EVERYDAY ITEMS AS CHRISTMAS DECOR

For those of you who just finished putting away your large collection of Christmas decorations. - this post might be helpful (for next year anyway).  I think it's safe to say - Christmas decorations can take up a lot of a home’s storage space, and I’m always amazed at the small mountain of boxes and bins we have allocated for this purpose.  After moving into our new home I took the time to go through our Christmas stuff and get rid of the extra items we were no longer using and donated them.  Having fewer boxes of Christmas items to store made me happy, and I really didn’t want to acquire any more.  This inspired me to find ways to incorporate everyday accessories into our Christmas décor’ as opposed to replacing them with something holiday specific, especially the larger items.  After all, the last thing we need is more stuff!  Here are a few things I came up with…

(1)  Cover large bowls with fabric.  This particular bowl is the everyday centerpiece for our dining room table.  It’s very large and I didn’t want to buy something equally large just for the holidays.  I bought a piece (about a yard) of silver satin-like fabric (I think it cost about $6) and simply placed the bowl in the center of it and wrapped up the sides of the bowl.  The raw edges are covered up by the items in the bowl (I used the same copper balls that regularly sit in this bowl.  Some silver floral sprigs were added for a little more interest.  (Christmas Storage: the fabric and floral springs store away to almost nothing!)

BEFORE >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>AFTER

 

 

 

 

 

(2) Cover platters with fabric.  This flat woven platter is another everyday centerpiece for our dinette table.  Again, it’s kind of big and I didn’t want to buy something else just for the holidays.  I used burlap to make a custom cover for it (which goes with the rest of our burlap Christmas décor).  The pinecones are re-used that regularly sit in this on top of the stones, and a few ornaments were added (leftover from my Christmas branch project and the décor for a light fixture).  (Christmas Storage:  the burlap cover and a few ornaments.)

BEFORE >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>AFTER

 

(3) Add holiday floral sprigs to existing arrangements.  The silver sprigs are added for the holidays and removed for everyday use.   (Christmas Storage: just the silver floral sprigs.)

(4) Add a little holiday flair to large accessories.  This was just as simple as wrapping silver ribbon and bells around these rustic wooden bottles.  Once again – large pieces that I didn’t want to replace with items of the same scale on the mantle.  (Christmas Storage: silver ribbon and bells.)

 
(5)  Fill bowls with festive elements.  The copper bowl usually has stones in it on our media table.  I replace them with the silver ornaments for the holidays.  Another wooden bowl is regularly filled with ceramic spheres, but is filled with garland for the holidays. (Christmas Storage: ornaments and garland.) 

BEFORE >>>>>>>>>>>>>AFTER

 

BEFORE >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> AFTER

(6) Red and Green Toss Pillows – I have an array of toss pillows I switch out throughout the year for our sofa.  The red and green are not holiday specific fabric, but seem like Christmas décor when I bring them out together for the holidays.

(7)  White, Silver & Glass serving pieces – All our serving pieces I have collected over the years are either silver or white or glass.  I have a avoided purchasing holiday specific items (regardless how adorable they may look in the store).  For example – my large white platter that matches our everyday dinnerware works for any occasion (rather than having a wreath shaped platter for Christmas, an American Flag for July 4th, an egg shaped platter for Easter. . . you get the idea).   One platter works for every holiday, just like all my other serving pieces (hors de vors plates, bowls, serving dishes )…

See...no reindeer, bunnies, shamrocks, or turkeys...just serving pieces I can use for any occasion.

 

Confession - Just before finishing this post I purchased 24 giant pinecones to use as Christmas décor next year.  How could I pass them up - they were over 90% off?!?!?!  Any ideas on where to store a large box of pinecones? . . . (sigh)

 

For more of my Christmas posts see the CHRISTMAS page...

BURLAP WREATH CHRISTMAS CARD HOLDER

 

This idea grew out of the leftover strips sewn for our burlap garland.  (The burlap garland was made to decorate the columns in our entryway.)  We needed a place for Christmas cards and my first thought was to hang this like garland elsewhere in our home and clip cards to it with clothespins.  After playing around with it for a little while – the project morphed into a wreath.  Here is what I did…

I made a round doughnut shaped base out of foam board and covered the base with three layers of quilt batting.  The strategy I used here was - use spray adhesive on the base, and then plopping it down on a piece of quilt batting – then cutting it out and repeating this process three times (spray-plop-cut). 

