Seems like cone trees were EVERYWHERE during the holidays!  I was a tad behind on my Christmas crafting, but really wanted to make some cone trees that could maybe be used to decorate with YEAR  ROUND.  This is what I came up with.

The styrofoam cones from Dollar Tree are about the same size as the ones I used.  I just happened to have some old cardboard cones, which I used for the two small trees, and found a big styro cone at a rummage sale.  Glue does NOT adhere to styro, so first I covered my cones with strips of paper, glued ON to the cone, but also TO each other (which is what STICKS) ; completely covering the entire cone.

Old book pages were hand cut into small leaf shapes, then ‘tea stained’ using my own stain recipe.  You can see how I stained them here.  Then I just started gluing them on!  Using tacky glue and starting at the bottom, I just glued row after row, slightly overlapping.  At the top, I added a few extra leaves, sticking up, then when the glue was dry, I twisted them into a point with my fingers.

Michael said I should have ‘glittered the edges of the leaves’.  Which WOULD look awesome if I was doing them for Christmas decor.  But I wanted these to be more year round, so I abstained from the glitter.  (Never thought I’d hear myself say T?HAT!  I’m usually all about the glitter!)

I did a quick internet search on glass cloches, just out of curiosity and to see what came up.  Here’s what I got.

In my thrifting and shabby shopping adventures, occasionally I’ll find a reasonable priced one.  But mostly I find glass vessels of a similar shape that I can turn into a cloche.   Even some of the glass vases from Dollar Tree can be made into cloches!

The KEY ingredient is having the right adhesive; e-6000.  Don’t EVEN try any other adhesive.  The small and medium ones above came from Dollar Tree.  The medium one a glass vase and the small one a candle holder.  The large one is from a thrift store, BUT a few years ago DT had those larger ones also.  So it probably initially DID come from a Dollar Tree!

You mostly want to look for glass vessels with FLAT bottoms, for ease of attaching a ‘handle’.  Likewise, look for small decorative items with flat bottoms to attach to the bottom of your vessel as a handle.  Above are two more of the medium vases from Dollar Tree and another, different shape clear glass candle holder.   The smaller one has an old drawer pull, painted silver and glittered as the handle.  For the other two I used some small glass taper candle holders (hole side DOWN when I glued them on)  And in the first picture, I used some ceramic birds from a craft store as the handle.  In the past, I have also found cute ceramic birds at Dollar Tree that I was able to use for handles.

These two are both thrifted vases.  A clear glass spice jar stopper was used on the aqua one.  The one on the right was VERY heavy (very thick glass bottom) so I needed a real substantial handle.  I used a big ole curtain finial!

I usually sell ‘just the cloches’, but occasionally I’ll fashion a more extensive project using one, like I did above.  Adding a wood candle pedestal that fit the size of the cloche, and added some moss and little eggs under the cloche.

The above cloche is a thrifted one (from a cheese plate set).  The plate and pedestal are both from Dollar Tree.  I just glued the inverted glass candle holder to the plate with e6000.  The lid was ‘ready to use’.

Smaller cloches can be created using the glass bells from old candle holders.  Small thrifted clear plates with Dollar Tree glass taper candle holders attached for the base.  The other sets in the above photo were purchased as sets.

To create different heights on the smaller sets, I used some thrifted shorter taper candle holders as bases, as shown above.

Using more of the vintage music paper strips as I had on the big 3D and metal star ornaments and regular white glue, I covered the entire hat (except the fringe!

Smaller strips and a little extra care are needed at the top

and the rim, so as to not damage or cover up the fringe.  Other than that, just apply glue to the back of each piece of paper and slap in on, slightly overlapping the previous pieces.  Done?  Could be, I suppose.  But for me, the fun part is just beginning!

Time to EMBELLISH!  I just rifled through my stash of scrapbook supplies and laid them out on the counter until I had an arrangement that I liked.  (the old clock faces and calendar pages came from a free graphics website; I printed them up)  Then glued them on.  

I guess I did a good job in it, as it sold almost immediately after I put it out in my booth at Stars.

Covered them with torn strips of vintage sheet music, as I had done with the bog 3D stars.

