PB Inspired Rattan Star Christmas Tree Topper

I have been inspired a lot lately by a certain catalog with the initials PB. However, I am never inspired by their prices.

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I love this beautiful tree topper, but for $29.00 plus s&h, I don't love the price. My tree needed a new topper since I added this to it, the old topper just didn't quite match the theme.

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Off to Michael's I went to pick up these supplies. PS: Use a 40% off coupon on both and it will be golden! You can make this for around $6! You're also going to need a bottle of hot sauce- lol. I decided that I didn't want to add the berries and greenery to mine, but it would be so simple if you want it on yours!

Here is a close up of the wired twine (this stuff is pretty cool).

I cut a piece of the wired twine and began wrapping it at the bottom of the star to provide the stability for the tree topper.

After the star is stable, begin to wrap the twine around the hot sauce bottle (any other bottle will work).

Every so often, I used a vertical loop of twine on the back of the topper to help stabilize and keep the "circles" of the topper together, otherwise they kind of want to bounce apart. Look closely at the picture below, the first eight circles of the twine have a vertical loop twisted around them. The other piece of twine is being worked through the bottom half.

Here is the "messy" back of the topper with the vertical loops.

Let the topper sit overnight to form its shape to the bottle.

Then place the topper on your tree and sing a song about how much money you saved and how awesome your tree looks.

If you like my PB inspired Merry Christmas banner above, click here to see how I made it.

I will be linking to these parties this week. Be sure to check back next week when I hack one more PB inspiration!

Shattered Ornaments

So last week I began putting my Christmas tree up. The hubby and I have a tradition of watching Muppet's Christmas Carol and putting out the decorations. However, this year, we decided we would put the tree in our front living room. This means no Muppets and no help from hubby (he was busy working on a few things of his own). Things were going great, but I must mention that I was having the type of day where you injure yourself repeatedly (stubbed my toe, hit my funny bone, bumped my head, etc). I was just thinking about how lovely some of my ornaments are and what great memories they bring, when CRASH!

Bye, bye ornament. At this point, I just wanted to cry. Do you get attached to your ornaments like I do? It really made me think about traditions and ornaments and how a lot of Christmas trees tell a story.

My husband and I pick out an ornament every year. We date the bottom and hang it on the tree. It's a tradition my mom started when my brother and I were born and I used to get SO excited to pick out my ornament every year. It is fun to look back at some of the ones I picked out and remember the things I was doing at that time in my life. There are Barbie ornaments and lambs and ballet shoes and teddy bears and so much more. At least this particular ornament wasn't one of our "special" ones, but it still hurt to watch it shatter.

I cleaned up my ornament and told my husband I was giving myself a time out. At which point the dog ran under the Christmas tree and decided she had to use the Christmas tree skirt as her puppy pad. Hopefully that will not become a yearly tradition.

What are some of your holiday traditions?

Merry Christmas Banner

I have been eyeing this garland from a certain (over-priced) store with the initials P.B.

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Here is a zoomed out version. So pretty. So expensive.

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I knew I didn't have enough room (because of this) to make a whole garland, so I just made a banner instead. Besides, it's easier to make and doesn't take as long.

I also switched mine up a bit and used some old music I found at Goodwill for .49 cents. I used my Cricut Schoolbook cartridge to cut out the letters in black.

Cut a sheet of music in half (hot dog way) and glue together at the seam.

Use the same Cricut cartridge to cut the scalloped edges. If you don't have a Cricut, use those fancy-schmancy scrapbooking scissors instead! Glue it all together.

Set up your Christmas tree and place the banner on it. (Never leave paper on the Christmas tree with the tree lit unattended, I would hate to have your craft (among other things) go up in flames. Yikes!)

So pretty. So NOT expensive.

Just wait till you hear what happened when I started hanging the ornaments on the Christmas tree... At least my banner is pretty! I am going to link to these parties this week.

PS: I am linking this to the Christmas Craft Contest at Poppies at Play. If you like my banner, head over there and vote. Thanks!

XO,

Burlap Garland

I am in love with this burlap garland from Michael's! I just had to share it with you. You get 10 whole feet!

Of course, you could easily make it yourself, but did you see the 50% off coupons Michael's had out for Black Friday? I think it was like regularly $3.99. At 50% off I think it is cheaper than buying the yardage needed to make your own. I couldn't resist. Here it is on my Christmas tree.

Woot, woot, Burlap Garland, I love you!

Holiday Ornament Tree

The holidays are coming fast, which does not leave us a lot of time to decorate! I love to decorate my house for ALL holidays, but there is something so special and magical about the Christmas Season. Last year, my mom and I decided to make Christmas Trees with Ornaments. My ornament tree is so special to me (and delicate), that it has its very own shelf in the basement so that nothing happens to it. Every year I can't wait to pull it out!

We started with one of those styrofoam cones that you can get at any craft store. You can choose the size to fit your needs. We also picked out a cute base that would fit the cone. Mine was a candle holder that I got half price at Hobby Lobby. I have also seen them at Ikea. (Love that place!)

We used TONS of hot glue for this project. We started out by hot gluing the styrofoam cone to the candle holder. Then it was time to work from the bottom to the top and put on TONS of glass ornaments. Unfortunately, we did not take pictures along the way, but you can imagine it. As we glued the ornaments on we would gently push the top of them into the styrofoam, to secure them a little better. My mom has a hot glue skillet that made things a whole lot easier, so that we could dip the ornaments instead of having to hold the glue gun each time. We used tiny ornaments to fill in any gaps along the way.





The end product is gorgeous and you can obviously choose your colors to match your decor. It was a time consuming craft, but there is nothing better I would have wished I was doing than spending time with my mom. Throw on some good holiday jingles and bake some cookies and craft away!