DIY hurricane vase

You can see details for my entire Christmas mantel HERE

Isn't the Dollar Store a wonderful place? It's full of tons of cheap goodies just waiting to be improved on.

Plus, I can walk in there and buy a whole basket of stuff without making a dent in my budget. You just have to get a little creative sometimes.

Take these vases and martini glasses for example. Pretty blah. But with a little glue and spray paint, they make a great addition to my holiday mantel!


Supplies:

• Vase (found at the Dollar Store)
• Martini glass (found at the Dollar Store)
• Krylon metallic spray paint
• E600 adhesive
• Filler

Step 1: Spray paint your martini glasses.

In a well-ventilated area (outdoors preferably) apply several coats of metallic paint to your martini glasses.

Make sure you actually pay attention to directions and don't spray too close or turn your glass over before the paint is drying or you'll end up with some drippage like I did...oops.

Step 2: Apply your adhesive.

After you've been a good girl and followed the drying rules for the spray paint, apply some of your adhesive to the bottom of your vase and glue to the bottom of your martini glass, making the part of the martini glass where you would drink from the base of your hurricane vase. Hopefully I didn't confuse you too much there.

Let your glue dry, and how you have some adorable hurricane vases!

Fill with any filler you like (I chose a pack of assorted small Christmas ornaments) and decorate away! I also decided to tie some ribbon on mine to make them even more festive.

These make great decorations year-round.

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

"Let it Snow" framed wall art

You can see details for my entire Christmas mantel HERE

I got a couple of pictures from a friend for free, but it wasn't the pictures I was interested in, it was the frames. (Though I'm sure you'll agree the pictures are just lovely ;) I had a vision for some cute framed wall art for Christmas, so I got to work dismantling them.

Supplies:

• Frame
• Spray paint
• Contact paper
• Foam snowflake
• Ribbon
• Tape or hot glue

First I removed the glass and backing and laid the frame out in the yard for several of coats of white spray paint. On a side note, if it's windy outside, just say no to spray painting. Just don't. Step away.

After the frame was painted, I used my Silhouette to cut out "let it snw" from white contact paper (and yes, I know I'm missing the 'o', you'll see where that went next!) If you don't have a craft cutter, just use Word to create your wording and then trace it onto the back of some contact paper (make sure you flip your letters!) and cut out. After cutting, I just peeled the backing off and stuck the letters to the wall.

For the O, I wanted to substitute a snowflake and hang it from ribbon, so I used a foam snowflake that I bought in a pack Wal-Mart and some red sparkly ribbon. I just cut the ribbon long enough to hang from the top of the frame down to the wording and used tape to attach it.
  

Then I put it all together!

It really makes a great focal point for my Christmas mantel. I can't wait to come up with some ideas to reuse my frame after Christmas is over!

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

DIY tree form and garland Christmas trees

You can see details for my entire Christmas mantel HERE

I wanted to decorate my mantel this year, but (as you have all figured out by now) I'm a cheap-o. As in, I won't pay the $2.50 for a styrofoam tree form kind of cheap-o. I mean, all my money is going toward Rapunzel and Disney princess merchandise, so I can't really afford styrofoam tree forms.

At least that's what I tell myself. It sounds way better than "cheap-o." (Husband if you're reading this, you can thank me later for saving us $2.50. You're welcome.)


So I decided to make my own tree form because I have lots of these:

Here's what you need to make your own cardboard garland trees and be a cheap-o too!

Supplies:

• Cardboard cereal box (for the biggest tree template, you'll need a large cereal box (think Frosted Mini Wheats)
• Hot glue
• Scissors
• 9+ feet of gift wrap garland
• Free downloadable tree forms with 3 sizes HERE

Step 1: Create your tree form.

First, cut out one side of your cereal box. If you're making the large tree form, make sure you don't cut the sides of your cereal box out (found that out the hard way :)

Next, print out and trace my tree form template onto the unprinted side of your cardboard and cut out.

To make the form, you'll need to gently ease your cardboard into a tree shape. Start on one side and gently roll your cardboard (don't fold or bend) until it's all curvy-like.

Pinch the tip of your tree form and secure with hot glue (make sure the tab portion of your tree form is on the inside.) Continue gluing along the tab until the tree is secure.

Ta-dah! Tree!

Now make a forest of them.

Now that you have your tree form, there are a ton of decorative Christmas trees that you could make with your tree form, but I included a tutorial for a simple garland tree below.

Step 2: Attach garland.

