2012 Christmas Mantel

I have dressed my mantel in a very simplistic style this Christmas. 

 I wanted the 'true meaning' of Christmas to shine through in all its glory.

A few simple items - celebrating the birth of Christ.

I was able to find the lovely angel and deer graphic from 'The Graphics Fairy'. I downloaded the file onto the Staples website and had it printed out as an 'Engineering Print' to achieve the larger size. The finished print is black and white. To give it a bit of a sepia tone, I watered down some tan paint and coated the print with it. I added the text to the bottom and mounted it onto an old frame.

I love finding natural items from the yard to use in my home decor. A gathering of twigs was tied together to create the 5-pointed star and some dried flowers were attached to a wire circle to make the simple wreath.

One can never have too many angels and especially during this joyous time of year.
Wishing you and yours a 'Very Merry Christmas'.

Linking up to the following parties:

2011 Christmas Mantel (be it a little late!)

With the hustle and bustle of Christmas, I didn't have a chance to post photos of my Christmas mantel before today. 

I wanted a natural, rustic look for Christmas this year. Truth be told, I am drawn towards this look most of the time.

Continuing with the theme from my 2011 Christmas Tree, I made a couple trees with vintage hymnal sheet music. Miss Mustard Seed has a nice tutorial on the HGTV website.

 I wrapped another tree with jute (hot glued just enough to hold in place). Some antique dovetailed wood boxes give the trees some additional height and an old pizza peel and printers drawer serve as the backdrop for the vignette.

I gathered some evergreens from my yard (including pine, spruce and holly) and filled a long flat tray with moistened oasis and cut and tucked the greens to my hearts desire. Lastly, I added a simple burlap bow and a few silver ornaments.

For the mantel area above the firebox, I started with an old dresser mirror.

I added some more natural trees and another wood box. For the taller tree, I glued a nice texturized fabric  over a tree form and added a burlap star/rosette for the top.

For this tree, I wrapped strips of burlap around a tree form and tied on a couple bells with some jute.

 A wreath with a burlap bow - can't get much simpler.

 Another sheet music tree placed on top of my favorite vintage scale.

We had a lovely Christmas this year and hope that yours was too.

Linking up to the following parties:

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps On The Porch
Get Your Craft On Tuesday at Todays Creative Blog
The Best of 2011 at Its So Very Cheri
Masterpiece Monday at Boogieboard Cottage
DIY Project Parade at The DIY Showoff
Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Made by you Monday at Skip To My Lou
Table Top Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life
Market Yourself Monday at Sumos Sweet Stuff
Craftastic Monday at Sew Can Do
Motivated Monday at Be Colorful
I Made It Monday at Ninth Street Notions
Creative Me Monday at The Southern Institute
Making Monday Marvelous Day at C.R.A.F.T.
Tip Me Tuesday at Tip Junkie
Saturday Night Special at Funky Junk Interiors
Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts
Sundae Scoop at I Heart Nap Time

Until next time ~ Suzanne.

2011 Christmas Tree with Handmade Ornaments

I used our small tree in the family room this year but filled it to the brim with the true meaning of Christmas.

I purchased some wood crosses from AC Moore and gave them a quick coat of white paint.

I added a small burlap canvas adorned with a silver cross for the tree top cross.

White, cream, silver and gray are the colors for this years Christmas. 

My 'Vintage Hymnal Roll Ornaments' were added to the tree next.

I have a love for vintage books and finding vintage hymnal books is such a treat for me.

I simply rolled some of the pages and glued them together in stacks of 3.

These book rolls were then tied with a piece of jute....

and a silver cross charm was added to the bottom.

These were so simple to make but I really love the faith filled joy that they spread.

Do you remember my 'Texturized Spring Wreath Tutorial'? I was lucky enough to have won a wonderful prize in the Canvas Corp Burlap Contest with my wreath. My prize consisted of some lovely scrapbooking papers, burlap and muslin stretched burlap canvas's, burlap shapes of all kinds, jute and so much more! I was able to utilize some of my prize winnings in my next ornament.

My 'Burlap and Muslin Roses' ornament:

Using the stretched burlap and canvas frames, I made some burlap and muslin roses (using the tutorial from The Freckled Laundry) and simply hot glued them to the frames.

A sprig of greenery was added for a touch more color and a jute hanger was added to the back.

For the tree base, I simply placed the tree stand in an old crate filled with burlap.

Last up are my 'Vintage Hymnal Fan Ornaments'.

There are several tutorials for these around blog land. They are very easy to make. Basically fan fold a sheet of paper and glue in a circle. I then dipped the edges in some modge podge and rolled them in Martha Stewart White Gold extra fine glitter.

I printed on card stock different Christmas themed phrases, songs, etc and cut them with a decorative punch and glued them to the center.

I added jute to the back for the hanger.

Our tree is small but it's message is powerful!

Linking up to the following parties:

  

  

   

         

Until next time ~ Suzanne.