As I mentioned before, I keep a stash of torn paper on hand so when inspiration for a project hist me, I can ‘get right to it’ and don’t have to wait while I do all the ‘prep work’.  I did have to tear a few of the pieces into smaller ones, but even with that, it only took me about ten minutes to cover each star using regular white glue on the backs of the paper strips.

When I looked at them the next day, I decided they needed some ‘oomph’, so I added some vintage mica flakes.   First, covering the entire star with them; them just the creases or folds.  Glitter would work too.  I was just a little ‘glittered out’ after Christmas!

And I didn’t want them looking Christmas-y.

Figured these would work for New Years decor . .

Or a nice little gift for a child’s music teacher.

They display nicely with all the white dishes I stock in my antique booth

FIRST I look for red or white stuff, nothing that had Christmas designs though.  The red things I can usually use for Valentines day.   And the white things work with shabby chic year round.  (white berry picks are my #1 white buy!)  Then I look for things I will use as SUPPLIES for next years Christmas crafting.  Snowflakes, chenille stems, garland etc.

You can see some of my previous ideas here.

And here’s what I’ve come up with THIS year:

Unless you are really INTO holograms, you’ve probably passed these by.  I was intrigued by how BIG and 3D the star was when opened up.  Knew I could make them over somehow to suit MY decorating tastes.

Isn’t the SHAPE just awesome when you open it up???  And actually, you probably COULD sue them ‘as is’ to decorate for a New Years party.

They just ‘pop open’ (do it slooooooowly; you have to ‘help along’ the tips a little) and pull the cord to keep it open.  If using ‘as is’ you use the same cord to hang it from.  If you are -re-doing; it like me, you need to get rid of the cord and bead!

I cut the cord and remove it, then TAPE closed the opening left behind.  (that’s that hardest part of this re-do!  You really need five hands!)  Then I GLUE on strips of paper along the seam that I taped, and the tips and edges; as shown above, to really make them sturdy. (ANY paper will do for this part, as it will be fully covered when finished)   Then I start using the paper that I want to SHOW on my finished project, I chose my favorite vintage music paper!)    Again using GLUE and going over the parts that are already papered first, but in the opposite direction.  (across the seam instead of along the seam)  Keep at it until at least 90% of your star is covered.

Let that much dry overnight, then apply your final coat using liquid starch as your adhesive.  ( this is MY method of paper mache!)   And let dry overnight again.

The center point on both sides is the ‘trickiest’ to cover.  Use TINY pieces of paper and extra layers as this spot will wear the most over years of use.

Since I am putting these in my booth as New Years decor, I added a KISS banner that I made.

This gives you a better idea of how BIG they are!

Fairly time consuming to make, but well worth it!  I always have a box or two of torn paper strips on hand.    I do a lot of  ’paper tearing’ at night while I’m watching TV.  That way, when ‘inspiration strikes’ I can get right to my project.

]]> http://thedollardiva.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/dollar-tree-christmas-clearance-crafts/feed/ 0 trash2treasure etsy stars 12 24 11 001 etsy stars 12 24 11 003 etsy stars 12 24 11 004 etsy stars 12 24 11 005 etsy stars 12 24 11 006 etsy stars 12 24 11 011 etsy stars 12 24 11 007 etsy stars 12 24 11 028 etsy stars 12 24 11 035 etsy stars 12 24 11 009 http://thedollardiva.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/dollar-tree-christmas-crosses-25-cents-on-clearnace/ http://thedollardiva.wordpress.com/2011/12/27/dollar-tree-christmas-crosses-25-cents-on-clearnace/#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:08:28 +0000 trash2treasure http://thedollardiva.wordpress.com/?p=98 ]]> Well, I wasn’t sure exactly WHAT I was going to do with these so I only grabbed 4 of them just to be safe.  I am REALLY trying to pare down my ‘project PILES’ and work with what I HAVE as much as possible.  Only going shopping when I need a few supplies, BUT THEN I run into deals like this while getting my supplies and I succumb!

They were labeled as Christmas ‘ornaments’.  A little BIG for an ornament to me; about 5″ x7″.

It’s difficult to see in these pictures, but there are ren and green rhinestones on all of them.

Oh, you can see the rhinestone better in this picture.  SO, the had to be painted to cover up those red and green stones.  First a quick shot of spray KILZ primer; then some Ivory colored spray paint.

