Dickens Christmas Village and More Christmas Decor 2016

Yes. You read the title correctly. Following are pictures of our Christmas last year, 2016, even though today is the last day of 2017. You see, I failed to post them last year, but after all that time spent taking the pictures and editing them, I didn't want them to go unseen. 

If you know me, you know I love Christmas. So does my husband. One reason I knew he was the man for me was our first year together; the look on his face when I set up my Dickens Christmas village. He loved it, and every year since then we have added to it. 

Dickens Christmas Village 2011

I don't quite know when we will stop adding. I don't want to be the person that lets their village take over an entire room (though I love looking at other people's massive collections)...

...and I have let Christmas take over my whole house. 😆

Colonial Williamsburg Village Dept. 56

Please notice below the two amazing quilted pillows in the chairs, made by my sister for my husband. 

...and Legos. Did I mention how much my husband likes Legos? 

Below is our 2016 Christmas village. 

Notice how much it has grown since the 2011 photo at the top of this post. 

Well, it's even larger this year. Maybe by next year I will post a photo. 

The lace trim on the village's platform was made on a previous Christmas gift, the silhouette cameo. Love that machine. (They are not paying me to say that. I just really do love it.)

The nativity scene below. Figures were bought at Costco years ago, and the stable and manger were made by my talented Dad. 

Can't forget the Christmas dog, Mollie. 

And finally, those precious penguins accompanied by the angel and Christmas trees, made by my Dad, which I posted about here. 

Thank you for visiting, and may your New Year be happy, healthy, peaceful and bright. 

🎉🍸

3D Printed and Painted Millennium Falcon

I've been moving things around and creating a painting/crafting nook for myself. I just painted a whole bunch of things yesterday and wanted to share one today.

Yesterday, every time I finished painting something, I would send a picture to Jason. He wrote back, "Good job. Now do the Millennium Falcon." and then I would send another picture, and the same thing, "Cool! Do the Millennium Falcon. NOW." ha. 

All right. All right! ha. 

Here it is before painting↓

3D digital file of Millennium Falcon found on Thingiverse

First paint layer↓

Finished!↓

The person who created this 3D design took artistic license with the Millennium Falcon, so I had to also in the painting details.

I'll have more painted 3D objects to show you soon. 

👽

Thanks for visiting!

3D Printed Trophy Wife

Today is my 4th Wedding Anniversary. I wasn't going to post anything about it, but it's 3D printing related...so I must. ha.  

If you follow my blog you might remember the first post I did on the topic of 3D printing. I talked about buying my husband, Jason, a 3D printer for Christmas after hearing, all too often, "If I had a 3D printer, I could print one for you" at every turn.

Well, since we are both crafty, we always make Birthday and Anniversary cards for each other.  I made one with a picture of him pointing to a #1 Wife trophy and saying that same phrase, "If I had a 3D Printer, I could make one for you". On the inside I said, "So What's stopping you? If I knew how, I'd make one for you, my #1 Husband."  

Don't you know, I just came home to find this on the 3D printer. ↓

3D printed trophy digital file from Thingiverse.com user  tc_fea

#1 Wife Trophy 2.75" tall. 

The guy is pretty creative, and what quick turnaround! I was so surprised and thrilled.

And just like that, I'm a trophy wife. ha. Happy 4th Anniversary to us, and a great big thank you to my sweet Jason. I am so lucky to have found you. (Okay. I might be getting a bit too sappy, even for blogger. 🤣)

🏆

Thank you for visiting! 

Art Is Therapy: Acrylic Handpainted Mini Wooden Bowls

A few years ago we received some cute little wooden bowls in our Christmas stockings. I didn't know at the time, but they are for condiments when you are cooking. I just use them around the house to hold little trinkets, and I always had the idea in the back of my mind to paint them. 

When we started 3D printing after Christmas time and I was painting Jason's prints, I found that I couldn't put the paint brushes down. I was possessed. I was looking around the house, thinking, "What can I paint? What can I paint?" So, I found my little bowls. 

You can see Mollie inspecting them. I think she approves. ↓

I had so much fun painting them. I got completely lost in the process. It was so relaxing to randomly paint shapes and designs, and mix colors.    

I left a painted area on the bottom for my initials. ↓

One of them hasn't been painted yet because, at the time, I forgot about it, as it stays in my bedroom and holds my rings at night. 

Since it worked out that I have a bowl with a red background and another with blue, then it will be only logical (and fun) to paint the third one with a yellow background. After they are all three painted, then I will put polycrylic on them to protect the surface. 

I will post a little update when they are all painted and sealed. 

🎨

Thanks for visiting. 

3D Printed Stonehenge, Death Star, Electronic Arts and The Police.

So, yesterday, as you might have guessed, (or at least my one and only loyal follower guessed. hi Debra!) we were printing a 3D Stonehenge. ↓

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

I would kind of consider this print questionable, because the base turned out so thin and flimsy, even though Jason printed it at 200%. I can't even imagine how it would print much smaller than this. It is already so tiny at 200%. ↓

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

And another thing, it is so hairy. That's hard to clean up after the filament dries and those little leftover hairs harden.

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user Spacerobot775

But, I'll still give painting a go, and I'm sure it will be cute. 

Here are a couple things that I actually painted for those who think I am a complete procrastinator. 😏

The Death Star. ↓

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user embeddedjunkie 

This was printed in pieces, with two halves and a center ring, and it was glued together after I painted it. 

3D Death Star digital file by Thingiverse user embeddedjunkie

By the way, have you seen the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One? We saw it, and I thought it was pretty good. Nowhere near as good as the original trilogy, which were movie perfection, but better than the prequel trilogy, in my humble opinion. 

Back to 3D prints. If you know the video game company, Electronic Arts, you might recall their early days logo: ↓

And here is their current logo, which you might be more familiar with today: ↓

Jason's first 3D design created with the free 3D design program, Tinkercad was an homage to Electronic Arts' original logo with the cube, sphere and cone. Though, when I saw it, I thought of something completely different. So, and I kind of commandeered it, and painted it as an homage to my favorite band, The Police: ↓

Notice the cube, sphere, and cone in the album cover below, and the screenshot from the video of their 1986 version of "Don't Stand So Close to Me", which if we are talking old vs new, that 1986 version just screams 1980s, while the original is timeless. I'm glad they never got around to rerecording anymore of their hits, which was apparently the plan at the time.  

⬳⟿

So you see? I have painted some things after all. and I will get to the rest of them as soon as I have that dedicated painting space I've been dreaming about....Jason. 

🎨

Thanks for visiting!