Black & Brass: Mantle Decor

I can’t believe Christmas is this week! This month has certainly flown by for me. I’m almost ready, I just have a few more gifts to buy and wrap and then I will be done. I really love the holidays, don’t you?!

Today, I’m going to take you downstairs to the family room so you can take a peek at our fireplace mantle. I’m not going to lie, this didn’t turn out the way I envisioned. For better or worse, I will show you anyway!

mantle 1

Remember what was on the mantle last year? You can see that something very similar is on it again this year. It’s just tweaked a bit :)

gold sign

First, I slathered some black craft paint on the sign right over top of the letters that were still on it from last year. After the paint dried, I put some gold craft paint over the top, just a light coat. Then I peeled off the letters. It’s kind of fun to change the sign without having to do much work to it! Plus, the letter stickers that I peeled off look really cool too so I saved them and they might make an appearance in a future scrapbook.

The next thing on my agenda for my mantle was stockings. I loved what I used last year but thought it would be fun to try and make my own. I think they turned out cute, what do you think?

stockings 1

Tomorrow I am planning on taking you through a step by step tutorial of how I made them. If you know how to sew even a little bit they are easy :)

And I also made some silhouettes of Jason, the cat, and myself for our stocking holders. I love silhouettes and I think they add a bit of personality to our mantle.

mantle 2

Now for the nitty gritty… I like certain elements of the mantle decor. I just don’t really like how it all came together. I wish I would have added some gold stuff to the bottom area and some silver to the top area. I feel like it looks a little boring and it doesn’t flow well. But by the time I realized something was missing I didn’t have time to correct it and so I decided I didn’t care :) Here is proof that not everything turns out good around here :)