X-mas decor pt. 1 ~ A sparkling snow border DIY ~ and the Give away winner!

 Hello and welcome back my dear blogging friends and readers on a sunny almost Winter day! I'm so glad to be back here with you today and once again I have to apology for my long blog absence. I was so busy putting all that Halloween decor away, cleaning up, renovating, crafting and then decorating for Christmas etc. etc. that the time just flew by.

To make up for it I made a little DIY for you for a dripping snow border or garland but more of that and how it looks mounted onto my mantle further down this post.

 But first let me show you a few of this years Christmas decorations like the canning jar snow globe with the soldered lid and the old Erzgebirge angel inside which I actually made last year already but don't think I shared it here so far. I put it on top of the old bird cage along with a few bottle brush trees for which I still have a huge weakness.

Of course I had to put some of my favorite star and snow flake ornaments into the panes of the old hanging room divider window again and love how the following photo turned out with the natural sun light brightening up the whites of the lace table cloth (which actually is an old bed spread) and the little white feather tree at the right side that's standing on the old sewing machine table.

I put the crystal chandelier which hung here over my dining room table elsewhere ( over the couch table) and hung this iron chandelier decorated with crystal drops and greenery etc. over the table instead, then I put that old vintage honeycomb bell inside and love how it looks together now:

 I haven't finished my Christmas decorations yet, but that being said I think I never do, I always tend to change things up again and again. As you can see I still have some pumpkins in my

 decor because I just couldn't part with them yet as they still do look so beautiful.

Coming now to my favorite part to decorate for the seasons, especially the Holidays 

~ it's the mantle of course!

I filled the old window which I still had standing inside the mantle from my Halloween decor when it was filled with black birds, with bottle brush trees instead and quite like the look. Onto the iron gate I hung icicles some of which I made from cotton batting myself a few years ago and the two beautiful glass icicles that I own. If you like to see things closer btw, well I think if you are a long time follower you know very well by now that I leave most of my photos quite large so that you can click on them, then right click and chose show graphic and then onto the little magnifier to see all the details in the original size, but in case that you are too lazy to do that which I understand because it is a bit time consuming, I tried to do close up pictures of the most part of my photos too. Still I think they always look best in their original size.

Above a close up of the little shelf which I had used as apothecary shelf in my Halloween decor and now filled with tiny buttles brush trees and a small white feather tree on top. Below a picture of the mantle when all the tea lights and some candles are lit:

Unfortunately you can't really see how the silver glittered trees, the glittered garland etc. are sparkling in the candle light and also when lit by the sunlight like below unlike you enlarge the photos.

 That thing on top of the mantle window that says "Schenke und Erfreue" ( Meaning "Give and make happy") is very old Dresden and made from pressed cardboard and then painted and glittered. I love old "Dresdener Pappe" as it is being called here in Germany and as most of you may know by now. That was a very lucky antique market find from last month.

Well now let's come to my little DIY the snow dripping and sparkling border again. Ever since I saw a picture of such a mica snow border in blogland I wanted to have one and try to make my own. I photographed all the things you'll need to make it in one picture and can assure you it's drop dead easy to make. You can see the necessary steps from the bottom of the photo up to the top:

You just need to make yourself a template first which you can also find at google search and then print it out, cut it out and transfer it onto a piece of sturdy white cardboard in the length you want and then cut it out again carefully and paint it over with white craft glue (like Elmers for example), let the glue go everywhere especially at the edges and then quickly before the glue can dry pour mica flakes (in my case vintage ones which are called Sparkle Christmas snow and can be found on etsy) all over it, make sure to really cover all the glue. Then throw off the excess mica flakes (lay something underneath it, so that you can catch the excess snow flakes and use it again) and voila there you have your own snow dripping sparkling border :) Set aside to let dry and make more if needed and when it's completely dried you can mount it onto your shelf eges or like I did onto your mantle edge. I used white pins and just pinned it on. Now doesn't it look pretty winterey and vintagey festive? Click picture to enlarge!

  I also have another new garland hanging in front of my mantle which I love and which is made from beautifully crocheted white snowflakes.

  These gorgeous white crocheted and starched snowflakes I also bought from an etsy seller (called Sky Blue Fancy from Latvia) and then pulled them onto a wire to make them into a garland.

