As promised the ornaments I made.

Hey hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, ours was pretty good.We were out of town from Saturday till Monday. Today I took the day to relax, matter fact did not get out of pj's till about 4 pm...lol It was a much needed break, it had been a very busy Dec. Next year I am going to start early with what I can, lesson learned. So much I planed did not get done, had to pick and chose what was the most important on the list. So anyway that leads me to what I am going to post on here. Every year I make my nephews a ornament. Its become a tradition now...lol So this year I did not want to do the clear glass ornaments like I have always done I wanted something different.
One day this month I was watching the Nate Berkus show, and someone cut a birch log in slices and drilled a hole and added them on the tree as decoration. And right then and there I thought of that would be cool if you could stencil something on those. We live in Texas so the only way I am getting birch wood is to order it and I did not have time to get it in and make them so I used normal wood logs. Here was the final result.


Front



back added year using versa mark and stamps

 Here is how I did it
Took a small thin log and cut slices so I ended up with small round about half inch thick slices. Try to keep the cuts clean as you can.
Then I sanded it by hand I would say if you could use a sander on it that would be better but I could not find our sander. And know we have one...lol
I cleaned the wood off really good and made sure vinyl would stick to it.
Cut with the cricut a stencil I used the deer off Camp Out cut at 1 1/4
I applied the vinyl to the log slice. I tool some extra and covered area that the stencil did not cover. Make sure its all covered.
Then I took a versa mark stamp pad and dabbed the inside of the stencil giving it a very good coat of versa mark.
while the vinyl still is on the piece of log I took Prefect Pearls I used copper and them brushed it on and worked it on well.
Once I had a good coat of the prefect pearls I peeled the stencil off to reveal the sharp clean image on the log.
I took a small leaf holly stamp I had on hand and used versa mark to stamp on the back and some on the front.
Then used the prefect pearls once again carefully only getting it on the stamped areas.
I used red stencil on part of the holly stamp image.
Once I had it all done I coated it with polyurethane in a spray can. And don't make my mistake...lol Make sure its not to close and make sure to do light coats and let it dry and then do another coat and so on till you feel you have sealed it well. All that will do is lock the prefect pearls in and make it where it wont come off.
To finish mine off I added a eyelet at the top and added a decorative ornament hook as well as alphabet metal letter for the person it was going to. But you could just drill a hole in the sliced wood and then tie ribbon or twine.
So that is how I made it, was pretty easy hardest part is cutting the slices. Well thanks for looking and that was my finale Christmas project I made. Before we know it we be packing up all the Christmas stuff. Take hours or days to get everything decorated like you want and a day to get it all down and packed up.

Christmas Arrangements

So thought I would post a few X-Mas arrangements I put together. Wanted touches of Christmas around the rooms. This first project was done with almost everything I had on hand. I had the vase on hand and the poinsettia's as well.

I added some tree trimmings got for free at home depot and picks I had on hand. I used some scrap gift wrap and ribbon to the base of the vase.

All I bought for the coffee table center piece was the cinnamon scented pine cones. I love the smell of them so I added those in a glass bowl I never use and added some ornaments and poinsettia and picks I had on hand. As well as used some of the free tree trim.

I made this for the kitchen with the free tree trimmings and so storofoam I had on hand. Wanted to have something Nice to look at in the kithcne since its not joined with the living area.

This is our kitchen and nook



Well that is a few things I did to get a few more touches of Christmas, we have been on a tight budget so I have had to do things that cost zero or very little.

I will post the outside entry next I did it this last Sunday but did not get a chance to take pictures Sunday and then Monday it stormed and rained so I will post them tomorrow. Cant believe Christmas is almost here! Its been a super fast and busy Dec. Well thanks for looking :)

Fire place mantel

Well as promised wanted to post the fire place mantel. I changed it up a little this year. I added some filler to the garland I use. I have had my garland for many many lol years. Its your standard cheap garland that I paid very little for. I used some fake ivy vine I had and added that as well as went to Home Depot and ask if I could take some tree trimmings off there hands. Best thing ever for garlands that need extra volume to it and its FREE! I also used this in many other places I will post as well this weekend about that.
Anyway I also ran across a wonderful deal I could not believe it, they were going like crazy while I was at Lowe's. They had poinsettias for 2.00 for really big ones in decorative pots that had glitter on them and 1.00 for those in simple foiled pot and .50 for small ones. I got three large ones and one small one for the kitchen.

