DIY: Wrapping Up Christmas

We are just 4 days from Christmas Eve! I am getting super excited :)

Monday I finished all of our Christmas shopping and spent the afternoon leisurely wrapping them while watching a few holiday movies.

I used craft paper, some felt, an old red sweater, green ribbon, twine, my hot glue gun and 3 rolls of paper, a few rolls of ribbon, and beautiful tags from Target--all 60% off after Christmas last year.

Here is how it turned out...

dressed up & casual wrapping ideas

brown bag $.50...dress it up with scraps of ribbon and rosettes

i'm loving these sweater and eyelet trim rosettes

i've been feeling stripes of late

more rosettes

i love how the eyelet fabric gives this brown bag a feminine twist

names spelled with twine instead of tags

felt flower instead of a bow

the twine and sassy green tag dress up this craft paper wrapping

lines of twine

I love the stripes of twine and ribbon

business casual

super cute...right?

big ole golden bow

green, red & gold

i think this one is my favorite. the eyelet trim with the twine bow are super cute

C for Miss Cindy

What kinds of fun wrapping tricks have you used before?

Oh and be looking for some holiday treat recipes coming up in the next few days!

Presents Under the Tree

I seriously love Christmas. My mom always brought so much Christmas cheer to our home growing up. I remember her taking us on walks through the woods to cut down a small tree to put in our bedroom or on the deck, collect greenery to decorate the fireplace, and have Dad shoot down some mistletoe from a treetop. During the Christmas season we did everything together. We would decorate the tree(s) together, go Christmas shopping together, wrap presents together, bake cookies together, go caroling together...you get the picture. I think Christmas is my favorite time of year because I love being with my family, loving them, loving our church and our community...that's what Christmas has meant. Yeah presents are fun...but none of my presents would have meant very much to me if they weren't part of season all about loving others and giving to others out of genuine, Christ-like generosity.

I think I enjoy giving presents more than getting them. And I love wrapping them. Last night I took a little time to get started and I had a lot of fun. I think this year I am going for a Country Christmas theme...if you haven't already you can see that my mantle is a little country-rustic. I followed that theme into the present-wrapping last night.

I used craft paper to wrap some, and the red damask I found for 60% off at Target on the after-Christmas sales last year. The Christmas tree tags and gold bow were also at least 60% off last year as well.

 This is my favorite.

I used a hot glue gun to spell one letter at a time, and then wrapped the twine to spell her name. 

I made a simple felt flower and sewed a mini-pearl button on it in-lieu of a bow.

I love the simple brown paper with twine and the glittery green tag to add some color.

I wrapped one of my sister's presents in a mason jar, tied twine around it and topped it with a red felt flower.

Oh...and remember I mentioned a cedar tree...well I actually have 3 in my back yard. So I cut off some little branches to add a lil' greenery to the mantle.

I love my Jim Shore Santas.

What colors do you like to wrap with? I never would have pegged myself as a red girl...but I am really feeling the red this Christmas!


Ps...if you haven't yet...don't forget to find out how you can win a Felt Pendant on my blog on Thursday!

Christmas is in the Air

At long last...a few minutes to blog. Whew.

We moved on Saturday with the help of some good friends and we are finally starting to get settled into the new house! 

Obviously my plan of attack was the kitchen first. I have literally been digging through my bedroom closet each morning to scramble up something to wear to work. But no fear, all of my pyrex, kitchenaid, tupperware, cuisinart goodness was cleaned and tidily stored away in the kitchen cabinets. 

Wednesday night, I put up my Christmas tree....while watching The Polar Express...and eating marshmallows. I started on Saturday while viewing Elf for the first time this season, but I was missing a few metric bolts to lock the tree into the stand. It is up now though, and I love looking at my collection of Nostalgic Homes by Hallmark that my mom started collecting in 1984 the year before I was born. This is the 28th year the collection has been going and I have every one!

Tonight I put together our Christmas mantle. I have never done something like this, so this was kind of a lesson in crafting for me. After a pretty stressful week with the move, it was so nice to relax and get into the holiday spirit.

Now let's break it down...

My mom had these old wooden spools in her attic. I remembered them from my childhood while perusing Etsy one night and asked my mom if I could have them. They look great as candle holders.

The stocking hangers were purchased at Target at the end of the season a few years ago for $5 each.

I had some silver ornaments that I bought a Walmart a few years ago to decorate a second tree that I gave up in the move. I painted some of them a light gold color and wrapped some of them in strips from an old red sweater to add some more color. 