Another favorite in my Christmas decor is this feather tree that my daughter bought for me in Buffalo when she studied there a few years ago. I love the old silver tinsel tree topper and I decorated the tree with mostly white cotton batting ornaments some old flea finds, some new and some like the little snowmen which I created myself.

 The silver tinsel tree on top of the crate I also made a few years ago from silver pipe cleaners and I still like it. Into one of the old wooded crates I use as shelves I put the glass terrarium in which I put my tiny putz village along with some more bottle brush trees and faux snow:

 I had a small piece of the mica icicle or snow border left and mounted it onto the wooden frame of the terrarium and then enlighted the little Winter wonderland scene with a string of star lights.

At the right side of my tiny Winter wonderland is this folding table with the glass box on top and the white plate shelf on the wall over it, which I also decorated Christmassy. And having just said that, I spot a rusty bunny and a glas egg hanging there still from last Easter ha I'm blushing here I can tell you and will have to put them away when I go downstairs again lol.

 I was very lucky to find this flock of very old tiny putz sheep lately for a bargain price at one of my antique market excursions with my mum and for now it found it's place on top of the glass box.

 Along with the very old little feather tree with the original, old, tiny blown glass ornaments, another lucky antique market find from two years ago.

 I also put Christmas tree candles into the two small apothecary bottles on top of the box.

Inside of the Ikea plant terrarium which I bought last Spring, I put some old blown glass baubles and Christmas tree toppers still in their original old card boxes:

And of course I had to put out my beloved old brass trumpets again and hung them over the old french iron mirror along with some tiny wreathes and a 3D musical star of which I glittered the edges with silver glass glitter:

 Lastly I'd like to share with you this years advent candles. I found the zinc numbers lately in a shop in Worpswede and wraped them around the vanilla scenting candles which I put into a silver tray along with a mercury silver vase and some greenery:

And before I wish you a happy first Advent for this upcoming Sunday, I'd like to announce that the lucky winner of my Holiday give away from my last post is Lynn of the blog Shabby Story. Congrats dear Lynn, please email me your addy so that I can send you a little surprise parcel with a soldered Christmas ornament and a silver glass glittered ornament, both made by me.

P.S.: Please let me know when you also make a snow dripping or icicle mica border after my DIY I'd just love to see it! And in general if you have some vintage inspired white Christmas inspiration to share!

Wishing you a happy first of Advent 2013 everyone! :)

See you again soon I hope for part 2 of my Christmas decor 2013 and pictures of my frozen Boxwood Cottage garden.

xoxo~ Carola

P.S. I just found out there was a problem with my two latest blogposts not showing up on bloglovin and on other blogs links. Looks like it had something to do with my rss feed being too big over 510 k. I reduced the feed to showing only 10 posts and now it will hopefully work again *phew* I admit that I hate technical problems like this, it's just stressing me out.

I'm going to share this post with the following blog parties:

Be Inspired Friday party over at Debra's Common Ground blog
Feathered Nest Friday over at Coutney's French Country Cottage blog 
Shabbilicious Friday over at Kerryanne's Shabby Art Boutique blog

What's it Wednesday over at Paula's and Pattie's Ivy at the Elephants blog
Blissful Whites Wednesday over at Becky's Timewashed blog

Knick of Time Tuesday over at Angie's Knick of Time blog
Fridays Unfolded over at Alison's Nancherrow blog

Part 2 of my Black & White Fall/Halloween decor plus a new Holiday Give Away!

So dear blogging friends and readers as promised in my last post here is part 2 of the Black & White Fall/Halloween decor this year. 

Let's best start downstairs in my parlor with the mantle. I put an old wooden window frame inside the mantle with a white plank behind so that I have a good contrasting background for my black cardboard birds. 

Then I added a great thing my neighbor found and I call it the iron cemetery or castle gate which is now holding the witches broom and 2 paper skelleton guards.

On top of the mantle I added an old camera that I put on top of 2 stacked old books and then put an old clockface in a vintage wire flower frog on top of the camera and around it I grouped several vintage alarmclocks showing midnight - the witching hour. Then I worked in pairs again and put two black IKEA lanterns on 2 glass pedestals on either side and then two white chenille pumpkins in 2 glass bowls and so on shown further down this post. I love the black glittered Boo sign I recently found on etsy and the ancestors garland which my blogging friend Tina created and also he reflection of my black bird garland in the white mirror.

