Bailey the dog gets an overhaul!

A couple of years of ago my Great Dane dog died suddenly while he was playing and I was left heartbroken. Bailey really was my shadow.  I loved showing him whether it be local shows or championship shows and he was the first dog to qualify us for Crufts where he got second in his class.
A few weeks after he died my hubby took me to the one and only garden centre we have up here in an attempt to cheer me up (I love gardening and plants are usually the way to my heart). This particular time though I found no cheer in any of the shrubs or flowers I would usually be slathering over and was all for leaving until I came across an iron garden ornament that somehow reminded me of Bailey!
This statue bought such a smile to my face that hubby snatched it up and paid for it and once we got it  home Bailey got pride of place near the TV (not outside in the garden where it was designed to go) and there he stayed, frightening all the other dogs. (amazing how supposedly 'intelligent' animals can be fearful of an inanimate object huh)
Fast forward a couple of years and we've finally moved into our new house and I decided that Bailey would be promoted from TV guardsdog to Stairs guardsdog!
After a few weeks though I figured Bailey needed a makeover (Ok actually I was hooked on distressing everything and wondered if it would work on Bailey) and so off to the workshop he went.

That's Bailey the statue in his former glory! Originally he had a sign attached to those hanging chains that said 'Welcome' but I found that a tad too cheesy so I took the sign away and left the chains to symbolise the Great Danes most endearing feature - slobber!

That's him after his spray job - a lovely cream colour!
Please excuse the state of the dog sitting with him. Kasa the Shih Tzu enjoys our mini lake (as do all the dogs) hence the filthy, wet look she has going on.

Here he is all sanded and distressed - I love the look!

Bailey at his new post of guarding the stairs - though I'm not sure what from! Oh yes, to stop that messy dirty Kasa legging it up there to share her dirt with my cream carpets.

Bailey dressed up for Christmas!

Bailey the original! My best friend and shadow!

Hope you have all enjoyed my garden dog ornament makeover. Thanks for popping by!


 

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Xmas goodies

Xmas decorations (or rather the making of) are taking over my life right now. Just as I finish one project another just pops into my head - usually because I appear to be addicted to googling 'making xmas decorations' and a multitude of similar searches - and I suddenly have yet another project filed away.
Are y'all this bad? Is it normal for us crafters to have a hundred projects on the go and a further hundred filed away to start probably before any current ones are actually finished?
I'm thinking I need to learn to get this under control, maybe I'll even make it one of my dreaded 'New years resolutions'!!!!

Anyway here's a few projects for xmas I've been messing with. They're not brilliant and I'm aware of many faults on all of them and loads of things I either should change or should have done differently BUT in my defence this is my first year making all this stuff so I'm hoping improvements will be made as time goes on.
Maybe if I didn't leave them all till the last minute my projects wouldn't look so rushed.......

Let it snow sign.

I found the inspiration for this via google but I cannot for the life of me find the blog again so I must apologise to the original poster for that.
I found an old wooden bread board out in my workshop shed. It had seen better days and was obviously covered in grooves from blunt knives but it was just the right size and meant I didn't have to go in search of something else.
I gave it a quick sand down and then a coat of Blue Acrylic paint (I mixed my own) and once it was dry I stuck some snowflake shapes to the board and spray painted haphazardly in White.
Then I removed the snowflakes to reveal the original blue underneath only it didn't work and you really have to look hard to see the Blue - oh well!
Finally I used a Silver Pilot Pen to write Let it snow, added a ribbon and bow and stuck on some white snowflakes. Easy peasy!

Poinsettia posy.

I've had a load of white Poinsettias for years. I usually stick them in the soil of my Peace lillies but I'd used a load on wreaths this year so what I had left I mixed with these Red ones to make a posy.
Then I spray pained an old bottle with Gold, made a 3d tag, added a bow and some twirlies and put the whole lot together. Seeeeemples!!!!

Xmas table centrepiece.

This is a table centrepiece made from xmas scraps I had left over. The circle is actually a garland that I took apart and joined as a circle.
Then I just attached Baubles, cones, ribbon and berries with wire and a few other bits with hot glue and shoved 3 candles in the middle. Voila!

Xmas card tree.

These things are all over the net at the moment and originally I was going to get some branch twigs and spray them gold.
Instead I used some Cornus cuttings and left them natural as they're a gorgeous Red colour. Then I simply wedged them into a square vase, wrapped the vase in Red fabric, added one of those cheesy wrapping bows (I've run out of wire ribbon) and attached some of our cards to the twigs with craft pegs.
It honestly looks so much better in the flesh - this picture makes it look real naff but it isn't....honest!

Baileys Xmas attire.

Here's Bailey, you'll see more of him pretty soon because he started out life as a Brown, yup Brown doggie.
But for now he's just popping up to show you his Xmas attire - namely some cheap tinsel and a 99p hat - cheap as chips but doesn't he look cool as he guards our stairs!

Xmas wreath.

Finally, a wreath. It started out as a plain green garland so I made a circle of it and added bits and bobs with wire and hot glue. Then I made 3 bows with wire ribbon, stuck all 3 together and attached to the garland with wire. Job done!

There, all done! for now anyway! I have loads more going on but I'll have to put them on later. I hope you enjoyed these little projects and hope you get some inspiration form them especially if you're short on time as each one took a minimal amount of it!

Thank you for staying this far, pop back again soon or leave a comment if ya like.



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