Little by little I have been adding decoration to the fireplace and it sure looks alot nicer than it did a week ago! First I will show a total picture of my additions and then I will zoom in on some details.
Now the Welcome sign to the left there I had stenciled and painted the lettering previous, since then I woodburned around the letters and added a bunch of the dry flowers to the top.
I really like the woodburner tool and I will need to practice more with it so I can use it when I finally decorate my gourds. I have the basic version and I may decide to upgrade if I find it works well on gourds and signs. The effect is what I like about it. Two more dried flower arrangements are next – all the flowers I grew this summer.
Notice the pinecones I have on the mantel also. We had a very huge windstorm this past weekend and it shook tons of pinecones down off the trees! I have ALOT and the major problem I find is the sticky tar on the pinecones. I did a little research online trying to find what I can use to clean them so I can craft without the stickiness and all I came up with so far is – ways to remove the tar from dogs or pets using butter, oil or even peanut butter. I need a better solution so Please if anyone has the answer, let me know. I saw a really cool shackled roof using the pinecone pieces on a gourd birdhouse design that I want to try. Here’s a closeup of the mantel and there is another design there – I took a branch from the yard and peeled the outer bark, then glued several bundles of dried flowers to it and laid it across the mantel along with some of those pinecones.
I am sure I will be tweaking the designs and as each holiday comes along add festive details.