 

A close up of the vintage camera:

 

  

Another very big black crow/raven is just about to fly away from a real pastel green pumpkin sitting on the here so called Dschungel grass in another glass pedestal:

 

  It stands on my white dining table in front of the mirror which is decorated with many more decorative pumpkins, especially my beloved creme white baby boos:

 

 They are placed in bowls or on plates on a grey table runner in the middle of the table so that there is still enough space to sit and eat, or if necessary I can easily put them elsewhere to have the middle space free again for bowls of food.

 

The decor is often changing around here while the season is progressing. For example did I exchange the black chalkboard that was saying Happy Fall for this great wrapping paper saying Happy Halloween when I received a fabulous Halloween parcel from my dear blogging friend Julia from Albania. Wanna see what she sent me? Well of course I just have to share it! First of all the sweet heart that she is she sent me 3 old bed springs, knowing how much I wanted these and never found them around here so far. Further 3 tiny wasp nests that I also wanted so badly too and seeing the great creator of beautiful things that Julia is she included some great handmade items like the Undertaker coffin pillow you might have seen on her blog already and the most beautiful paper tags:

 

 And she also created one of her wonderful fabric pumpkins for me that I admired so much over on her blog a few weeks ago. As always the details of Julia's work are amazing, it has a perfect shape and just look at the stem and sweet mini tags she added to it! I'm madly in love with it!

 

I also totally love the round chip box she has embellished from the inside and outside and sent the tiny wasp nests in. It even has a "31" inside the lid (not shown in the pics because the outside of the lid is so fabtastic). Oh and btw the most creepy thing ( a true Halloween moment!) happened when I opened the chip box with the wasp nests, a little black Albanian spider ran out of it, hiding quickly inside of the wrapping paper which also had black spiders on it "EEK"! Since I didn't expect a real spider in the box of course I was startled and even a bit horrified, but just for a moment lol, then I took the paper outside the open parlor door into the garden and released the tiny spider there. When I told my daughter about this incident she said: "Oh the poor thing will have a language problem now" Which made me laughing out loud - thinking oh yes German is a difficult language that's for sure and so might be Albanian which I don't now yet. Anyway Julia couldn't have made this Halloween moment any better, even if she would have planned it. I assume the tiny spider just lived inside one of the wasp nests little wholes and so came to an unexpected travel from Albania to Germany :)

 Of course after I told Julia about this little incident she said that it probably is a specimen of the rare Arachnia Albania which are getting 35 cm huge. Argh now how mean was that? I should have been warned not to open the chip box seeing that there already is a picture of a spider on top of the lid!

 Well after I got Julia's parcel I was inspired to use the small space between my mantle and the old armoire for a Halloweenish Apothecary installement:

I  incorporated the 3 beautiful tags as well as the coffin pillow and the chip box with the wasp nests of course! Thank you so much dear Juls for all the inspiring black & white Halloween goodies you made for me and of course for the black masks, b&w straws, wasp nests and bed springs too! I love it all very much!!! If you happen to not know Julia yet ( but I think if you read my last post you must now her by now) then hop over and visit her at her blog Vintage with laces for more fabulous inspiration! I'm eagerly waiting right now for her next blog post about her own black and white Halloween creations & decorations because everything she already told me about sounds just to spooky cool!

 

 The Halloween book in the back of the shelf, the round paper tags, the soldered pendant and the witchified cabinet cards are some of my creations from Halloweens past which I still like and had to use again.

Directly vis à vis the Apothecary shelf stands this spooky shelf consisting out of old crates on top of an old rusty trunk.

 I filled a terrarium with a white ceramic skull and bone hand lying in a moss bed -  He died in 1892 as you can see he he. At night I put a flickering tea light inside of the skull which made it look very creepy! I hope to get some good shots of it soon or Halloween eve at the latest.

I also printed out some magic book covers on brown paper and put the so magified books under the witch lantern:

And here is another shot of my dining table like it is looking right now with the pumkins on top of the bed springs and some branches out of the garden painted white to have a place for the black birds to land on.

And a wider shot of the top of the mantle all dressed in black and white now and of course I'd love to hear how you come to like it?