What I ended up with was a foam-board-doughnut topped with three layers of quilt batting.  All I had left to do was loosely wrap the burlap around the base overlapping an inch or two with each layer, and adhering the ends in the back with a hot glue gun.  I emphasize “loosely” wrapping so you have enough slack in the strips to easily clip your cards to the burlap.  I suggest mini clothespins as you don’t really need the big ones to hold cards (I found mine at Hobby Lobby).  The wreath hangs over a mirror using a large piece of red satin ribbon for contrast.

 

 

 

If you are a fan of burlap - the wall art around the mirror was made from potato sacks and can be found on my other post.  :o)

 

POINTSETTIAS AND BURLAP

This was an easy project for these silk poinsettias. They were originally outfitted with different colored foil, glued to the base of the pots (one gold, one silver and one red). This was festive, but not the look I was going for. Here is what I did: (1) Simply take a large circle of burlap. (2) Hem the edges on a sewing machine. (3) String ribbon through the burlap so you can gather it around the base of the pot and tie it off.

Burlap is an inexpensive fabric and provides for a rustic feel.  You could always consider other types of fabric to bring a different look.  Another inexpensive option could be brown craft paper or other types of wrapping paper.  (Would likely want to choose a more heavy duty wrapping paper to avoid durability issues and tearing.)

For other ideas for Christmas Décor, see my CHRISTMAS page.

TREE BRANCH CHRISTMAS TREE

 

This is one of my favorite new Christmas decorations.  The tree branch was picked up in the woods around our neighborhood and set up in a standard terra cotta pot and held in place with Quikrete.  Then I placed it inside this rustic wooden vase (purchased at Hobby Lobby) and then used dried moss (also purchased at Hobby Lobby) to cover the concrete base.  Especially sparkly ornaments were selected to contrast with the rustic nature of the branch and the vase.

 

 

(Dried moss covering Base of concrete filled pot.)

 

Note - The one down-side to this project is it takes up a lot of room in storage and is rather delicate - so keep this in mind when choosing a branch.  I suppose keeping it out year round is an option where you can replace the Christmas ornaments with other seasonal items throughout the year.

For more of my Christmas posts see the CHRISTMAS page...

UPCYCLED FRAMED ART #2

 

The photo above shows the original framed art purchased from Hobby Lobby.  It’s a pretty Tuscan print, but rather dark and we were going for a lighter feel in the room.  Purchasing a different piece of art this large could be expensive, so my goal was to re-work what we already had.  The frame did not have glass on the front (the print had a reflective coating on it), so I had glass cut to fit the frame (about $30 at Hobby Lobby).  Some touch up was done on the frame to change the gold accents to silver.  This was done using a small paintbrush and silver metallic craft paint.

 

 

The background is foil backed cork wallpaper by Candice Olsen.  I love this stuff as it reminds me of birch bark. (I used this wallpaper on anotherwall art project and so I had some left over and felt it worked perfectly here as an interesting background behind the leaves).  The wallpaper is expensive, but since it was leftover from another project I took the liberty to consider it free for budget purposes.  I had also considered using some leftover fabric for the background but I think the wallpaper was my best choice.

The leaves are quilted placemats purchased years ago at either a Marshall’s or a TJ Maxx.  They caught my attention and I had been holding on to them ever since looking for the perfect project.  I originally thought I would put them in three different frames and create a series, but I think fanning them out in one frame works quite well here.  They were bought so long ago, I have to guess on what I paid for them – probably about $3 a piece.  Since I had them for so long I also considered them ‘free’ within the budget for the room.

So…for about $30 we had a brand new piece of large art for over the mantle!

 

Check out my other upcyled framed art project using fabric and scrapbook paper...

 

FAUX STONE PAINTED VASE

 

This vase is part of a family room makeover I did for a friend.  We were challenging ourselves to stick to a strict budget, so I came up with some fun projects like this one.  The vase was free (part of a floral arrangement I received), the faux gems were leftover from last Christmas, and the can of faux stone spray paint was $9.99.  I realized I probably could have bought a cream vase for around the same price of the spray paint, but it would not have been nearly as fun   ;o)    (In my defense,  I still have half a can of spray paint left, so in theory I only used $5 worth and have enough for another project.)

I started with this plastic yellow vase.  The idea of this project was to embellish it for texture and paint it with a spray paint.  The result is a textured faux stone look.

 

Supplies

1.       Plastic Vase (or a vase of any material that is easily paintable)

2.       Sand Paper

3.       Faux Gems (color does not matter – they are just for texture)

4.       Marker and Ruler to draw design on base.

5.       Glue (I used hot glue, but I recommend another adhesive so you don’t have to worry about the ‘strings’ from the hot glue gun mucking up your project)

6.       Spray Primer

7.       Spray Paint  (I used Valspar Stone purchased at Lowe’s).  You could go with a standard high gloss spray paint, but you would have to be really neat and clean when gluing on the faux gems.  As I mentioned above, if you use a hot glue gun, this could be really tricky.  The textured spray paint covers up a little bit of a mess with the glue.

