A Christmas-y birthday!

James' mom's birthday is on November 4th and I wanted to get a good gift for her. Nothing seemed to be right. ... until I had a spark of genius to make her something in miniature! I decided it would be cool to make this lamp out of picture frames and I had a bunch of really nice, fancy, ones that were given to me that would work perfectly. I also had old spare parts for a lamp laying around, so all I needed to do was make the mini stuff.

I still have quite a bit to do, but here is what there is so far. The Highland has once again been wayside because I have a deadline for this project. The lamp base consists of six (6) 5"x7" frames. One, upside down, acts as the floor; four, as the sides; one, also upside down, as the roof. I made the floor by cutting out a piece of cardboard to fit the exposed area and then covered the cardboard with wood plank sticky tile that I got at Home Depot. It is the same flooring that I used in the study/den of the Highland. I picked this particular flooring because she had expressed that she really like it and the way it looked.

Three of the four walls are covered with ivory card stock and the windows are trimmed with balsa wood painted a greyish sky blue. The wall with the fireplace, has a sample piece of life-size wallpaper on it and the chimney breast is covered with the same ivory paper. The ceiling was sponged with white and the lightly sponged again with the same blue used on the trim.

The fireplace itself is from Hobby Lobby. I painted it, stained the mantle and added some height to it to make a raised hearth. The hearth is also made from balsa wood. I indented it to look like stone and gave it a few washes of gray, white and blue.

The wreaths and swag are made from a green terry cloth wash cloth. I will put up a tutorial for it after Halloween.

The stockings are construction paper and cotton and they open to put stuff in. I would like for them to be fuzzy, I think. I may attempt to make another out of felt.

The flames in the fireplace are pictures of actual flames and I love the effect that they have. I plan to sprinkle some red and gold glitter in there to give them a good sparkle when the light is on.

The picture above the mantle is the family portrait we had done after Charlie was born.

The chair is one I already had, but I redid the cushion to that nice gray fabric instead of the pink valuer that was on there.

The table has open Christmas cards on it and will get a plate of cookies, too.

The windows will get candles in them and one of the windows will sport a winter scene on the inside and a picture of the kids on the outside.

There will also be a stack of logs, a better tree, presents of course and perhaps a rug.

I have a wonderful round white shade that I will decorate to match the theme and it will be seated in the ceiling space. I have a chandelier that I will hang down inside, too. I think it will be a wonderful project and I love that it's all hand made. I think that is so personal! So far, all I have needed to purchase for it is the green wash cloth and that is big enough to make several wreaths and swags. :)

I will post final pictures as soon as I finish it.
I need to go work on the horribly boring poinsettia right now.