Here's the last of these ornaments for a little while. This is my father-in-law and his good friend. The gent about to make the killer shot, is the person James went to visit in Zimbabwe recently. This must be a good 35 or more years ago however. I'd like to offer a service making custom ornaments for next year. All people would need to do is send me a digital image, and I would do the rest. I already plan to make ornaments of a pet or two, and some decorated boxes. What do you think? Want to plan your own "Family Tree" for next year?

I'm excited because I found Martha Stewart paints and specialty finishes at Home Depot. I've grabbed some Antique Gold metallic paint, since I'm running low, and some Paintable White crackle paint. I plan to incorporate the latter into my wooden decorations, and into the super duper holiday cards I will be sending this year. They will incorporate an ornament. I also grabbed some of the MS specialty paint chips, which will be perfect to punch some pretty shapes from for my cards and ornaments. In preparation for starting on the cards, I have stamped, embossed and cut out a whole bunch of small images that will be part of the decorations. All I am in need of now is the right yarn for my homemade tassels.

                        Since Halloween I've been busy with thank you cards and my ongoing tidying. Images of my latest batch of cards may be found at the ScraPerfect blog . However I've also started on another project. Here are some prototypes, works-in-progress, of some wooden tree ornaments made with photocopies of vintage family pictures of Jayn's ancestors. I have decided my first How-To video will demonstrate these, or something similar. I'm still working out the best order of steps - for example, drilling the tiny hole at the start, and considering how many layers of mat medium to use to preserve the image. I'm so lucky to have a really nice stash of family portraits color photocopied already, although I am also planning a variation that will use more contemporary cut out photos, as well. These are the kind of ornaments that could delightfully personalize any holiday tree, and be made in whatever color ...