Not bad.  Not bad at all.  Not sure what I’ll do with them now.  Maybe just tie on a pretty ribbon to hang on the wall.

(Well, actually, as I was attempting to follow the email directions provided to FIX my computer after downloading some cleaner software and it crashing; I accidentally reset it to the factory settings; which deleted all my pictures.  I had probably 12 Christmas craft projects using Dollar Tree stuff to show you.  In the aftermath, the best I can do is show some of the pictures of the few finished items left in my booth at the antique mall that haven’t sold yet.)

SO, here’s what I’ve got to show you:

I made HUNDREDS of these paper rosette ornaments.  Cut and folded the rosettes out of vintage sheet music and hymnals, then hot glued on the embellishments.  In this case a white snowflake (from a DT 10 pack) and a glitter JOY ornament (from a DT 5 pack)

On these, I made a smaller rosette, glued the snowflake BEHIND it and added a snowflake BUTTON to the center with a little bling in the center.

I bought LOTS of different glittered ornaments from Dollar Tree in the 5/pk.  Reindeer, angels, bells, cupids.  And some BIGGER reindeer with teeny jingle bells around their necks in a 2/pk.  The tags you see on some of the orns, I just printed up on my computer.

I also made paper chains out of the music paper.  A few bigger glittered orns (singly from DT, but too pretty to pass up!) like the dove and the lacey ornament in the above picture.   The little crowns and top hats were made from scratch.

A lot of the ornaments I packaged in cello and made header cards for.

BIG 6″ styro type snowflakes in a 6/pk at DT.  Glittered edge crepe rosette and scrapbook embellishment in center.

These BLUE ones are made using blue foam snowflake coasters from DT, a paper rosette and a smaller blue snowflake from a bag of table scatter from DT.

A BIG one for the tree topper!

And some other bigger ones as wreaths.

The bigger glitter pieces were $1.00 each at DT.

I made LOTS of glittered birds with crowns!  Resin birds bought last spring at DT.  Painted them with craft paint (works best if you paint them the same color that you plan to glitter them)  And I just use my second coat of paint as my ‘adhesive’ for the glitter.  (no glue needed!)  The itty bitty crowns were made from scratch, with a lot of PATIENCE.  But SO cute they really ARE worth the trouble. (to me anyhow!)

Glittered tree in a jelly jar with some fake snow.  Bought the trees at DT (the ones for the little Christmas Villages)

Lots of little gift boxes.  This one with a white glittered bird with a crown and  some scrapbook border.  I also put a little bit of my own blend of paper shred inside.   This particular box came from a Costco set of gift boxes.

This oval box came from DT a while back (I bought a stash of them YEARS ago, and just now figured out what I wanted to do with them!  Look for more in the spring!)  A little scrapbook border along the bottom.  Three trees from DT (Two, one of each size, to a package)  Glittered the bases and some chipboard letters (from craft store) and glued them on with hot glue.  Hot glued the trees to the box THEN with regular white glue, added the snow.

Two trees with snowflake buttons and bling on top; glued to top of box then glittered box top.  Ribbon from my stash tied around the box, and another little snowflake at the center of the bow.

Another painted and glittered resin bird with little glitter crown.  This box came from DT this year and came with the lid already glittered.  The blue snowflakes are ‘table scatter’ or confetti from DT.  Just hot glued them to the two trees and border of the box.

Another snowflake ornament, this time with a vintage style Christmas embellishment in the center.  Embellishments are from craft store.

Lots more glittered birds with crowns, not attached to anything.

And glittered snow owls with crowns!

White satin gift box from DT, I tea stained the box and ribbon and a bow (which I removed from the top)

Made some crepe paper (from DT) rosettes and tea stained them too.  A music paper rosette with glittered edges to glue on top of the crepe rosette, then glued the bow back on to the top!  Will make more of these to stock year round.

This is my ‘custom blend’ of paper shred that I put a little bit of in each gift box.

WELL, that’s all I have to show you.  Will have to leave the more extensive, step-by-step tutorials for next year!

Now I could have just made the same cardboard crowns and covered them with glitter; but I was feeling like ‘there was a better idea’, out there . . . somewhere.  So I did a lot of searching on-line.  Nope.  Nice crowns.  But not what I was thinking.  sigh.

