Santa Sticks!

Christmas crafting has begun!  I am so excited to be working on Christmas crafts.  I will be honest and tell you that I start up with the Christmas stuff much earlier than I really should.  If you are one of those people who does not like the stores to put up decorations until after Thanksgiving, then you don't want to be involved with me.  I like to start early!

Which brings me to these Santa Sticks that I made, ahem, right after Halloween.  It has taken great restraint not to post them until now!

Do you remember these sticks from early in the year?  The Santa Sticks are my "holiday sticks"!  Ha Ha, who knew I would need seasonal sticks for my backyard.  Good thing trees always need to be pruned because my son's stick "collection" is dwindling very quickly!  Once I get the evergreen branches in the urn I think they will look a little more at home.  They are a little lonely right now!

These were so easy to make.  I just whittled the tops a little bit to look like Santa's hat, and I carved a little bark off for the face.  Then I painted them up to look like Santa.   For the face I just put two tiny black eyes, I'm not sure you can see that in the photos.  I had a hard time getting these bad photos, sorry.

Have you painted any sticks for your yard yet?

Things Happen!

When things like this happen in my neighborhood...

...first I worry about my neighbors.  Then, I worry about the poor tree!

Then I see this...

and this...

...and I am all wound up because, I love FREE supplies, I love working with tree wood, there is something wrong with me!  Next thing you know, this is what is happening at the Factory!

This gets fired up...

Then this ends up hanging in a tree!

And this ends up on the shelf!

Then my arm gets tired from drilling holes in tree wood, and I start planning about 400 more projects with my tree wood!

Here are some basic instructions if you are interested.

*For the tiny sticks hanging in a tree, just drill a very small hole with a tiny drill bit and string the sticks onto a thin wire, like beads.  I made this one with the sizes graduated, but it looks very cute if you just keep it random too.

*For the pencil holder, I used a 1/2 inch boring bit to drill the holes for the pens and pencils.  Then I sanded the top of the log with a medium grit sand paper.  

Do you ever make anything with tree wood?  Other than a fire!

Inspired by Pinterest

Like almost everyone else on the face of the earth, I am hooked on Pinterest!  I pinned this image ages ago, and just have not been able to get it out of my head.  

http://aestheticoutburst.blogspot.jp/2010/08/stick-collector.html

Then I found this one, and fell in love with painted sticks all over again.

http://www.designformankind.com/2010/07/painted-driftwood/

So, I started here, with some naked sticks from my son's "stick collection".  Every household had a stick collection, right?

I got going with acrylic paint and some white puffy paint and before long, I had five sticks painted!

I love seeing them sprouting from my shady urn for now, but I am sure they will be relocated as soon as I get my flowers planted in here.

Have you painted sticks?  If so, what did you do with them?   I can see a lot of painted sticks in my future...