I'm finally finished!!! Phew...it took awhile! Welcome to Santa's North Pole Village Compound Snowman Snow Globe Table Centerpiece thingy (I have no good name for it!)!!! Talk about having FUN with this monstrosity...in between thinking and staring...over the last few weeks. It was truly a labor of Christmas love, even though I wanted it throw it against the wall a few times. What started out as one globe, but turned out to be too small to house all three village pieces, turned into two globes stacked on top of each other, snowman style (Thanks to my new friend Kim for the idea!). I took over my whole den, and the fam had nowhere to sit, and a few nights had to eat ramen. Oh well...it was worth it...but boy are they glad it's done. Grab sustenance, put on some Christmas tunes, and enjoy. Merry merry Christmas everyone!
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| I had to fill the top bowl with Ice Resin to even it out before I put everything in. I adhered the two bowls together with Loctite Glass Glue...the best stuff! |
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| Santa, Mrs. Claus, and all the elves built their village from the ground up, and you have to know the secret for getting in their wonderful world...BELIEVE!!! |
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| I used Tim's watercolor cardstock from Ranger for his Sizzix Village die pieces. To make the barns, I diecut two of each of the front and backs, and pieced them together to make a wider building. Since they are angled, they needed a center piece, so I freehand cut one to fit, and traced more for the other sides. |
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| I added the pieces I made to complete the angle on the building front and backs. I also cut out the large doors to make one huge door. |
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| For Santa's house I layered two of the Dwelling Dies on each other, covering the roof parts of the bottom part, and trimming those off. |
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| For the observatory tower part, I again added two of each piece to make it larger, and used the base of the tower on the Manor Die. |
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| This is where things got rough, and my hands swelled and tightened so much I couldn't cut a thing after the second day. Ouch! First, I painted Cookie Sticks (Found in the baking aisle at the craft store.) with Vintage Photo Distress Paint. Since they are made of tightly rolled paper, I decided it was best to cut them using Tim scissors, as it just took too long to use my dremel. I cut the sticks to fit the buildings in a log cabin kind of style...layering long and short sticks. To add them on the buildings, I first put a layer of Multi Medium down on the building, and then used a palette knife to add a layer of Grit Paste to each log, before adding another, sandwiching them. My hands were callused and raw after the first day of cutting the logs, so I wore gloves the next day. There was no cutting the third and fourth day, so I could rest them...seriously not fun, but I loved the look so much. |
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| I continued on all the sides of the three buildings, and then made windows using a few of the villages dies, layering them for more depth, and adding acetate for the glass. I used the longer porch, and made the pillars using the sticks as well. All the doors were layered for thickness, and I added panes from doors and windows for the detail work panels on the doors. I inked all the sides of everything with Vintage Photo Archival. |
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| I make the roofs, I painted Metallic Gold Cardstock with Candied Apple Distress Paint, let it dry, and embossed them with the Tailored Texture Fades, but reversed the back of the Texture Fade to the front so that the dotted areas would be recessed rather than raised. Then I painted Black Soot Distress Paint over the red, and wiped it off, so that the paint only stayed in the recessed areas, and made a distressed look. I had to make the roofs longer and wider than the die pieces, because adding the logs made the houses 1/2 inch bigger. |
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| On the bottom 14 inch bowl, I drilled a hole in the cake stand to house the lights. On the 10 inch bowl, the lights run through the hat. |
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| The chunky candy canes were purchased in the vintage portion at The Crafty Scrapper, and I found the sequin portion at the craft store, but in reality, Santa planted the two trees from seedlings he got from the Candy Cane Forrest!!! |
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| I painted Santa and the deer with Distress Paint and added White Opal Liquid Pearls to all the furry parts. |
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| All the trees were flocked using Picket Fence Distress Paint and while wet, rolled in Dry Rock Candy Distress Glitter. |
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| There is something to see on each side of the globes. |
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I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!
