The rest of the Christmas Gifts

 One of my nephews is extremely hard to buy or make gifts for- he doesn't have a lot of wants and those things he does want he buys himself. Luckily he grew up a Harry Potter fan, and has a soft spot for owls. While shopping the after Halloween sales I came upon a little statue of an owl on an orb. It was painted black and covered with purple glitter, but the proportions were pretty good and I saw potential in it. Because it was an "eared" owl I decided to paint it as a Great Horned Owl.

I had considered painting the base to look like a globe, but instead I opted for faux bois; I achieved this look using layers of acrylic paint.

My niece, like many teenagers, is never without her cell phone, so I made a cross-stitch cell phone cover for her. I used a simplified portrait of Ted (the family dog) for the subject. I trimmed it in mini-ball fringe and used stretch velvet for the back, so if she switched to a slightly larger phone the cover will still fit.

One of my brothers is just as hard to buy for as my nephew. However, I remembered that he really liked a painting I had made last year. At first I was going to make a copy of the painting for him on a canvas, but there was the challenge of mailing it to him without it getting damaged (and without paying a mint in shipping costs). I thought about painting it onto an unstretched canvas, but then he'd have to find a frame for it and/or stretch it himself. Luckily I was struck by inspiration; I had a nice wooden cigar box laying around waiting to be painted and my brother appreciates a good cigar now and then, so I decided to copy the painting onto the outside of the cigar box. I used acrylic paints and gold leaf:

Of course it's a little more impressive in person, it's hard to see the crow because of the light reflecting off the poly, but you can get the general idea.