I found some cute garland used for wrapping gifts in the Christmas section and decided to make some festive garland trees with my new tree forms. First, put a dab of hot glue on the bottom of your tree form and attach the end of your gift wrap garland.

Continue twisting your garland around the tree, adding dabs of hot glue as you go to secure your garland.

When you reach the tip of your tree form, leave an extra 1/2 inch of garland and tuck the end into the hole of your tree form.

Merry Christmas, enjoy your $2.50 savings ;)

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

My Christmas mantel

FINALLY I can share my Christmas mantel with you! (And can we all just vow to overlook my dirty fireplace tile that I didn't vacuum before the pictures? K great.)

Christmas is fast approaching and since we'll be out of town this year, we decided not to get a Christmas tree. That and also Connor would probably try to eat the needles so I'd like to avoid my son poop a Douglas Fir if possible.

Since there was no tree, I decided to go all out with my mantel and decorate it using things I already had, as well as store bought items to keep it affordable but festive (several tutorials to follow over the next few days!)

Most of my supplies were purchased at Wal-Mart, like these snowflake and and icicle ornaments, ribbon, and garland below.

I used a vase that I already had and some fake berries I found at the Dollar Store to add a pop of color to the cool palette that I chose. I made these awesome hurricane vases myself and filled them with small ornaments.

This printable nativity is another super easy tutorial that I'll be sharing soon.

And these garland trees were also handmade, including the tree forms (another tutorial as well.)

But my favorite part had to be my "Let it Snow" wall art that I made using an old frame that I repurposed. I originally had something else in mind when I started making it, but it morphed into this  instead (which I actually like better than my original plan.)

I hope you like my mantel! Not too shabby for my first shot I think :) Check back over the next few days for tutorials on how to make a lot of the decorations you see!

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!

Christmas Traditions: Advent Calendar

When I was a kid, one of my favorite Christmas traditions was waking up each morning and running to the kitchen with my brother where cardboard advent calendars waited for us to open them each morning. We would pry the perforated doors open to reveal thin little chocolate squares inside. Most of the time, the advent calendars were from the local grocery store so the chocolate tasted strangely sweet with a hint of cardboard, but we didn't care. Christmas was the only time of the year when my parents would let us start our day with chocolate without a second thought.

I wanted to carry on the tradition of the advent calendar with my children, but I wanted a calendar that I could put my own candy or little trinkets into, something that I could personalize myself (without the cardboard flavoring.) As I was shopping the after Christmas sales last year, I came upon this at Marshall's:

It was the cutest wooden advent calendar AND it was marked down to $20.00! I couldn't resist. I snapped it up, and then it waited patiently in my attic for a year until I finally dug it out on the 1st and filled it with Hershey's kisses.

Did you know that a Hershey's kiss candy cane has exactly 24 Hershey's kisses in it? Well, mine did anyway, which worked out perfectly for the 24 advent days.

Haley loved it. Once I showed her how to open up the little wooden door, she was thrilled to find the little colorful wrapped chocolates. And actually, she got got a little TOO excited because when I woke up the next day, I discovered that she had scooted a stool up to the counter and opened 4 of the doors on the bottom row to eat the chocolate (some with the wrappers partially on.) She would've eaten more too if my husband hadn't caught her in the act. Sneaky girl.

I can't blame her though, I may have snuck a couple myself...

Monster sandwiches

You can find the full details on the Little Monster 1st Birthday HERE

My absolute favorite part of the things I made for my son's Little Monster birthday party was the monster sandwiches.

I originally planned on making 3 different kind of monsters, but after I made this guy, I thought "how can they get any cuter than this?"

Here's what you need to make your own monster sandwiches:

• Bread
• Olives 
• Lunch meat
• Cheese slices
• Toothpicks
• A round cookie cutter or a glass and a knife

First, take a cookie cutter and cut the center out of your bread slices. Don't have a round cookie cutter on hand? No problem, do what I did and turn a glass turned upside down and use a knife to cut around the edges.

Next, put your choice of fillings inside (I went with ham and turkey lunch meat) and any other condiments you think your guests would like.

To make the teeth, simply cut jagged edges around half of a  slice of cheese and insert the cheese inside the sandwich on the bottom.

Make the eyes by snapping a toothpick in half, and inserting each half into an olive. Stick the olives in the top of your sandwich.

Ta-dah! Monster sandwich!

How fun would it be to make your child a whole monster-themed lunch for school one day?

If you had the time (and the endurance to cut out multiple monster cheese teeth), you could always make a whole pack of monster sandwiches for a crowd.

Check out my sidebar to see where I link up each week!