What I am Working on for Thrus, Wooden Christmas Ornament's

Happy Veteran's day to all, and Thank you to all those who serve and have served !

I am once again busy creating some holiday items; I have been working on some Christmas ornament's. These are quite simple and fun to make, and any craft store will carry the pre-made wooden pieces. I had some holiday craft paper to use for the little round bulb; what I did was trace around the bulb first and cut it out and decoupage to the wooden bulb. Next I sanded the little bear and added a oil based stain and painted the facial features with acrylic paints. I also stained the bulb first let it dry for a day then painted a few trees and some snow for a cute simple scene.

I need to note; that the bear and bulb are separate pieces that I have hot glued together. The finishing touches are some gold ribbon for the the bear and some jute so that the ornament can be hung on the tree. Yes I am trying to give the ornament's a bit of that old look by using stain. In this next one I used wrapping paper and I used a gray acrylic paint for staining. So far it is coming out just the way I want it ; I sanded the bulb down just a bit to get the paint to give it an old look and I will do the same for the bear which I will stain a black being that black bears are found lots around Oregon. I will be adding these to one of my two stores Esty or Artfire, but I also wanted to share how to make them so that you all can get a bit crafty for the holidays with me.

What I am working for Monday After Nov 8th

Howdy to everyone! well Halloween just seemed to fly right by without a second thought, hard to believe its November and Thanksgiving is in just a few weeks; so I have decided to have free shipping in my art fire store here http://www.artfire.com/users/49stocker
This will go on the entire month of November, in the mean while I am working on this cute gingerbread doll that I will have completed in a few more days and I will add to the art fire store. I am also going to be doing some shows starting November 27Th and I will give more details about that a little later on. I am making the gingerbread doll from some great off brown felt, I have also designed a rick-wrack stitch around the arms and legs using my great sewing machine. The outfit will be a cute dark red Christmas dress with pantaloons and a bow for this doll.
Once again I went to the talking tombstones and had a wonderful time learning about those who traveled to Astoria Oregon and learned what life was like way back when here are a few photos of that adventure.


I love when the local people dress in costume and tell about a certain person, here in this photo I learned about a young woman in love and having some riches but falling ill to a disease. The gentleman below is the first car dealership that came to Astoria Oregon, and amazing enough the whole town of Astoria burned long ago. While he was trying to save the building where he had cars the fire depart was attempting to stop the burning of Astoria by using dynamite and so when the fire department attempted to blow up his building he got up on the roof and began shooting at the fire department with a shot gun, what an interesting story! He chased the firemen away but the fire left the dynamite and so he blew up the house that was next to him!

I love this event because its a bit of history in my own community that I learn about.