Recycle your fall wreath. . . .

Did you make a cornhusk wreath this fall???

Guess what.....you can recycle it into your Christmas wreath with a little bit of spraypaint!!







I took a can of silver spraypaint...glass beads that I found at the bottom of the Christmas bin....and some sprigs of red beads from The Dollar Tree....

....and I realized that I missed a few spots!  You can't see those spots when it's dark....

Can't wait to show you the rest of my Dollar Tree mantle. . . .




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"Vintage" Ornaments. . . . .

I fell in love with THESE ornaments from Miss Mustard Seed and started thinking......could I mimic them?

I went to Michael's and found their fillable glass ornaments at 40% off!

I grabbed one of my old piano books.....yes, it already looked "vintage"....I didn't even need to age it!

I ran the music through my paper shredder until I had a pile of shredded strips....

I loved Miss Mustard Seed's, but I wanted to add a little bit of sparkle to mine...

Using regular glue and Martha's white gold glitter, I painted the tops with glue and shook on the glitter...

I am just loving how they turned out!

I can't wait to hang them on our tree!

Have you put up your tree yet??

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Grandma gift idea

My friend, Kristi...(yes, I have a lot of friends named Kristi!).....came up with the idea to put her children's artwork on a set of coaster. 

Aren't they adorable!!!  I am going to make a set!!

Here are my instructions for how to make the coasters.  Below is how Kristi explains to put their artwork on them....

"I had them draw them on a square piece of paper (8.5 x 8.5) and then scanned them and reduced them to 4x4. When I printed them from Picasa they came out with the blue border and I liked out so I didn't cut it away lol!  I could have mounted them on something, but decided not to."

(Now I just need to ask her what Picasa is!!)

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Gift Idea: Christmas Plaque

I've been using a lot of scrapbook paper recently and I had some scraps left over and when I looked at my pile of scrapbook paper, my bottle of Mod Podge.....an idea struck!

Now...I don't have a Silouhette machine...or a Cricut...or anything that can cut for me.....but I'd love one!!  I've seen a lot of people using their machines to put vinyl on tiles and it's gorgeous!!  Check out Kathy's idea at Dandelions and Dustbunnies. 

So...I needed to improvise!!   My husband has a bunch of old 12  inch tiles in his scrap pile in the garage, so I took one! :) 

I just used my word processing program and printed on normal paper a verse from Isaiah...

Then I rearranged....and rearranged....and rearranged....

I think that if I were doing this again, I would glue down all the "little" pieces first.  I just temporarily attached them.

I then started to Mod Podge.

Mod podge everything to the tile and the bottom piece of paper.

Finished product....a little more wrinkly than I would have liked.....

I think that gluing first and Mod Podging second would eliminate that..... 

Overall though....It looks really pretty by my oven and it's just another opportunity to get God's Word in my home! :)

And a miniature version.....I made it the same way on a 4 inch tile.

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Update: Christmas Coasters

My friend, Kristi....not to be confused with my neighbor Kristi..... had an AMAZING idea for her Christmas Coasters and I just can't wait to share it!

Instead of using scrapbook paper.....she's going to use her children's ARTWORK!!!!  Isn't that awesome!
Grandparents just eat that up!!

I'll ask her to take some pictures and give us the instructions after she does it.....if you try it, please send me some pictures to post and share!  My email is nwilkinson4@netzero.net.

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El-cheapo Christmas pillow

I would NEVER buy Christmas pillows.....they are too expensive and you use them for what...30 days?!? 

But....I would spend $1.00 to make a pillow!!

Go to The Dollar Tree.....buy a $1.00 Christmas placement.

Using a seam ripper.....open the short side seam.  (You may need to buy a seam ripper at The Dollar Tree if you don't have one.....do they even sell those there???)

Once I got the seam started, it was easy to open. 

Now....if you have a bag of fiberfill, you don't need a large hole.  I didn't.....and I'm too cheap to go and buy a bag....(it's the distance thing again!)...and bags of fiberfill are expensive......so I needed to open the entire short side seam.

I didn't have fiberfill, but I did have an old pillow in my closet that I've been wanting to get rid of.....aren't they filled with "fluffy stuff"????

Yes!!  Cut apart your pillow.

I just measured my pillow against the placement and trimmed my pillow to fit.

I stuffed it into my placemat......

Now some people at this point may re-sew the seam....but....my sewing machine has been out-of-commission for like 6 years....so it's hot glue to the rescue!

Hot glue your seam closed.....

I have a $1.00 Christmas pillow!! (and a rocking chair in deep need of a new paint job.......)

Merry Christmas!!



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Christmas Coasters

We have a few "white elephant" parties this year and I just need a quick hostess gift.  I've been seeing people use tiles for a bunch of things, so I thought that I'd mod podge some coasters!

Grab a cheap white 4 inch tile...

Cut a piece of cork just smaller than the tile and hot glue it to the bottom.  (The roll of cork was kind've expensive at $10.00, but I can get about a million tiles out of it and use it for other projects!)

You can use anything at this point....scrapbook paper, decorative napkins, wrapping paper.....I tried a bunch of things (and failed!) and ended up with coordinating scrapbook paper....I got it at The Paper Place.

One thing that I learned the hard way is that you want your paper slightly smaller than the tile.....

Brush on your Mod Podge....I'm thinking that one of those foam brushes would work WAY better than a paint brush....I just didn't have one....

Add your first layer of paper and Mod Podge over it....and then if you want to, add a coordinating paper on top of the first layer...

You can see the nice finish the Mod Podge puts on the tile.....I thought that it still needed something, so I hot glued a jute bow to the corner....

I think that I am going to seal them....I'm not sure how durable Mod Podge will be under the stress of a potentially wet drink....  I'll probably use a satin polyeurethane. 

When I tried a "test" group with wrapping paper and Mod Podge, I added a glossy polyeurethane finish...YUCK!!  I just don't like shiny!

Total Cost:  Tiles from the Habitat Restore:  4 @ $0.10 = $0.40;  Paper from The Paper Place:  2 @ $1.00= $2.00;  Cork:  maybe used $0.50 worth; Mod Podge and String....I already had.

Total cost:  $2.90!!!



Update:

Another idea is to add your children's artwork:

Click HERE to see how Kristi did it!

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