Forrest and I went for a run a few weeks ago and picked up the big pine cones featured on the mantle. The small cones were pulled from a Christmas swag I bought for $1 at the Dollar Tree last year. Also the two small candle votives were purchased at the Dollar Tree for $1 each.  

I bought some burlap a few weeks ago, but hadn't had a chance to use it yet. I made this wreath using a wire coat hanger, burlap, and some felt to make the flowers.

I bought two vases from the Dollar Tree and wrapped them in twine. This past weekend I picked up some twigs in the yard and saved them to make this! I spray painted the twigs and then stuck them into the vase using that green flower base stuff to keep them from falling all nimbly-bimbly like. 

Total Cost of the Christmas Mantle = $13.87

Burlap ~ $2.00 @ Hancock Fabrics

Felt for rosettes ~ $.40 for 2 at Walmart

Candles ~ $3.00 for 6 at the Dollar Tree

Spray Paint ~ $3.47 at Walmart

Votives ~ $2.00  for 2 at the Dollar Tree

Vases ~ $2.00 for 2 at the Dollar Tree

Green flower foam ~ $1.00

What I had around:

pine ones (small & big)

twine

burlap

hot glue gun

silver ornaments

old red sweater

stocking hangers

stockings with our names from JCPenny

old wooden spools

This is our 9 foot Christmas tree. We have to go artificial because I have allergies :( My little angle touches the ceiling, but she fits! I need another tree because I have about 2 boxes of ornaments..including a collection of Winnie the Pooh story books from Hallmark that didn't make it on the tree this year.  :(

When coming up with my ideas for the mantle, I turned to Pinterest. Here are some of the images that inspired me.

I looked for this glittery paint, but didn't find any. I think I like the milder gold I chose to use better anyway.

Source: theglitterguide.tumblr.com via Megan on Pinterest

I need to add some green to the mantle to go with my stocking. There is a cedar tree right at the line between my neighbors yard and ours....I am going to ask them this weekend if I can cut some of it!

Source: livingroomdecorating.org via Megan on Pinterest

I still want to add a banner with some Christmasy word to hang down from the mantle. I was going to use the burlap to do that. I am going to work on that this weekend.

Source: s151.photobucket.com via Megan on Pinterest

This was what inspired my use of the pine cones.

Source: bonbonrosegirls.com via Megan on Pinterest

I wasn't going to use red, but then I realized that almost all of my holiday mantle pins had red in them, so I knew I was drawn to that. I decided not to fight my instincts.

Source: befickle.blogspot.com via Megan on Pinterest

What kind of mantle-decorating have you been up to?

Felt Rosettes and Ruffles

Yesterday I had one mission. I was going to make a felt rosette and/or ruffle before I went to sleep. period.

I spent the early part of the afternoon at an Antique store looking for nothing in particular, but stumbled upon these awesome yellow letters, which I plan on putting on a block of painted wood in my new kitchen. I would love to paint the walls in the kitchen and adjoined living room/breakfast nook a light gray color and decorate with yellow and navy accents, so these letters will go great with that color scheme.

Then I headed over to the Wake Forest Coffee Co., and enjoyed a cup of coffee while writing objectives for my final graduate project. Fun times. After about 2 hours of that, I decided I needed some time to craft, so I packed up my things and headed toward the Michael's by our house. I picked up several shades of felt, some glue and a few other odds and ends. Someone gave me a coupon so I got the glue for 40% off and then I bought all of the other supplies with a 20% off (including sales) coupon. yippie!

First I poured myself a glass of wine and got started with a little pink rosette.

Then I made a flower for my niece's hair. It might be a little big just yet, but with all those beautiful curls, she is going to have so much fun pinning them up with all kinds of bows!

By the way, in case you haven't seen her gorgeous face...here it is!

Then I wanted to make something to wear to work today with my new scarf, so I made two rosettes and a ruffle. Here it is with my $7.99 scarf from Ross.

 

I had so much fun making these rosettes and plan on taking breaks from my grad school work this weekend to make a few other things. I couldn't sleep last nigh thinking of the possibilities!!! (Ok...maybe it was just the 6pm coffee...)

I really need a new camera, and I apologize for how blurry my pictures are. I am going to keep looking for a good one and maybe on Black Friday I can get a good deal on one. Do you have any suggestions for a good camera for taking pictures of food and crafts? 

Happy Friday...I have another post coming later, but I need to run to the grocery store and take a few more pics.