Posts Tagged ‘fireplace

MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Ya, ya, I know, it’s NOT EVEN TURKEY DAY YET!

BUT, and that’s a big fat BUT…

Don’t you want some Christmas crafts NOW so that you can make them for the entire Holiday Season?

Ya, that’s what I thought! You are welcome!

Make an adorable Christmas Tree out of terra-cotta flower pots!

(Isn’t this just adorable?)

Do you want to know how to make this? And I’m going to be extra super nice and include a cost break-down for you as well. Yippie!

If I’ve peaked your interest and you want to make one, read on! This isn’t a hard craft. You’ll love it.

To make this exact tree:

First you’ll need some terra-cotta flower pots.

I bought enough for 3 different sizes of trees, so don’t have a panic attack. I’ll show you the other two trees as I finish them over the next week or so. You really only need 4 pots and a saucer for this tree.

The pots need to be PRIMED before you paint them. I just used a brush and painted the primer on all of them. The saucer needs it on both sides, but the pots only need primer on the outside and the bottom.

Once the primer is dry, spray paint your medium sized pot (you have two of these – 4″ pots) with the brown spray paint. This will be the stump of the tree. Set this aside until the end.

Spray paint the lip around the top of each additional pot and the entire saucer with the white spray paint.

When they are dry tape off the lip of each white pot.

Now spray paint the 3 pots with the Olive spray paint. Make sure to paint the bottom of each pot as well.

When the green paint is dry, remove your tape. The edge doesn’t have to be perfect, but if any of the green bled really bad you’ll need to touch it up with a little white paint. I just used some white acrylic paint to touch up one or two spots.

Now it’s time to add the glitter! This part was really fun!

I put a big blob of the school glue in a paper bowl and then added a bit of water (maybe about a tablespoon or so). Mix the glue and water together to make a soup type consistency.

Now just paint the liquid glue on the areas where you want your glitter. I painted all the edges of the pots and saucer (minus the brown pot).

Work in small sections. Paint the glue, add glitter, paint more glue, add more glitter.

I used a large cookie sheet and just poured glitter over the glued areas over the cookie sheet. At the very end I scooped all the extra glitter up and put it back in the container. Believe it or not this was not that messy!

In the middle of your crafting you may want to take a lunch break and watch some TV. …in your PJs.

I tried the glue mixture AND Mod Podge, and honestly, for this project they worked about the same. School glue is much cheaper!

Now it’s time to wait again. Waiting is the biggest part of this project. Wait for the primer to dry. Wait for the spray paint to dry. Wait for the 2nd layer of spray paint to dry. Wait for the glitter glue to dry….

When it’s FINALLY dry (it really only took an hour or so), you can bust out your red paint!

Now, let me give you a little tip. I NEVER squirt paint out onto a plate. NEVER. It’s messy and wasteful. I just unscrew the cap and pour a little paint into the lid and use that to dip my brush. So easy!

Next I just free-handed some red dots all over the pot.

When the dots were dry I coated them a 2nd time so they would be more vibrant. While they were still wet I put a sequin in the middle of each dot. It’s glued on by the wet paint.

Wait again. This time for the red paint to dry.

Now it’s time to stack them!

Turn your brown pot upside down and set it where you want your Christmas tree to sit.

Place the saucer UPSIDE DOWN on top of the brown pot.

Place your 6″ pot upside down on top of the saucer. Place your 4″ pot upside down on top of the 6″ pot. Place the 3″ pot upside down on top of the 4″pot. Yadda yadda yadda….

For the topper I just found a metal star napkin holder at Goodwill. I spray painted it yellow and coated it in glitter. I set it on top with the ring for the napkin around the top pot.

*NOTE* I did not glue the pots together. I would recommend keeping this away from small children and pets that can knock it over. You can glue them together if you’d like, but I like to keep them separate so that I can nest them after Christmas for easier storage.

There are so many possibilities for this tree! I’ve got a 2nd one in the works that is 4 layers tall with a larger base and larger saucer. You can decorate these ANY way you’d like! Add any topper you can think of! I’ve got two more I’m making that are totally different from this design. Be creative! They don’t even have to be brown and green! Paint one hot pink and lime green. Paint one gold. Glue on bells and bows. The possibilities to decorate these are endless!

If you make one for yourself, PLEASE let me know! I’d love to add you to my Share.Inspire.Create. Party. I’d also LOVE to see all the great color palates you come up with.

Happy Crafting!

I’ve temporarily taken down the Fall decor and busted out the Halloween stuff!

I pulled out my box-o-scariness…

… if you can call it “scary”

I’m more of a “cutesy” seasonal decorator.

I had most of my decor already, but I did make a few spray paint adjustments…

I painted the wreath black as well as the candle stick that I bought months ago.

For the wreath I decided to go low-key. I just painted a wreath black and hung it with a 1 1/2″ thick orange ribbon.

I was planning on doing more detail on the wreath, but once it was painted I really liked it plain.

I love my little crow perched up on top of the mirror. Subtle and spooky.

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter, In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.

I bought this little guy from the Dollar Spot and gave him a fresh coat of white spray paint for plastic.

I added a few subtle details…

Lots of spider webs

and candles

and hints of ribbon

and cute spooky little ghosts and pumpkins

and spiders.

Cutesy and glitter make me giddy.

And the Halloween mantle is DONE.

I turned my fall table piece into a Halloween one by adding some moss and ribbon.

Little bits of ribbon can make anything look festive!

I used a sharpie to draw a face on the lil’ punkin’

Isn’t it cute with the moss and spider and web?

Who can resist a mini truffle dish with moss, skulls, and a bow?

More cutesy stuff.

I wish I could take credit for these, but I bought them years ago on a mega after-Halloween sale.

So adorable.

And of course Halloween just isn’t complete with a spooky glitter tree!

Candy, anyone?

Here’s to a fun,

Halloween!

My fireplace mantle has gone through several transformations since we moved in.

First we had this…

…which isn’t even decorated at.all.

I set the Rodney White artwork on the mantle while we were moving in so it didn’t get ruined and it just kinda ended up staying there.

I hung the artwork and added a few accessories, but the overall look just wasn’t working.

This setup is a FAIL!

I LOVE my art and I LOVE bright bold color, but after a month or so it just started to hurt my eyes.

I need my family room to be more subtle and relaxing so I took down the art and added a mirror that I’ve had for at least 15 years.

I also swapped out some of the accessories for a more Fall look.

In addition I took the candlesticks and gave them a new coat of spray paint and added gourds on top.

The colors are Rustoleum Nutmeg and Heirloom White.

But the black frame was still too harsh for me. I want this room bright, white, and soothing.

So I painted the frame white.

I’m already loving it so.much.more.

This is my “almost finished” decorated Fall mantle.

I’m going to add some fall leaves and maybe a few nuts to give it more texture, but I think so far it’s coming together nicely.

The ceramic pumpkins are from Dollar Tree. I can’t believe I found something ceramic at Dollar Tree that I don’t want to spray paint.

The pumpkins and gourds are real. I purchased them from the grocery store.

Also, the glass hurricane I bought in Los Angeles at Goodwill. You might recognize it from this post:

(New Life for an Old Shelf)

I like it much better with bright orange pumpkins and gourds in it!

So, in the past two months my mantle has morphed from this:

to this:

Now I just need to PAINT already!

Oh, and did you notice the crappy newel on the left of the fireplace hearth?

I got it free from a guy who was throwing it away while we were snowboarding last winter in California.

(Yes, the same trip that I broke my rib on…)

Anyway, this newel is eventually going to turn into a candlestick. Eventually.

Happy Fall, y’all!