 On top of my couch table I have another (not spooky just fallish) pumpkin vignette which I think looked especially nice bathing in the warm October sun light:

 As well as this white 3 tiered chandelier in the corner beside the big window does which I filled amongst other things with 4 fabric "no sew" pumpkins that I made out of white muslin gaze and twine filled with cotton wool:

 

Oh and last week I forgot to show you this black and white Halloween cone I  made and hung in one of my studio windows upstairs:

and also my little black Boo house with a tiny glittered cat and white owl on top of the roof:

And last but not least Riley the Boxwood Cottage tabby finally sleeping in his basket in my studio which he always used to reject before, usually prefering all kind of boxes.

Now my dear friends and readers if you will be so kind to tell me in the comment section under this or my last post, which picture with b & w Halloween creations or decor of this post or my last post from 10 days ago you like best and why, you can win a glass glittered Christmas treat that I made along with a hand made soldered Christmas pendant, so that you have something new to decorate for the Holiday season. Since I totally forgot my 8 year bloggiversary last month I think it's high time for a new blog give away and perhaps I'll chose even more than one winner, depending on the number of comments. I'll announce the winner(s) in my next post which will probably be at the end of this month or the beginning of November.

Until then I hope you'll all have some fabulous days counting up to  

H A L L O W E E N

xoxo~ Carola

I'll be sharing this post with:

The Be Inspired Friday party over at Debra's Common Ground blog
Feathered Nest Friday over at Coutney's French Country Cottage blog 
Shabbilicious Friday over at Kerryanne's Shabby Art Boutique blog
Broomsticks on a Bayou blogparty over at Anna's Frosted Petunias blog

What's it Wednesday over at Paula's and Pattie's Ivy at the Elephants
Blissful Whites Wednesday over at Becky's Timewashed blog

Knick of Time Tuesday over at Angie's Knick of Time blog

Black & White Halloween creations & decorations 2013 part 1

Can't believe I didn't do one single post last month dear blogging friends and readers, but today I'm back to share with you what I was working on during September. Above for example is a witch silhouette that I cut out to decorate a lamp in my studio for one of my favorite holidays that isn't even a holiday in Germany which is Halloween. I love all things Black & White and so Halloween is the perfect opportunity for me to indulge in these neutral colors. 

Most of the things that I created last month were for my dear blogging friend Julia in Albania so I'd like to share these with you first, now that Julia has got her parcel. Julia had sent me a beautiful surprise late b-day (Jan) parcel in March right in time for Easter so she's got her late b-day (July) parcel in October right in time for Halloween :) 

I asked her a few questions in our frequent e-mails like if she would like something black too, because so far I saw mostly white things in her gorgeous studio and when she said yes she would, I was sure it had to be a Halloween parcel for her and then around the end of July we both started pinning Black & White Halloween things on our Pinterest boards and I got more and more sure about what she would like (btw, here is the link to my Pinterst board Fall & Halloween in case you'd need more inspiration. I have pinned over 1200 inspirational pictures there!) and then I asked her if she has IKEA in Tirana and she denied it so knowing Julia is a paper lover too and IKEA had just opened a new paper section I got a few more ideas on what to send her and especially on how to wrap it.  Well now below is a picture, a first sneak peek so to say, about what I sent her, already wrapped. The b&w paper and the pointing hand tag for instance are from IKEA. I cut out and glittered the silver maple leave and the black bat though:

 

The striped paper and the Love tag and the top hat tag in the next photo are also from the IKEA paper section. A top hat tag isn't that just too cool? As the top hat lover and addict I am myself of course I had to had these! I made Julia the little witches broom with a b & w paper straw:

Well and of course I had to part with one of my old top hats (no matter if my collection consists of 7 or now 6 top hats right, it's still a collection) for my dear friend Julia. It's over 100 hundred years old and I know that Julia loves all things old with history just like I do. We both have a passion for flea markets and in Albania near Tirana where she lives now apparently are no flea markets, so I had to put some vintage finds in her parcel too and a black chapeau claque seemed just so suiting for Halloween don't you think? I remember how happy I made Lisa of Tarnished and Tattered when I sent her a vintage top hat in a Christmas friendship swap once and was hoping that it would have the same effect on Julia:

