Deck the Halls

Since Julia took the time to share some of her holiday adornments, I thought I might do the same thing.  It's been a busy, busy season for me.  I just finished up a graduate class I'm taking to renew my counseling license, which didn't leave me much free time to do all the crafting that I like to do.  Now that it is pretty much over, though, I have kicked things into high gear and have been accomplishing things right and left! The wreath, pictured above, is one such thing I finished over the weekend.  If you can stick through the end of this post, I will show you how to make your own.

This corsage was a day of distraction.  A friend asked me to help her make this for her son's date to the Winter Dance.  The challenge was to use things that we already had or could buy in our very, very small town.  Although it was a challenge (I have never made such flowers before), I was able to pull it off.  My friend made a ribbon that slipped through the back that was tied around the girl's wrist.  The nice thing about this corsage is that it can be re-used as a hair piece or a pin.  I would love to make more of these.

While procrastinating working on my final project for my class, I painstakingly made this pinecone wreath for our front door.  The pinecones all came from my grandmother, who is pinecone hunter and collector.  When I asked her if she had any small pinecones she could give me for this project, she went out back and found a 30 pound gunnysack of pinecones.  I was thrilled!  After the holiday, I plan to give this to my grandma to hang year-round if she wants.  The poinsettia is removeable.  Bonus: inside the gunnysack I found some beautiful lime colored moss that I was able to tuck into the cracks.

One of my favorite things to collect is vintage ornaments.  I'm lucky because the thrift store in town often gets boxes and boxes in from estates.  Last year I think I bought 20 boxes of ornaments for 50 cents each, hoping to make a glass ball wreath.  I think I'm too chicken to make one, because surely it will fall and all of my ornaments will break.  Instead, I like to display them in glass containers throughout the house.  I even was brave and put a couple on the tree.

Speaking of my favorite thrift store, I picked up a large frame there this weekend for 10 cents.  I had wanted to make a coffee filter wreath this year (totally unbreakable and totally cheap), gluing the filters onto a large embroidery hoop I thought I had in the closet.  Unfortunately, I could never find the hoop, so I thought I'd try a frame instead.  I can't take any credit for the frame idea, as my friend did it first, on a smaller scale.  If you'd like to make one too, you will need some sort of frame or hoop, a glue gun and an entire package of small, round coffee filters, which cost about a dollar.

 

Flatten your coffee filter and fold it in half, then fold it in half again.

Put a dab of glue on the outside edge of your frame and put your folded filter on it, with the folded edge of the filter pointing down.

Continue to glue on filters, each one about a 1/2 inch down from the next, until you go all the way around your frame.

Next, go around the top, front part of your frame, pointing the filters in the opposite direction.  Remember to keep the folded edge of your filter towards the bottom.

Finally, go around the inside edge of the frame, again in the opposite direction.  Make sure that the your filters go up and not towards the back.  Otherwise, they won't sit flush against the wall.  When it is done, spend a little time fluffing your filters.

I hung mine on my hallway closet door.  If you look closely, you can see that I attached a little sign that says "Happy New Year!"  Remember when I said that I like to leave decorations up as long as possible?  This project was cheap and simple.  If I had any advice, I would say to separate, flatten and fold all of your filters before you want to start your project.  That was the most time consuming part, and if I would have thought of doing it ahead of time, I could have just done it all while watching a movie or something.

I think I've done enough decorating projects.  It's time to start cracking on my gift making.  Next time I post, I'll share with you some simple gift ideas to give your friends and family.

-Amy