Subtle St. Patrick's Mantle

Last week I had a long awaited shopping day with a friend. 

She surprised me by buying me these scented green lovelies.

I played a little and finally settled on arranging them on my mantle.

Now we have a little green

to give a subtle nod to St. Patrick

and our soon coming spring.

Valentined Winter Wreath

I love my twiggy winter wreath.

I purchased it at a local store.

I am sure that I will get my money's worth out of it because

the length of our Canadian winter

allows me to have it up for about half the year.  

 But I thought that I would add a little Valentine love for the next couple of weeks.

So, off to the dollar store where I found these babies:

 These are glittered Styrofoam hearts stuck on wire sticks.

At first I weaved the sticks into the wreath. 

But the white wires were distracting.

So, I pulled the heart off the stick and popped it right onto the twigs.

Happy Valentines Day.

Remember to hug the ones that you love cause life is precious.

Em-belle-ishing our House this Christmas

 

13 days till Christmas.

Christmas Banquet Decor

This past week I had the privilege of decorating

for a banquet that our church puts on

for the pastors of all the churches in our area.



A friend and I tromped through the snow to find that branch and

Dr. Pepper sawed it into pieces for me.

I like the texture that the natural bark adds.

I always decorate a table for the workers too.

Often, it is slightly different than the other tables. 

I used a rectangular tray instead of the square that I used for the others.  The jumbo tea lights were on inverted water glasses instead of the bits of wood that the other ones were on.

Resource List:

I found the natural cedar and pine, the glittered twigs, as well as the jumbo tea lights at Walmart.

I picked up chestnuts at the grocery store.

The tree ornaments and pine cones came from the stash we have at church.

The white trays were from Costco, but that was a few years ago now.

Linked to Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Night Special 
I <3 Naptime Sunday Scoop Link-up
C.R.A.F.T Making Monday Marvelous
Sugar Bee's Take a Look Tuesday

Pocket Pillow

I finally finished this today,

to go with this Sports Theme Bulletin Board:

I had a "tiny bit of consulting assistance" from my dear friend Tracy putting this pillow together.

OK- she did it and I watched

whilst surfing the bloggyworld

showing her all the cool stuff that y'all are doing.

We took a Gosa Slan pillow (20x26 inch)  from Ikea and

cut it in half.

Tracy measured, cut, and worked her sewing magic.

I cut out the other pocket left on the jeans after using the first on the bulletin board,

and glue gunned it on.

Wahoo for glue-

I can do that all by myself :)

This project was brought to you by the Letter T (for terrific Tracy)

and the Number 1 (for first class help from a first class friend).

Thanks Tracy!!!!

Linked to Crystal's Craft Spot's Accessory Challenge

Vintage Pop Crate

I have been looking for a Dr. Pepper crate...

but so far this is what I found within my budget.

  I popped into the dollar store and grabbed some paint and paintbrushes.

 I tried touching up the original Coca-Cola stamp with white paint... but I wasn't liking the look.  The paint was running beyond the stamp imprint, so I outlined the letters with a Sharpie.

 I used a damp paper towel to lighten up the white paint.

Ta-da!

Crate: $3

Paint & Brushes: $2

Total Cost: $5

So far the crate is living outside, but it is looking kind of lonely out there.  I'm on the hunt for some things to pair it with.  I'll post it when I find it :)

$0 Thanksgiving Decor

It's Thanksgiving weekend

here in Canada.

I took down the cards and photos that I had up

and replaced them with chipboard scrapbooking letters

from my stash.

I'm really working on using up my stash

instead of buying more stuff.

Upon seeing the new display, son #1 (Dr. Pepper Jr.)

said, "Cool.  But who are we thanking?"

Me: "God."

Dr. Pepper Jr., "I just forgot what the Thanksgiving holiday was all about." 

Hmmm, guess we gotta talk about that one @ our turkey dinner.

thank YOU GOD

for all you have given us!

(check it out: James 1:17)

We're blessed to be a blessing.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!



Sports Themed Bulletin Board Tutorial

The Before... a garage sale find.

The finished product.

This was the product that I had to shop for.  We chose the blue can of contact cement because it was good for both foam, paper, and fabric.  We spent a bit of time reading all the different cans, but it was worth it.  It cost just under $10.

We used foam board because I had it on hand.  I originally planned on using metal in order to make it a magnet board, but in the end with with the foam.  We plan to staple the items onto the board, so I think the foam board will stand up to that.  In order to cover the entire surface of the original painting, I needed to use 3 panels.  I centered a full panel and then trimmed the other 2 and placed them on either side.

 
I upholstered the center panel with some sports themed flannel.  I used a standard stapler, nothing heavy duty, but it did the job.

 I had a denim duvet cover on hand that I took apart in order to repurposed the fabric for this project.  The seam detail was original to the duvet so I cut the fabric to utilize this detail as a "seam" to "join" the panels on the bulletin  board.

 My simple upholstery method : pull the fabric tight over the panel and staple in place.  Easy peasy :)  I did iron the flannel piece of fabric before upholstering in order to create a smooth surface to start with.  The denim looked fine, so I skipped this step.

I wanted to add some original detail so I cut up a pair of levis and repurposed the back pocket with the red tab. 

Voila, a handy pin or mini stapler holder.  I attached the pocket to the panel with a glue gun.

I painted over the original gold coloured frame with Christmas Red DecoArt Crafter's Acrylic.  I used almost 2 bottles of paint (2 US fl oz or 59 ml / bottle).  After the paint dried, I distressed with a bit of dark brown shoe polish applied with a rag. 

 

My sweet husband works with this type of product at work, so he volunteered to do this step for me.  Using an old paintbrush he applied cement to the entire back of each panel following the directions on the can.  He was sure to apply generous amounts around the edges of each panel as well as over the entire painting. He let it all dry and then stuck them together.  He says there is no wiggle room- once you stick it it's stuck forever.  :)

 

OK, maybe I should have ironed the wrinkles out of the denim fabric too. 

Here is a last look at the BEFORE.

And the finished product in my son's "Sports" room all ready for him to personalize.

Linked to Show & Tell with Blue Cricket Designs