Diorama Present Toppers. Say Goodbye to the Bow.

Here are the things I've done to avoid writing this post today.

1.  Rearranged all the accessories in my living room.

2.  Cleaned out the kitty litter box.

3.  Checked the chickens to see how far along in their moulting they were.

4.  Painted my nails.

5.  Went for a 2 k.m. walk on the coldest day of the season so far.

6.  Winked at myself in the mirror for a period of 15 minutes.

7.  Sanded my heels with the Emjoi.

8.  Chopped some firewood.

9.  Watched Dr. Oz.  (clearly I'm in deep trouble because by the sounds of it every single thing I eat will soon kill me. Even rice.)

10.  Rearranged all the accessories in my living room.  Again.

Now, it's not that I didn't want to write this post because I'm not happy with it.  On the contrary.  I didn't want to write this post because I'm SO happy with it.  I pretty much just want to forget the words and get on with the pictures.

So let's put me out of my misery and just do that shall we?

I've done every kind of bow that can be accomplished by someone with opposable thumbs and a fairly flexible foot.   I've done standard bows, paper bows, light up bows, neck tie bows.  I've done them all and I've loved them all, but this year I didn't want to just do bows.

Enough with the bows.

Bring on the Diorama present toppers.

I have no clue how this idea came to me but it did and I'm thankful because it's the best thing anyone has ever done.  Ever.  In the entire world.  Me.  I did it.

And now you can do it too.

I had the idea to create a scene on top of a present instead of a bow because I plain old thought it would look great and would be REALLY fun to do.  It does and it is.

You know how people get a runner's high?  I got a crafting high after creating this.

It took a while to figure out exactly how to do this so that it looked elegant and not "KrAFtsY!".  You know.  The dreaded crafting with a "k".  Krafting.  Uch.

Rule #1.  Don't use store bought miniatures props (trees excluded).  And DEFINITELY don't use store bought figurines (people).   The scene will be more realistic and more "humanized" as my friend Jamieson calls it, when you don't actually see people at all.  You just need evidence of people.  Like these ski poles leaning against a snow covered tree.  Or the skis in the photo above.

Footprints through the snow help you create a scene. I made the footprints by making a stamp out of a potato.

Wanna go with a little more kitsch?  You can do that too.

Want a great tip for wrapping paper?  Go to your local kids toy store or craft store and buy a roll of artist paper.  I've spent the past billion years looking for plain white wrapping paper.  It's not easy to find.  It always has slight stripes, or a tone on tone pattern or whatever.  A roll of white artists paper, the kind that goes on a rod on top of an easel is pure white, heavy, opaque and when you tape it … it stays TAPED!   And the best part?  It's $8 for a 75 foot roll.  That's a lotta wrapping.

For me, half the fun of getting a present is the wrapping.  Ditto for giving a present.  It isn't ALL about what's inside the box. It's about  how it's presented too.

Once I've done my Christmas decorating and present wrapping you'll see all of the diorama present toppers in their spectacular glory.  Until then, these two should give you some inspiration to you know … think outside the box.