The two in the silver pots went on the fire place.

To make the center piece to the fire place I used a vine sleigh I got at target for 2.00 in the the 1.00 area. Target 1.00 area has become my favorite place for finding deals on cute stuff. I knew when I seen it what I had planed with it. I used the sleigh and a set of led craft lights and some snow blanket I had a new package as well for the base. I buy the stuff like this at the end of the years so I get it for a few cents and I have it for the next year.

And the finale result was....

The deer are stocking holders but used them as if they were pulling a sleigh. Cover base with snow blanket.

So there we go there is my super cheap mantel on a budget. I think all total I spent 7.00 Well thanks for looking and will post more soon. Have some other things I did with the tree trimmings I will post soon.

Christmas Tree

I meant to post this sooner but I have been super busy with getting house decorated and to getting ready for company to come into town. And we have been going out of town some so hubby can deer hunt. So its been a busy month here. Anyway thought I would start posting some of the decorations I have done, I will start off with the tree. We had to get a smaller one this year cause I moved the living room around and we plan to have people over. But that is okay less to decorate...lol Last years tree took me forever to get done cause we got a really big tree. Anyway I will have post on the fire place mantel and other decorations tomorrow.Thanks for looking :)







First angel I have ever bought

BUSTED! Cat having fun trying to climb the tree...lol



Been prepping for christmas

Hey everyone sorry been mia this week. I have been busy prepping house for getting a Christmas tree. I had to move our living room around, that is always a chore. And to while I was at it I cleaned parts of our knotty pine walls. Yes you seen right..lol our living room has knotty pine walls. Everyone that come to our home loves them but if they only knew how hard they are to clean. We hired a texture guy to take pop corn ceiling down and re texture it to a normal smooth look. He did good on the texture just he did not know how to cover the walls good I guess...lol And highest point is 15 ft. I am still cleaning texture off the walls and this was a year and a half ago. So I just do it little by little as I see I missed spots. So that is what I have been up to this week.

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving weekend. Ours was more like a Christmas Vacation movie that stars chevy chase. I could tell it but it would be long and some parts little to much TMI. I was glad to see the day end I know. We stayed with family from Thurs to sat night. We got home late sat and spent Sunday relaxing getting a few things done before work week started. So that is what has been going on last few days. As soon as I get done with the decorations I will post them also to I have many birthdays coming up I have to make cards for as well as Christmas cards. So Dec is always a super busy month for me. Bare with me for this week on post but after that there will be lots of post this month.

Box Ornaments

I was at the letter cottage blog site (one of my favorite blogs to visit) looking at there pretty tree this year when I seen her post about her tree last year. She made ornaments out of boxes, everyone has those laying around. So I thought since I was wanting to do something somewhat new this year instead of my normal bows I looked for any small box I could find. Cold med boxes, jello boxes even used one bubble gum box...lol Its amazing how many you can find. She used ribbon on her boxes which was very pretty but I chose to use twine I had. I did bling it up some, I used some of my craft items. Glimmer mist and my tim holtz distress inks.

Wrap your boxes with newspaper. Then take distress ink with a makeup sponge or tim holtz sponge and ink corners and some of the middle as well Now if you want the really distressed look take the pad and tap the corners and even the center if you like.

Okay now for the magic take your glimmer mist and spray your wrapped box, the ink will start to bleed and blend. It will be wet and bubbled so grab the hair dryer and dry it for a min or two on low heat, it drys fast. And the paper will shrink back to its normal texture when dry. Now just add your ribbon and hook and hang your box, super easy! You could use these as gift card holders as well to hang in the tree.
The glimmer mist gives it a hint of sparkle and the tim holtz ink ages the newspaper. This idea was great for those on budgets which these days seems like most of us are. Thanks to the lettered cottage site for such a neat idea and check her blog out, really great blog site full of home decorating ideas.

P.S. I will be adding the photos of our tree tomorrow so check back. I am sorry, camera battery had to be charged meant to have them added before now.