Let it snow

I had a hunter gatherer adventure in the yard a few days ago and found an abundance of little twigs with buds on them under the oak tree. They were so interesting looking that I figured I could do something with them. None of them had long enough stems to be put into an arrangement but I thought they might go nicely as a gift embellishment with my gold and copper oak leaves. The only problem with doing all this gathering from nature is that it usually looks a lot more Thanksgiving than Christmas. To remedy that I relied on two old craft icons: tacky glue and glitter. Glitter is usually one of those things left to children's crafts along with the popsicle sticks and wiggly eyes, but in moderation, glitter can be a nice Christmas craft resource for adults as well.

With a crummy paintbrush from a child's paint set I applied Aleene's Tacky Glue (I love Aleene's!) on the tips of the buds and sprinkled them liberally with irridescent clear glitter. Oddly the only "white" glitter I had was glow-in-the-dark and I didn't want to scare my friends with glowing twigs so I opted for the clear.

Now they have a "frosted" appearance much more appropriate to Christmas!

Frosting your findings works on any number of items to be found around the house. Just make sure to apply your glue over one surface and your glitter over a second with a sheet of paper beneath. That way you can pour the unused glitter back into the container for the next round.

If you're into making more faux snow at your house try this fantastic idea I found while browsing around paper craft patterns. Such humble ingredients become such great decor - I love it!