I painted and altered the peat pot above and below and added a spooky hand

 and I painted and embellished the lids of tiny bonne maman jam glasses and filled them, this one with a doll leg preseved in water. Oops I think I added the water after I took this picture, but it looks a bit creepy I can assure you:

 

I also altered a vintage flea market bottle for Julia, gave it a vintage crystal glass stopper and filled it with real vintage mica:

and I felted for her this tiny white pumpkin for:

and made her a Halloween collage on an IKEA clip board for The Witching Hour:

Then I added more flea finds like the big vintage wooden spool below knowing Julia loves these and the cabinet card of a vintage gentleman which I mounted on an old black metal plate. I have a bunch of these old black metal plated found in a leather pocket of a vintage camera. They must have been used for photo taking somehow in the old days. I still have to find out how exactly they were used.

I also found her the tiny old coin purse above and put an old key and keywhole in it for Julia's further use in her creations and then I put it into the skull box (paper maché egg) that you can see below.

The black and white enamel sign is another vintage find for Julia and as you can see above I had lot's of fun cutting out and glittering gourds and pumpkins. So don't disturb their party lol

I had kind of a vintage moon theme going on for some of the things I created for Julia like this egg box that I painted, embellished and filled with tiny treats. If you are curious about what was inside the box and how Julia liked her parcel, you can hop over to her blog Vintage with Laces and see what she shares about it.

My whole Alex drawer was filled with treasures I gathered, shopped, found and created for Julia during the months of  August and September.

Once I had it all wrapped up prettily and sent it off to my dear friend I finally started creating things for our own Halloween:

Like the witches shoe above, my favorite so far, to which i had to add the sharply pointed tip and then painted it all black and added the tiny Dresden foil stars and filled it with the spooky grass, a tiny old picture of a woman, a tiny broom and a tiny witches hat I made (Julia got such a tiny witches hat too btw). I also made the black glittered bats in the photo above and cut out one bat into the paper bag which actually looks great at night when I put a battery operated tea light in it.

Then I created the black and white Halloween wreath above and some paper spider webs inspired of course by Pinterest pins like so many of my creations.

One of my vintage black type writers in the studio holds some of my creations and finds and below is a cute vintage skull on which you can open it's jaw (so I had to put somethin in it he he), that I found on etsy:

 

I further used some more peat pots to make little treat baskets for the kids like the white painted one with the black Dresden spider web, which I also saw on Pinterest. Oh and don't you like how the round eyes tag in it looks seen through the magnifying glass of my third hand tool below?

I gathered so many black and white things on top of and around the Alex drawer in my studio that I'm running out of space and I think I'll have to bring some things down very soon to decorate the living room with it for the Halloween party.

 

Btw the neutral colered gift wrapping paper rolls in my new wire paper basket in the photo above are all from the IKEA paper section in case you want some too. An no IKEA is not paying me for saying this, I just want them to keep up this great section in future. They also have the black and the brown number tags which I used for the "31" above and below:

Of course Miss Potter my vintage studio dressform needed to get spookified a bit too so she got a white mask and a black netting and I embellished her not so spooky old top hat with one of the silver glass glittered maple leaves that I made just to make her look fallish:

Further I couldn't help it but had to make a not too realistic looking spider (cause I hate real spiders, they just creep me out) with wire and beads and then I sat her in a lace spider net that I put into an embroidery hoop of course an idea that comes from a Pinterest pin too:

Right now I'm working on coffins painted with chalkboard paint like the one below, but I'm not sure it's done yet:

I'm watching you so BEWARE he he ;-)

Well I think that's all for today but I'll keep you posted on my Halloween decorations downstairs very soon I promise, which by today consists mainly out of lot's of different arranged pumpkins - no orange ones yet so, because I'll save these for carving and only use them in front of my house entrance door in the Halloween week itself. So now I'm going to leave you with another shot of the old bottle which I altered for Julia, just because I like it so.

Oh and btw if you have created something in Black and White for Halloween too, please let me (us) know in the comment section or better even post a link to it, because I'm curious to see it and you can never get to much black and white Halloween inspiration, can you?

Until next time I wish y'all happy Fall days my friends!

xoxo~ Carola

Sharing this post with:

http://www.commonground-do.com/2013/10/be-inspired-160-halloween-home-tour.html

Celia's witches shoe party at Adventures of the striped stocking blog