I did have my heart set on handmade vintage-y looking snowglobes!
Thanks bramble!!!
Catherine
http://yogurtandgranola.blogspot.com |
| bramble |
Posted - Dec 11 2006 : 7:36:16 PM
Catherine- Don't give up! When we made these with the kids at school I bougt packages of resin trees that go with Christmas villages and they worked fine...no black outs! I bought them at the dollar store
so they were very reasonable and used some of the people they had to go along with it. It was a fun project and not hard, just put a dropper of alcohol in to so bacteria doesn't grow. For some reason Martha always leaves that out of her directions! Have fun and ressurect that idea, you don't have to give it up! Sorry I didn't get to read until now, or I would have saved you alot of frustration!
with a happy heart |
| katiedid |
Posted - Dec 11 2006 : 2:23:33 PM
C~ I love the washcloth and soap idea! I love to knit washcloths, and really, they clean SOOO well. They have just enough texture to really scrub stuck on foods.
Good luck, and happy knitting!!
I think I will do the same, and give out soap and washcloths...thanks for the idea, and Merry Christmas!
Love K
my new blog http/www.theknifemakerswife.wordpress.com |
| cmandle |
Posted - Dec 11 2006 : 1:35:51 PM
'Girls, I got so sick of thinking about tiny trees for snowglobes this morning that I decided to scrap it! The real straw that broke the camel's back was that the inside of the lid that I used for my sample last night was starting to rust. Grr.
We took an almond butter jar (perfect little size!) and lightly sanded the inside of the lid (per Martha's instructions!) to help the silicone glue stick better. Then we glued the (bad) tree and little reindeer to the lid. I figured out that the tree was bad by actually assembling the snowglobe: distilled water, glycerin, glitter and all. When the tree dye bled all over, I unscrewed it and salvaged the lid with the reindeer by drying it off and leaving it out to continue air-drying. This morning what did I find? Rust.
Forget it! Project #2! There are only so many days 'til Christmas and we still have to ship this package across the country! (But I'll probably tackle this project again sometime in the new year. It's a puzzle now that I have to solve...)
Anyway, we're settling on buying some neat handmade soaps from our Co-op and I'll knit up some dishcloths quick to go with them. Throw in some neato taper candles tied up with ribbon, and a few jars of homemade applesauce and we've got a pretty fun Christmas package! Off to knit those washcloths. At least I KNOW how to do that!!
Thanks for the help, Farmgirls! I love how you're all always here, always so helpful and always so fun!
Catherine
http://yogurtandgranola.blogspot.com |
| sunshine |
Posted - Dec 11 2006 : 06:50:49 AM
Maybe a thrift sdtore they may have the old platic garlands that look like trees where torn aprat. Ask me how I know. I was a bad kid and hurt some of my grandmothers so my dolls could be giants in a forest. Not good
have a lovely day and may God bless you and keep you safe my blog http://sunshinescreations.blogspot.com
my web stores www.sunshines.etsy.com and http://vintagethreads.etsy.com
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| cmandle |
Posted - Dec 11 2006 : 06:47:16 AM
These are all really good ideas! Another idea from the magazine was to get some fake tree "parts" from a craft store or florist and snip some ends to look like trees. I didn't like the stuff I found at Michael's the first time, but maybe I'll go to Bachman's today to see what they have. I'm on the hunt today...*really* want to get these packaged up and sent out within a few days!
Catherine :)
http://yogurtandgranola.blogspot.com |
| sunshine |
Posted - Dec 11 2006 : 06:35:25 AM
could you make some out of fimo clay and bake it. Just a thought may be too much work I also don't know how it would hold up under water.
have a lovely day and may God bless you and keep you safe my blog http://sunshinescreations.blogspot.com
my web stores www.sunshines.etsy.com and http://vintagethreads.etsy.com
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| Hideaway Farmgirl |
Posted - Dec 11 2006 : 06:01:20 AM
Hey, Peapodjane, that's really creative thinking "outside the box" or bottle, in this case!
I'll watch for trees in my travels, too.
I do not suppose you could use bits of real pine trees, just enough of a tiny branch to fashion a tree in the shape/size you need?
Jo
"There are no strangers here, only friends you've yet to meet." |
| peapodjane |
Posted - Dec 11 2006 : 02:58:06 AM
Hi Catherine,
Have you thought about looking in the housewares department? Sounds weird, but sometimes those little bottle brush thingies are in different colors and look like little trees to me. The other thing is in the Christmas departments with all of the artificial Christmas trees maybe you could get an inexpensive one and just cut pieces into small tree sizes that you need.
Just some thoughts.
Good luck!
peapodjane |
| cmandle |
Posted - Dec 10 2006 : 7:54:29 PM
Martha suggests getting model trees from a hobby shop or thrift shop too, but I'm just not finding good ones here. There are two more hobby shops to check out so I'll probably hit those tomorrow. I thought that my little plastic trees for the Christmas village would be perfect, but they made a big dark green mess.
Thanks for the tip on the bakery too, Sunshine. I had thought of that, but most of our bakers are using the really fake-y looking stuff these days and I'm going for the vintage old-style feel. I know, why did I wait until two weeks before Christmas to start assembling these?! It's in my nature...
Thanks for the tips!
Catherine
http://yogurtandgranola.blogspot.com |
| ponyexpress |
Posted - Dec 10 2006 : 7:48:30 PM
oops! Just realized that I echoed Katie's suggestion....must be a good one ;-)
Sandy in Missouri |
| ponyexpress |
Posted - Dec 10 2006 : 7:47:13 PM
You might try a hobby store - or a store that sells accessories for model train sets. I'll bet they would have small plastic trees.
Sandy in Missouri |
| sunshine |
Posted - Dec 10 2006 : 7:16:18 PM
Try a bakery they use plastic ones on cakes
have a lovely day and may God bless you and keep you safe my blog http://sunshinescreations.blogspot.com
my web stores www.sunshines.etsy.com and http://vintagethreads.etsy.com
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| katie-ell |
Posted - Dec 10 2006 : 7:07:04 PM
I'll keep my eyes out for some little trees. I'm off to Salvation Army on Tuesday -- who knows what will turn up there? And I'll check my craft boxes, too.
In the meantime, would little trees from miniature railroad settings work? I don't know what those are made of. And what does Martha herself suggest using? |
