Well, if spring isn’t going to show up, I’m going to WILL it here. I’m planting my herbs tomorrow (inside), I’ve refused to wear my coat for the past few days and gosh DARN IT, I am decorating for it.
And if you decorate for it, it will come. That’s my hope anyway. :)
I wanted to spring bling out our foyer and the first project was an easy one. The inspiration came from Pottery Barn:
Are you surprised??
Their mossy letters are about 20 inches tall and run about $80 each.
SHUT. UP.
Yowza.
Mine is 23 inches tall and cost me $7. Awww to the YEAH.
I already had one big part of this one project, so that helped the cost a bit. I made a fluffy green Christmas monogram a few years ago:
I unraveled the garland and used the honkin’ letter to create my new spring masterpiece:
You can get these cardboard letters in various sizes at Joann’s – I got mine years ago with a coupon so it was only $5.
For this project, I got a huge sheet of mossy stuff:
I got this at Joann’s as well – it was $15 but I had a 40 percent off coupon, and then another 25 percent off my whole purchase. Saawheet.
I used hot glue to adhere the moss to the letter, and kind of cut out the moss as I went. On the curves I cut it so it would fit against the sides flush:
I cut out little triangle shapes to make it lay flat, so I used those to fill it all in later. (You can’t even tell where I glued them on.) Then I trimmed it up and it was done!
Two things if you try this – the hot glue will bleed through the moss sheet, so watch your fingers! For reals. Yikes. And wow – just. WOW. This project is messy:
Thank you Mr. Dyson.
The mess was worth it though -- it turned out just as I had hoped!:
I hung it over the mirror, (with hot glue again) but it would also look fantastic on a front door! Because I was too lazy didn’t want to do the back, you could see it was unfinished when I hung it. I used some of that sticky gummy stuff (that you use to hang posters) to hold it to the mirror:
Ahh yes, much better.
I finished off the buffet by working (mostly) with items I already had. My friend Missy was so sweet and sent me some mossy rocks from the Dollar Tree:
I couldn’t find them at our stores and was thrilled when she found some for me!
I added a few to my iron candleholder from a recent thrifting trip:
I put a nest where the candle should go and perched a little bird inside.
Pretty bird. Yeah, pretty bird. (Name that movie!) :)
I put another nest (you’ll see this is a trend) under a small cloche and called it done for that side:
For the other side of the buffet, I used some Spanish moss under a cloche and nestled a small basket with eggs inside:
I am LOVING that Spanish moss! I’ve never used it before and it’s just beautiful. The little basket was a Pottery Barn splurge a couple of months ago – for $6. :)
I put some craft paper through our shredder to create another nest of sorts in an apothecary jar:
Hello?? Cauute and free!
The largest apothecary jar is filled with more Spanish moss, a small nest and more eggs:
ALL of these eggs were $4 at Joann’s last weekend!
My only purchases for this little vignette were the sheet of moss and the eggs:
I tried placing the three glass pieces on the left on a tray at first, but found I liked the simpler look of the glass on the black buffet:
I love it! Good thing too, cause knowing me, the eggs will still be out in July. :)
I was going for a springy moss look mixed with some glass sophistication:
All done in about an hour and with $10 of (new) supplies. Me likey.
Have you pulled out any spring decor yet? I don’t do much, but you really can’t go wrong with nests, eggs, some green stuff and a bird or two thrown in. ;)
I’m linking this up to my friend Kate’s spring party! (Late to the party as always.)
Thanks for all the great comments on my solution for our paper clutter! You can still enter to win the Sentry Safe here till Friday!
Hey HEY! The Before and After Party is going strong – be sure to check it out and link up! SO MUCH fantastic inspiration!
It’s time for another holiday link up:
We’ve seen some amazing mantels at Layla’s, beautiful vignettes at Rhoda’s, and now I can’t wait to see all the crafty goodness at Kate’s!
I was inspired by this project months ago when I got a Pottery Barn catalog and saw this:
It is three by three feet, and it was one of those made me say “Oh come ON!” out loud. :) Especially because of the price – I can’t remember what it was, but it made me freak out just a little bit.
I knew I wanted to recreate it, and initially I was going to use some big honkin’ cardboard letters like I used for my Ballard-esque monogram.
But wow…they are BIG. :) So I got to thinking and went a new direction…and I love the new direction.
I had some luan scraps in the garage and cut one to the size I wanted:
Ignore the awful tree drawing on the back – that was a project that never happened. ;) Trust me, that’s a good thing.
I had some leftover paintable wallpaper from a project in the Bub’s room, and decided to cover the board with it:
I found some letters at Joann’s that weren’t monster size, in a font I loved. I spray painted them and some leftover trim a festive red:
But because I wanted to display this project in our family room (which has a slightly rustic vibe for the holidays), the bright red wasn’t the look I was going for.
Enter my friend Beth’s sister and her take on this same project! I loved how she darkened her letters just a bit, so I did the same. LOVE when I find what I need when I’m not even looking! :)
I used some burnt umber craft paint:
And I mixed a bit of water in with it:
Then just brushed it on with my foam brush, and wiped most of it off. The top is before, the bottom after:
I did the same with the letters, but didn’t wipe nearly as much off. The wood was rougher and soaked it up a bit more, which I liked:
I arranged the trim and letters how I wanted, then attached them with my nail gun (but you could also glue them on!).