Steps

1.       Lightly sand the vase first.  It will help primer/paint adhere

2.      I drew a few lines around the vase to give me a guide when gluing the faux gems.  Use the technique in the photo below – attach the marker to the ruler and spin the vase to draw a consistent line.

 3.       Glue the faux gems to the vase in whatever pattern you wish.  These were left over from my Christmas décor’ from last year.  Despite the volume I had used last season, I still had a bunch left in the container.   If you use a hot-glue gun be very careful to avoid leaving any ‘strings’.  As you can see from the end product – it does not matter what color gems you use as the end result will be covered in primer and paint.  They are simply used for texture.  With that in mind – I’m sure many different materials could be used to create texture here in a similar manner.

4.       Prime the vase.  If you look closely at the photo below, you can see how I did not initially pay attention to the hot glue strings.  As a result you can see this when the primer was applied (Uggghh).  It really looked awful.  I spent a lot of time peeling off pieces of glue with tweezers to clean it up.  Next time I’ll use a different type of adhesive.  I should have stuck with my all time favorite 'Weld Bond Glue'. 

 

 

5.      Paint the vase with the faux stone paint.  This will cover up the inconstancies with any adhesive (it worked quite well to conceal any remaining hot glue issues).   I used several light coats as recommended on the can.  I think I ended up doing about four coats.
 

 

 

Here it is on the mantle filled with red berries... :o) 

 

BASKET FLOWER WALL ART



These were made for my friend Heather’s little girl’s room.  She's the one who lets me play ‘decorator’ every once in a while.  This project came about quite by a mistake.  We had originally bought these baskets for another purpose for their home, but as I stared at them on the floor, I was taken aback by how much they resembled flowers.    I am very lucky to have a friend who lets me run with my crazy ideas!

 

This was an ‘on the fly’ project - we just made it up as we went along.  I love these types of projects and the collaboration with friends to come up with unique ideas and solutions.  My friend Heather doesn’t give herself enough credit on this one – she chose the leaf shape from the options I gave her, as well as the ultimate layout of the flowers and the stems.   Here is an explanation of the individual components…

 

(1)    Wooden dragon fly (and butterflies) painted and ‘bedazzled’ with faux gems.

(2)    Green Grosgrain Ribbon.

(3)    Cardboard leaves covered in quilt batting and cotton fabric.

(4)    Cardboard circles covered in quilt batting and pink burlap.

(5)    Baskets spray painted high gloss white.

Here are the supplies and steps we took to make them...

What you need

·         Baskets resembling flowers (we bought ours at Old Time Pottery)

·         Spray primer

·         White high gloss spray paint

·         Hot Glue Gun

·         Corrugated Cardboard (old boxes are fine) - enough for circles within flowers, and leave shapes

·         Fabric – enough to cover circles and leave shapes (we used pink burlap for the circles and a green and white dotted cotton for the leaves).

·         Quilt Batting – enough to put 2-3 layers between fabric and cardboard for circles and leaves

·         Grosgrain Ribbon – for stems

·         Nails to hang baskets and adhesive to apply leaves to wall (we used packing tape and it’s still holding strong).  3M might have some other options.

·          Wooden dragon flies and butterflies and faux gems.  Both were purchased a Hobby Lobby.

·         Acrylic paint for dragon flies and butterflies

 

 

Steps

(1)    Spray the baskets with primer.

(2)    Spray the baskets with white high gloss paint

(3)    Cut out cardboard circles to fit inside the baskets. 

(4)    Cut circles of the same size out of quilt batting (2 or 3 layers is good for each piece of cardboard), and lightly hot glue to cardboard pieces.

(5)    Cut fabric circles about 2” larger than the circumference of the cardboard pieces and wrap them around the cardboard and batting, securing with hot glue on the back side.

(6)    Repeat steps 3-5 for the leaves.

(7)    Cut the ribbon for the stems and hot glue the top of the ribbon stems to the back of the baskets.

(8)    Hang the baskets with nails. Adhere the stem to the wall with adhesive if necessary (ours hung behind the bookcase so it was not necessary).  Adhere the leaves to the wall with adhesive.

(9)    Paint and bedazzle dragon flies and butterflies.  Hot glue twist ties to back of each to attach to basket.