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Christmas Decor 2012

Merry Christmas everyone!! Can you believe I have been trying to get this post written all month? I finally realized that it was now or never! Because by the time December 26th rolls around, no one cares anymore about Christmas stuff.

Christmas decorations are pretty low key around our house this year. We are living in our tiny house now but things are still in disarray as we continue to work on projects large and small around here. Important things like kitchen countertops and appliances and the bathroom. You know, things like that. So, I decided that I would just go easy on the decorations to make things simpler. In fact, we don’t even have a tree up, just the mantle got a little Christmas pizazz. But, that is not the case at the church. I still invested some time into making some decor for the church and I wanted to share it with you today.

In the past, I have always made everything on my own with the exception of having a bit of help from Jason and my mom in hanging it all up. But this year, I was busy. I didn’t have weeks to get everything together like normal. So I decided to make a party of it and invited all of the ladies at church to come for a crafting night and we made all of the decor together. I had all of the projects planned and brought everything to the church with me and we spent a Saturday assembling everything. It was super fun and we all decided to make it a yearly event. Why did I not think of this sooner?! I guess sometimes it’s good to be busy, it causes you to get creative!

Our theme was O Starry Night and because of my time crunch, I relied heavily on Pinterest. I will share the links to the pins that I copied inspired me. And so… here is what we came up with:

I jazzed up the front door by drawing on it with a erasable white marker. Everyone loved it so much they said I should keep it year round. But, even just after a few weeks, it has really gotten smeared from lots of people going in and out so it’s definitely disappearing soon. It was fun while it lasted :) (pin inspiration)

In the entryway we have a sitting area and we made a ton of stars to put on the shelf. I’m kind of in love with them. Plus, they were all super easy to make.

There are stars made of foam board and sprainted gold (pin inspiration), stars made of paper, tin, wood, and cardboard. Basically anything you can think of (pin inspiration).

Then we just mounted some of them on skewers for varying heights. I cut the base from old pallets left over from a another project (you’ll see it in a minute) and drilled a hole in them.

Then, we hot glued the stars to the sticks. Easy peasy. For this particular star (we made about 20 of these), we cut 2 pieces of kraft cardstock into star shapes and drew on them with metallic paint markers. Then I sewed around all the sides but one, sewing them together. Next, we stuffed it with cotton balls to give it some puffiness and then sewed them shut. I loved these little guys (pin inspiration).

Back to the shelf area… I also added a banner. The wooden letters were from the craft store. We just glued a little moss to them and ta-da! Instant gratification! The tinsel star garland was super fun to make. Using glittery pipe cleaners, we bent them into star shapes and fastened them together (pin inspiration). They take a bit of time but they are worth it! We made a few of these and added them in other places as well.

Another place where we used the tinsel garland in gold this time. We also made the hanging stars out of kraft paper, twine, and sprainted clothes pins (pin inspiration). The easiest project yet! You can also see the book pages compiled to made a runner on the tabletop (pin inspiration).

We added a couple of puffy stars to our coat rack too. Aren’t they cute?!

My favorite thing I made was the pallet tree. It was super easy if you can use a few power tools and I made it myself so you can too (pin inspiration). I have seen a bunch of variations of these trees on Pinterest and after looking around, I decided I wanted a big one. This is about 8 feet tall. There is a place here in town that you can get pallets that are already disassembled for free. So I just helped myself to some pallet wood and cut them to varying sizes and nailed it together. Easy and cool :)

And an up close photo because it deserves it :) I love the old school lights.

I also hung some more tinsel garland on the entry doors. I couldn’t help myself. I had more tinsel left and I had to use it!

Another book page runner on a little table. The trees were all from last year.

On the tree I hung some wooden stars sprainted gold with sprainted mini clothespins. I originally was going to hang the stars with twine so I drilled a hole and then, at the last minute, I decided to use the clothespins instead. I wish now I wouldn’t have drilled the hole!

I actually bought the wooden stars in 3 different star shapes. Another one is shown above.

We took some wooden discs and painted a star on them. We made them in gold, black, and silver.

Remember the yarn wreaths I made last year? I adorned them with stars this time to spice it up a bit. I like them :)

And for the pièce de résistance… the backdrop. We painted a large 12’x15′ drop cloth in black.

Then, I wrote the words on it with a white paint pen to make it kind of look like a chalkboard (I freehanded it but I used this pin as a guide for the letters).

Next, we hung stars from the top with fishing line. The stars were crafted using branches that I tied together with twine in a star shape (pin inspiration). I love how the stars look against the dark color of the backdrop! If it wasn’t so big, then it would make its way into my house next year but… it’s pretty large :)

And there you have it! Our church Christmas decor for 2012. I’m pretty happy with the way everything turned out especially since I only spent about half the time I usually do planning for it. I guess sometimes it’s okay to do things at the last minute!

I absolutely love the Christmas season and I’m always a little sad to see it come to an end. But this year, I’m hoping to be able to get back into the swing of things and start doing somewhat regular posts again. Besides, I have a ton of stuff to update you all on our little house. I just need some time to organize my thoughts and away we’ll go! Stay tuned :)

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

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Tagged: Christmas

Sew Merry: Around The Home

Wow! We made it! The last official day of blogging for this holiday season. That’s 20 days of blogging all things Christmas here at my house. And to be honest with you, I’m kind of done and ready to move on. I have lots of ideas for new non-holiday projects and I’m excited to get started on some things next week.

Today I thought I would wrap up by showing you some spaces in my home that didn’t get blogged about. They were just little touches of Christmas here and there that didn’t require a whole post on their own. Ready? Here we go!

My Christmas cards have been filling up my poster. The string kept falling down so I had to change how I was displaying them.

I had so many cards I had to find a new space for some of them. But I like it because it makes the breakfast nook feel festive.

I also added a leaf garland that I made a couple of years ago.

I added a paper star garland that I made last year to the window in the dining room. I love little touches like that.

On my front storm door I put this wreath up. Normally this wreath is pretty plain and I like it that way but this year I added some ornaments to it along with the chalkboard banner I made last month. I also strung up some outdoor Christmas lights for the first time ever! It was really fun and it’s the thing that I have been enjoying the most this season. Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo :(

As if a wreath on the storm door weren’t enough, I also added this metal sign to the front door. I have had this for a while and I love it!

Once you come inside again, I taped up a poster that I made using a freebie from Shimtokk.

I gathered some branches from our tree out front and hung a few ornaments from it. Surprisingly, our cat hasn’t even once tried to knock them off. I really can’t believe it!

Another banner taped to the wall like the one I put on my lampshade.

Another garland that I made last year now has it’s temporary home in the entryway.

And our mantle all done up. Our fireplace in in the family room and it is the only thing that gets decorated down there. The stockings were done 2 years ago. The reindeer I found this year at Goodwill. They were originally gold and I spray painted them white.

The gold Merry is also from last year.

And one more thing to show you…

Some Christmas cards that I made for a friend. Her favorite color is purple and I figured that could feel festive so I added it in instead of using the traditional green and red :)

And that about wraps it up! Only a few more days left and it will all come down. And I’m kind of looking forward to it! How about you guys? Are you ready for the new year, new start?

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and are able to enjoy every minute!!

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Tagged: Christmas

Sew Merry: Gallery Wall Art

Today’s project started off really good. I was really excited about how it was turning out. But then, when it ended up taking longer than I expected, it started going downhill a little. Mostly because I was running out of time and patience to finish it. But the concept is there and so I’m still going to share it with you. The good and the bad :)

For starters, let me apologize for the photos. It is a dark and dreary day here and I couldn’t get good photos so they are dark and grainy to go along with the outdoors. Wow, that’s a lot of disclaimers before I’ve even gotten started on the project!!

It all started with my gallery wall. Since I can’t do the string art like I did at church, I thought I would do a version of it at home with my gallery wall. So far, so good. This was the very first Christmas project I started this year. Back at the beginning of November. And, it ended up being the last one I finished, halfheartedly I must say, today. When it ended up taking me longer than I thought, I completely lost momentum and just now finished it because there were only two more frames to fill and Christmas is only 3 days away! Shame on me for putting it off for so long :)

Here is how I did what I did: First, I cut all of my paper to the sizes I needed for the frames. Then, I sketched on the back of the paper what I wanted them to look like. The photo above is an example of the star I made for the littlest frame.

Next, I poked holes on all the points for the string to go through.

Then, using a needle and thread, I connected the dots to make the shape or saying.

Ta-da! A finished star. After I got quite a few done, I put them in the frames thinking I would finish up the others quickly and be done. But, like I said, I kept putting it off, doing other projects instead. Until finally, today I figured I’d better finish. Here is where I got lazy. I did finish all of the string part but when I put the last two larger ones in the frames… I didn’t feel like actually putting them in the frames. This involves removing the old art and replacing it. Oh no, I was much to lazy for all of that. Instead, I stuck it over what was already there.

Can you see the spot of yellow poking through on the middle frame. And the top left one is a little wonky too. But you know what? At this point I don’t even care. In a matter of a few days it will all come down anyway :) Up on the wall is all I care about now.

Some of the first ones I made I really like. Including this one. So ya, the concept is good, the execution not so great :)

Have you ever done that? Gotten tired of a project in the middle of it and finished halfheartedly? Please tell me I’m not the only one!!

This is the point of the season where I’m really excited for the actual day of Christmas but I’m getting tired of the decor. Probably because I have been thinking about it since this summer. Maybe next year I should start later so I don’t get tired of it so quickly. There’s a thought :)

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Tagged: Christmas, DIY, Tutorials

Sew Merry: Simple Wreath

Today’s post will be short and sweet. I’m hoping to finish all of my grocery shopping today so I don’t have to brave the crowds again until after Christmas. Thankfully this week has been pretty quiet around here compared to last week and so I have been able to really get some things accomplished!

I have a super simple wreath project to show you that will take you about as long to read this post as it does to make it. How’s that for quick?! A perfect project for the last few days leading up to Christmas.

For the glass church door, I needed a wreath that would look good on both sides. I always have that problem when I hang wreaths from windows too. I looked around for a while and couldn’t find anything and realized I would have to make my own which I was hoping to avoid since I had so many other things to make and I was worried about having enough time. Thankfully, what I came up with was quick!

I bought a strand of garland from Michaels and wrapped it around a gold metal hoop which I got from a craft store. Then I secured it with gold wire. Since the garland was gold, the hoop and wire just kind of blend in. Then I used a suction cup to secure it to the door. Because of its simplicity, it kind of reminds me of a laurel. Which, as you know, I am really into right now :)

And the best part?

When the sun shines through the door, the shadow shows up on the wall. I love that the wreath frames the writing on the door. I think it looks so cool!

See? I told you it was a quick project. And yet, great results! It looks pretty from the outside, the inside, and even the shadow. Now how’s that for impressive?!

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Tagged: Christmas, DIY

Sew Merry: DIY Wreaths

Wreaths are one of my favorite Christmas decorations. There are so many different kinds of wreaths out there and I love to see all of the variations of the traditional green wreath. This year I created two wreaths that are far from traditional and because of their neutrality, they really can be used all year if I wish.

Do you see them there on the shelves? I didn’t change much about my dining room shelf display this year. I kept them similar to what they normally look like. Mostly because it was one of the last things I decorated and I was getting lazy. The only things I added were the wreaths, chalkboard, and wood to the candlesticks. Talk about lazy :) Okay, back to wreaths…

The first one I created was a button wreath. I used a Styrofoam wreath form and hot glued the buttons to it. Can’t get any easier than that! I chose to prop mine on the shelf but I think it would be pretty to tie a thick silky ribbon around it and hang it too.

This button wreath is just a little guy. I love him for that :)

The other wreath is even more quirky. I hot glued candy all over a wreath form and came up with this. A couple of years ago I had jars on display with only white candy in them because I like the way it looked. I had Lifesaver mints, Good & Plenty candy (only the white ones, I picked the pink ones out!), and coconut flavored jelly beans. We didn’t plan on eating them so after the holidays I just threw them in a bag and packed them with my Christmas stuff to save for later. This year I thought it would be fun to make a wreath with them!

I had a friend come over and when she saw it she asked if I made the wreath out of mints and pills. Haha! Not entirely, but close :) Although pills would probably work too but might be a bit more expensive!

And those are my non-traditional wreaths for this year. I’m not planning on displaying the candy wreath throughout the year but possibly I will the button wreath. I will just have to find a place to put it after Christmas is over. Only 5 days left, can you believe it?!

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Tagged: Christmas, DIY