I’m really pleased with how it turned out!:
Is it still considered a craft if I used major power tools to create it? Hmmmm…
A trip to Joann’s and craft paint were involved, so I say YES. :)
I did a little rustic vignette with our new art on the Craigslist dresser. The sled was a find years ago at a farmhouse down the street that used to have the GREATEST sales:
It was five bucks and I love it so! The little mittens were supposed to be ornaments:
The little tree used to sit in the kitchen, but I thought it was perfect here:
I know little candy ornaments don’t exactly scream rustic, but I’m working with what I’ve got here peeps! :)
I mixed some ornaments and pinecones in a lovely bowl I got a while ago from Meijer of all places:
I am loving their kitchen/serving aisles lately!
And all together, it’s a slightly rustic, Pottery Barn knock-off, using what we have Christmas vignette!:
The letters were $1.99 each, I think? I had everything else. :) I luuurve that font for those letters, especially the little curl on the “O” – too cute! Altogether it took about 90 minutes to put together, but I did it over a few days.
Don’t you LOVE taking something you love in a catalog and making it your own for a few bucks?! Awwww. yeah. :)
Can’t wait to see your crafty projects at Kate’s! And don’t forget we’re wrapping up the Holiday Home parties later this week with my Christmas tree party. WHOO!
P.S. Jess did a version of this too, and it’s identical to the PB one – for eight bucks!!
P.P.S. Many of you asked where you can find fake snow after my Walmart post – I’ve found it at Hobby Lobby in years past, and Target this year. Target has decent sized bags for $1.99 each. :)
Thank you to my sponsor!:
Hey there! Have you checked out the Holiday Home Mantel Party at Layla’s yet? Some serious inspiration going on!! (You can see ours here.) Even if you don’t have a mantel, you’ll be sure to find some great ideas for your holiday decorating. :)
Late in the season last year I did a Christmas craft that I absolutely LOVE – I wanted to show it to you again in case you wanted to try it out yourself.
I had seen some Santa hats at Stein Mart one day, and just thought they were adorable!:
Killing me. So fun! But I knew I could recreate them myself for less cash, so that I did.
Now I think mine are actually cuter, if I do say so myself:
And making them was way cheaper than buying them – score!!
Since I made them so close to Christmas last year, I just threw them in a tray I had laying around. But this week I found the most adorable tray at Hob Lob and it is just perfect for my cutie hats:
It was only $5 on sale! SCORE again. :)
I filled in around them with some extra Dollar Tree ornaments:
Well hello there!:
HA!
My Santa hats are one of my very favorite Christmas decorations. Partly because I made them myself. Partly because they are stinkin’ cauute!:
I’ve heard that some of you have made them with your kids, students and with friends – I LOVE that!! Makes me so happy. :)
For all of the details of how I made these (they were SO simple), check out last year’s post here. If you’ve made them, I’d love to see pictures!
So are you done decorating? It takes me a few days…or maybe a week. :) But I’m trying to take my time and enjoy it, especially since the Bub loves Christmas decor as much as me this year. I have a partner in crime and I love it!
P.S. I can’t believe how much our family room has changed since the pictures in that Santa hat post last year – all because of a $100 Craigslist dresser. ;) Love.
Thank you to my sponsor!:
Hello all! Hope you had a great weekend! We are DONE with marching band season (so proud of them!!) and I now have my hubby back…for approximately two weeks. :)
I haven’t done anything crafty in a while and last week I was feeling my mojo creeping back…so I got busy on a quick Thanksgiving project for our foyer.
I’ve been admiring the cute “Thankful” banners I’ve seen over blogland lately, and figured it was high time I made one of my own. I picked up about $3 of paper from Hobby Lobby:
And warmed up my sah-weet Silhouette machine:
My original thought was to do some circles, then put leaves in pretty colors over those, with letters on the leaves to spell my thankful message:
But after I cut out the leaves, I realized they were going to be way too small for the letters. Plan B was to cut out additional circles a bit smaller than the original ones:
I love love LOVE that cardstock – I use it all the time. It’s got a simpler, lined side, and a side (the one I prefer) with a linen-like texture to it. And aren’t those scalloped edges too cute? (I purchased the design on the Silhouette site for a buck.)
When I was done cutting, I ended up with large and small circular cut outs, the leaves that I wanted to try to use, and the letters:
Normally I use spray adhesive for paper projects, but the glue stick was closer. :) It worked great!:
Isn’t that so stinking cute?
I had the buffet in our foyer dressed for fall six weeks ago, but took it all down for the Halloween display. I just put everything back the way I had it, even though it’s only for a few days, week, couple of weeks till Christmas starts peeking out. :)
I plopped one of my (real) blue Cinderella pumpkins on some burlap:
Can you believe I’ve had that pumpkin for about eight weeks now? It’s still perfect! Crazy.
Back in August, I was strolling through Pier 1 and saw some beautiful faux leafy stuff, and it was gorgeous. I especially loved that it was really, really tall and full. I knew I’d need a few of them though, so I held off. (They weren’t really cheap.)
Imagine my glee when I saw something very similar at Hob Lob:
I think they were $3 each, half off? Wicked good. :)
When we were working on my father-in-law’s house a couple of months ago, I saw this beautiful amber glass piece and swooned:
Isn’t it gorgeous? Perfect for my fall display!
I filled it with little beady stuff, pine cones and acorns I’ve used through the years:
All together, with our new Give Thanks garland on the mirror, and it’s a lovely, warm welcome!:
You’ll notice my Cinderella pumpkin tower shrunk by one. I noticed the other day that the middle one had cracked and it was NASTY. Ew!
I can’t even believe the difference a year makes – this little bitty table just didn’t do it for that spot:
Thanks to Craigslist, I have a lovely new spot to decorate each season!:
Yippeeee! For that, I am thankful. ;)
I’ll show you a few more of my fall goodies soon, and then it’s all over folks – get ready for some magic!!!
Are you still working on fall decor? Has Christmas crept up around your house?
Thank you to my sponsor!: