Designer Day One ~ lauren's extreme home makeover: christmas edition!

can you resist a garage sale? i can't! just the thought of tables piled with funky vintage things, being sold at bargain prices, never fails to make me smile--or to stop my car and have a quick look at what's on offer. last summer i found two cool house-shaped, divided, wall-hanging...ummmmm....frames? knick-knack holders? ok, i confess, i have NO IDEA what their original purpose would've been, but i decided to fill mine with christmas photos... and the deliciously rich & varied papers from december's pixie dust paperie kit!

i gave the whole house a few coats of brown craft paint, and then set about decorating the outside with paper panels and a fancy "shingled" roof, made by alternating rows of punched circles in two different patterned papers. i found it easier to work on strips of cardstock that i then trimmed and adhered to the house with hot glue.

i "wallpapered" each room with a different patterned paper. the great thing about every pixie dust kit is that *ALL* the papers and embellies coordinate perfectly, so you never have to worry about matching; miss kirsty's already done the hard work for us! :)

once all the rooms were complete, i added embellishments to the front of the house. one of my favorite items in this month's kit is the wonderful glittery banner alphabet, and i knew i wanted to use it prominently here. i trimmed some words from echo park's "merry border stripe" paper to make a festive greeting.

another bit of the same echo park paper had the terrific presents, which i placed at the bottom edge of the house. i love how the frame of the house gives depths to the items "inside" and "outside"!

using clipart as templates, i cut out a couple of sweet birds and a christmas tree. finally i added dymo-labels with holiday song titles to the photos and my house was complete!

the hardest part was choosing only *FOUR* photos of my adorable nieces and nephews, but somehow i did it!

you may remember i said i bought TWO of these cute vintage houses: i'd like to offer the other to a lucky pixie dust blog reader, so you can make your own christmas (or hanukkah or eid or kwanzaa) house! just leave a comment on this post telling me one of your favorite holiday traditions by 11 PM on Dec 6 (EST) and we'll pick a random winner.

Kirsty's note -

To enter the GIVEAWAY, simply leave a comment on this post!

To double your chances - grab the pixie badge (below) and link it on your blog by either post or sidebar and leave a comment letting me know.

Winner will be announced Tuesday, Dec 7th!

Good luck, share this GIVEAWAY with your blog friends and help me to invite others to play along!

Early Bird Special

Reserve your December Kit before release day and get a 10% discount on this fabulous kit

Simply send an email to info@pixiedustpaperie.com before Dec 5th!

Pixie November Challenge

"Oh Christmas Tree"

create a card/project that includes an image of a christmas tree(s), or better still, make a christmas tree home decor item, you'll stand a chance to win $15 gift certificate to The Pixie Shop

Click HERE for details or to link your entry

(challenge ends Dec 5th)