Displaying Bottle Brush Trees

 Well, here I am reinventing again.  I had a lot of fun putting together this shadow box today.   I got the original idea from my friend Andrea's blog, Queen B and Me ... hers is shown below, so you can see I took a bit of license with mine ... :-)

 

 

I made it from this nice oak school project that I got at a garage sale this past summer.  The boy who made it was right there, he said the materials were very expensive and it has these cool dove tailed joints and it cost me ... um ... $3 ... I have to admit I felt a teeny tiny bit guilty painting it, but when I saw how cool all the goodies I had gathered to put in it look against red, I knew it was a must.

I collect tiny trees and usually put them in rows on the transom ledges above the doors on my main floor at Christmas time ... I collect them when I find them all year long.  This year I couldn't find the main collection (not worried, it will turn up) so I wanted to do something to make my new additions to the collection stand on their own for this year.

I found winter outdoor scenes to back some of the cubbies at Graphics Fairy.  Then backed some of the others with green scrapbook papers.

I glued the trees and little houses in with a tiny bit of Tacky glue so that I can remove them later. 

 This little tree is definitely my favorite new find.  I bought it from my antique show partner, Bruce ... I have never seen another like it and suspect that it was made for a doll house.

The paper board house gracing the top is one I have had for several year ... I love old houses like this.  I find them to be just charming.

 

Of course the letters from old games finish off the shadow box by wishing you all a Merry Christmas.