Must have had crowns on my mind as I went to sleep that night because I literally thought of this idea IN MY SLEEP!  I had some glittered top hats (for New Years parties) that I had bought last year at Dollar Tree.  Could I fashion a CROWN out of one of those??!?

By golly!!!!  I could!  I HAD to do a little happy dance for this discovery!

And I LOVE the shape of these even MORE than the cardboard/paper ones because they flare out at the top!  All I did was cut off the rim, cut out the top, turn it upside down and cut the points.  easy peasy!!  (with a very SHARP pair of fine tip scissors)

Then the REAL fun begins.  Embellishing!  For this silver one I made a white crepe paper rosette and glittered the edges and a little bit of glitter on the surface.  (just lightly brushed on some glue and sprinkled on the glitter).  The little silver ‘flower’ is part of an ornament from DT.  I attached the embellishments with hot glue; using just a very little.  Too much will melt the plastic hat!

For this gold one I used one of my music paper rosettes topped with a gold glitter ornament.  (this is actually part of the SAME ornament as the silver one above; I just broke it apart to get three usable pieces!)  And a ‘Joyeux Noel’ tag that I printed up on my computer.  Then I added some narrow gold tinsel (from DT!)  around the rim.  Pretty, no?

Here’s the tinsel I bought.  Got some in silver, gold and red.  Will look for more red at half price after Christmas to use for Valentine crafting!

And the silver flowery thingy on this one is the third part of that same DT ornament!  hehe  The two silver snowflakes on either side are ‘table scatter’.  (cant’ remember where from though?!?)

So, of course I dashed right out to every Dollar Tree in the area looking for MORE of the hats the next day.  Sadly they do not have them anymore!!!!  I found some ‘derby shaped’ ones at one DT (will attempt tiaras out of those) and the rest of them had cardboard ones.  SHOOT!!!   Maybe a party supply store will have the top hat style still.  Or maybe they can be found somewhere on-line???

The ‘flare out’ at the top of these is really what MAKES the crown.  Maybe I’ll try to create a template to make flared ones??

A rather ‘bitter sweet’ victory in discovering this . . .

OH YEAH!!!  Don’t throw away the rim and top that you cut off!  I hand cut little crowns out of it!

P.S.  Doing an on-line search I found some of the hats to use for making these crowns on the Oriental Trading Company web site.

The ceramic finials I used for the handles on the above two cloches came from Dollar Tree earlier this year.  I painted them antique white (regular craft paints) and added Ralph Lauren tobacco glaze to enhance the detail.  The cloche part (inverted glass vases!) on the right came from DT; the one on the left, thrift store.  The stone gargoyles and bust also came from DT.

Just about ANY glass vase that will stand on it’s own when inverted can be made into a cloche.  Look for a size that will allow you to place something underneath the dome.  A flat bottom is a PLUS, as it’s easier to add the handle to a flat surface.   I use e6000 to glue my ‘handles’ on.  Just about anything can be used as a handle too.  I’ve done several using ceramic birds; and placed a little nest under the dome.  Regular old knobs work too!

Ceramic DT birds I’ve used for cloche knobs.

The ceramic finials from DT, as purchased and before I painted them.

Ceramic DT bird glued to domed cloche.  Little vintage juice glass and bowl glued together to make the base.

Add a little Spanish  moss (from DT!) and a little egg for the finishing touch.  Where do I get the little eggs?  Because I use a LOT of them, I stock up around Easter time and buy multiple packages of little colored wood or plastic eggs.  Then I paint them white or Robin’s egg blue.  IF you only need a few eggs, you can buy small packages of them at a regular craft store; OR make your own using fimo clay.

More birds on assorted thrift store cloches.  These particular birds are from a year or so ago, and no longer available.  I bought as many as I could find when I saw them, so I had lots on hand for future projects!

Plan B for the birds to use as handles.  Once I could no longer find the white ceramic birds I’d been using for the handles; these colorful resin birds appeared on the shelves at DT.  A quick dose of some black  spray paint and some sponged on antique white paint, and they were a perfectly fine substitute for the other birds!

AND I used them to make some pedestal birds with too!

Assorted vintage pieces used for bases.  Glued together with e6000.

And I always sell a LOT of them.  It’s ‘one of those things’ that I am ALWAYS on the lookout for!

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