There is no such thing as too much glitter

 

In a typical Holiday Season, I have a tendency to take on wa-a-a-a-ay to many projects.  I was smart this time and got my shopping done early and online and scheduled an almost-weekly Craft Night with Kassie to keep me on track.  My biggest project was 6 of the above Nativity sets (thanks Pinterest!).  Although they weren't hard to make, the prototype became quite an odyssey in itsself:

1.  I had Lane cut one set of wood to try it all out.  I spray painted the wood gold metallic.  I was trying to avoid using vinyl, so after much discussion my trusty friend and Christmas Project lifesaver, Melanie, she cut out stencils for me to paint the images onto the wood.  It seemed genius.  I got the hunter green paint to paint the stencils, and wouldn't you know, it bled underneath the stencil and looked terrible.  And now I had ruined 2 of my gold metallic wood pieces in the experiment.  What to do, what to do?  I decided to paint all that set of wood green because I wasn't all that thrilled with the gold anyway, and then I could salvage the messed up pieces rather than have Lane cut more.  So we got all the pieces re-painted with dark green and I called on Melanie again to cut me some vinyl.  Set #1 complete.

2.  The second set I wanted for myself.  I had used some black spray paint in the past that had glitter in it and I thought it would look positively gorgeous with the cream vinyl for the nativity.  So I got Jack and Lane to spray a second set of wood with the black glitter spray paint and it looked perfect!  Except for one problem.  One big problem.  The spray paint had too much texture, I guess, and the vinyl pieces wouldn't stick to the wood blocks.  You have no idea how bummed I was.  So Kassie suggested I try spray painting with the stencil - maybe the spray paint wouldn't bleed like on the first set.  So I got some silver spray paint and we tried it out - It didn't bleed so much as it created a weird little halo around the image that was just not pretty.  My only remaining option was to re-paint the black glitter blocks.  I still really liked the idea of the black, so we just got some black gloss paint and painted them again.  This time the vinyl stuck and I love how it turned out.  I asked Addie how she liked it, and she said it looked "quiet."  Well, now, isn't that how you imagine the Nativity?  I loved her word choice, although I would never have thought of it myself.


3.  The remaining 4 sets went off without incident.  I found a sage-green paint color at the hardware store in their "paint-gone-wrong" section that was just what I was looking for and worked well for Kassie, too, since she was making 2 sets of her own. I failed to photograph any in that color.

There is a tradition at Lane's family Christmas party that if Santa gives you a broken candy cane, it's because your year hasn't been,  shall we say, stellar?  Lane's is always broken, without exception.  At least since I've been in the family.  Addie's was broken this year because Santa knows what her room has looked like lately.

And Jack's was also broken. Same reason. Shocking.

 

Santa brought Addie a new pair of shoes.  With sequins.  Because when you're name is Addie and you're 10 years old - you simply cannot have enough things that are sequin-y. Or glittery. Or bedazzled.  And it can never, EVER, be too much.