::Salt Dough Animals::

Salt Dough Animals. I saw a Noah's Ark version in a Martha Stewart magazine years ago, and it stuck. I never did hunt down cookie cutters like hers, but found these instead:

HOW TO: Canadian Critters Salted Dough Ornaments

1. Prepare a batch of Salt Dough.
2. Cut out your animals using cookie cutters and insert small eye-hooks at the of each animal. I found mine at Home Depot, but you can always make hooks using wire.
3. Bake for 4 hours at 200 degrees. Yes, I know it takes forever, but it's worth it.
4. Once cooled, they will be good and hard. Trace your animals onto pretty paper. I used green scrapbook paper. Cut out their outlines, and Mod Podge them onto the backs of the cookies. I did this to hide the brown spots on the side of the cookie that was face-down on the tray. But it also means your ornament looks pretty on the tree even if it gets trued around.
5. Once dry, draw details onto the non-paper side of each animal.
6. It is important to spray varnish the first coat or the ink will bleed. It may still bleed a little. The next coat can be brush-on varnish.
7. Next, I snipped all but 1 cm off the ends of red-tipped sewing needles. Use whatever colour you like, I just found the red to be very festive. These pins can now be pushed into the dough as embellishments. If they don't go in easily, pre-punch a hole using a thumbtack and then apply a dot of crazy glue to the hole before putting in the pin.
8. Last, feed ribbon or twine through the loop and tie.

Six Canadian animals for the tree:

::Road Trip Lantern::

"This lantern is for my best friend... I'd always pick her up and we'd adventure around. To this day we still take this pictures in the car together."

::Saltwater Farm Lantern::

"This lantern is for my cousin. She's one who loves to pile into her minivan and go on adventures. One of my clearest memories of us was of her driving us from winery to winery and crossing them off our list."

::Point o' Woods Lantern::

"This lantern is for my oldest cousin. When I think of her I think of Point o' Woods-- a beach down in CT I drove to almost every weekend to chill."

::Bonfire at the Beach Lantern::

"This lantern is for a friend I've known since middle school. Some of our most happy times have been on a beach in Florida with an umbrella and guitar . . . and a big bonfire. She's very earthy and slightly vintage."

::Apple Orchard Lantern::

"This lantern is for my step-sister. Growing up we used to go to an apple orchard in New York State with our family, had a big picnic and picked apples."

::Seven Lanterns for Seven Bridesmaids::

even lanterns complete. Finally. It feels good. The order came in a few months ago for a September wedding. I was asked to make custom lanterns to represent each member of the bridal party. An annual trip to the orchard with a sister. A friend who loves road trips. A wedding in Mexico. . .

::Artist: Peony & Parakeet::

his handmade paper caught my eye ages ago. It's so detailed and vibrant. Paiva offers a tutorial on how to create papers of your own, but I'm not sure it's possible to replicate such beautiful colour and texture.

 Blog:::Peony & Parakeet::

::Artist: Leonid Afremov::

Some things just make my eyes so very happy. Leonid Afremov's paintings are one of those things. So vibrant and full of movement and life. He does all his work using scraping tools. No brushes. That's what gives the paintings those chunky bursts of colour.

I contemplated investing in a print, but will have to really think about where it would fit into my home. I think his paintings would be bets displayed on a white wall. Alone.

 His site: ::Leonid Afremov::

::Artist: Laura Gunn::

I love her because she paints my favourite flowers: Poppies & Magnolia's. And she does it well. I hope to try my hand at painting on a large canvas, and this is the kind of things I could see myself attempting.

 Laura's Blog: ::Paint In My Hair::

Her art has been made into several Fabric lines that I adore as well. They seem to be hard to find here in Canada, but I'll keep searching.

::Lotte Reiniger::

I've paid homage to the work of Jan Pienkowski before. Recently, while looking through some of his art work I mistook some of the pieces for his, when they actually belonged to a woman named Lotte Reineger.

Lotte was a German animator in the 1900's. Her exquisite silhouettes were used to animate several films in her time. She put as much detail into her work as Pienkowski does. It's no wonder that she has been a source of inspiration to him.

I will have to try and capture one of Lotte's silhouettes on a lantern one of these days. . .

. . . If my hand holds out for all of the detailed cutting!

::Wildflower Field Lantern::

"Paper Cutouts" by Helen Leroux-Hugon & Juliette Vicart is full of great silhouette ideas. Some are incredibly detailed, while others are simple enough for anyone to tackle. I turned one of the simpler silhouettes into a lantern.

::Tiered Tea Platter::

One of the funnest things about Tea parties is the food display. Three-tiered platters are classic. I made my own using glassware from the dollar store.

~ Three-Tiered Tea Platter
1. Pick out large plate as a base.
2. Pick out a small plate for a middle.
3. Pick a small bowl for the top.
4. Finally choose two candle holders, small cups, wine glasses or, in my case, candy dishes.
5. Glue each layer on top of the other using Super Glue.
Voila! Load it up with pretty food.

::Shell Ornaments::

nspired by our summer trip. . .
Shell Ornaments.

::Woodland Fairies Lantern::

A few years ago I made THIS.
I adapted it and made a lantern for a friend’s baby.

::Wood Pallet Shelf::

Old beat-up wood is a personal favourite. One of my greatest misgivings about building new was that we would be working with new materials. But, given time, I've found ways of making the place look older than it is. More wizened. When I stumbled across an old wood pallet behind the garage, for example. I remembered seeing this:

 And we got to work. It was really muddy, and huge & ungainly. But we wrestled it into shape by prying off certain board and replacing them in structurally-sound places. And up it went onto our bathroom wall. It was so fun to collect narrow-enough items to perch on the "shelves."

::Purse Tags::

urse tags! The inspiration came from the tiny butterfly mirrors. I found them, loved them, bought them, then didn't use them for awhile. I think they are meant to put in lockers or on walls in a cluster. But I decided they would be useful for the discrete art of checking ones teeth for green bits in public. 

• Cut sturdy cardboard into shapes.
• Paint one side with your own mini-art, or simply podge a favourite image. On the other side, glue on a decorative paper.
• I spray-lacquered both sides. Then I lined the edges using tin tape.
• I punched holes, hammered in an eyelet, and added ball-chain. (make sure you buy chain that will fit the diameter of your eyelet.)

Mirror:
For the mirror, I stuck two mirrors back to back, then had holes drilled through both. I added the mirror to the chain and fastened it.