Christmas Fairs Are Here!

  We are so excited to finally be packing our van for setting up for The Italian Heritage Center Christmas Fair this Saturday November 1st in Portland. We have been working all summer towards getting ready. Time seems to go so fast when you look back.
  I think we have a better set up than last year. My DH has helped us make some really great displays. He made the screens and peg boards so that we could hang our lighted frames and put shelves up to place our Christmas cones.
  We also use bookcases to house our new fairy dolls that
we hope do well at the fair. They are so cute. We have

This pegboard was made by my husband.

This bookcase holds our fairy dolls

great fun making them, I even put
a doll inside a
frame that is
about gardening.
I really like that one.
  We have some really cute gift boxes that would hold small gifts or candy.
  There are lighted luminaries that would look great as a Christmas decoration.
  We have coasters that we made from pictures of Maine's seacoast. I really like them cause they show lighthouses. My sister, Rochelle, took those photos. Putting them on coasters really makes them look even better.
   We made more Christmas stars from fabric so they will last a very long time. It is pictured on the right hanging from the edge of the pegboard.
 

Japanese art of fabric tucking

 
                                           



  These Christmas cones are a new addition to our crafts. We love making these too. They are time consuming but well worth the effort when they are done.
  We already sold the Nativity one to my niece. I will make another one if sales on these go well. 
  This technique is called Kimikome. Not sure I am spelling it correctly. But it is the Japanese art of fabric tucking. You find a design you like and transfer it to the cone. The cone is not styrofoam but smooth foam. Then you choose your fabric and tuck pieces in to make the picture pop. You really get creative here.
  We have the 15 inch ones in the picture but we also sell 9 inch ones too.
   Of course we are selling our cards, Christmas and  other occasion cards. I love how we used our ladders, that my DH made, to display them this year.
  We decided to box them together and label the occasions so that people could peruse them instead of a turnaround display. Hoping this is a better way to use space.
  We also made boxed sets of Christmas cards this year. We did not do that last year. I love how we used acetate to not completely cover the box so you can see in to the design. The sentiment is on the back so you do not have to open the box at all.
  We have large and small gnomes this year. I think they are adorable. You can see them on the left of the picture. The small ones have a poem on the back for gift giving.

Charlotte's Birthday card

  I just had to show you the birthday card I made for my sister-in-law, Charlotte. I used a new technique that I had never done before. It is a combo of an easel card and a step card. I know how much Charlotte likes the ocean so I chose to use all my dies on this theme. It folds up to a square card that you can send through the mail, but we were going to New Jersey for the football game so I decided to hand it in person.
  Well, in closing I hope I see some of you at our Christmas fair this Saturday. We have one more the next weekend in Windham at the High School. This is a two day fair so we should be really busy. We have never done this fair so we are a little nervous. Wish us luck...