Make // Pleather Bows & Other Gift Wrap

PLEATHER... Great for decorating your presents AND your friends!

who knew??!!

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Make // Alcohol Ink Ornaments

This tutorial first appeared as part of Under the Table & Dreaming's 4th Annual Handmade Ornament Series. 

I discovered Alcohol Ink over the summer while I was coming up with ideas for restyling these recyclable glass bottles. The look was so iridescent and eye-catching that I knew that it would be the perfect treatment for simple glass ornaments. 

Flash forward six months and it was finally time to try my hand at decorating glass ornaments. I played around a bit and came up with four different, yet simple techniques. While they look a little labor intensive, they are surprisingly easy to make and not too messy (as long as you keep the ink off your clothes!).

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Friday Favorites // 12.13.13

Ooh, Friday the 13th! I love it. And it's the hub's birthday... I love it even more! Thirteen is a lucky number in this household.

Here are some of the things that grabbed my interest this week--

this White Ornamental Kale with Green Polka Dots

found at Trader Joes-- 3 stalks for $4.99!

Click "read more" for the full post

Our Lives // Christmas Decorations and Mini-Makeover

Okay, seriously? Where did last week go? Did Thanksgiving just come and go, just like that? Lets just say it was a busy, yet productive, week for us.

I started off the week by hosting a breakfast meeting for my fellow school board members. I'm not a baker, but I've been wanting to make these yummy cinnamon rolls. They came out pretty good, but somehow I forgot to serve the fruit and juices that I had chilled in the refrigerator. Oops. I've been extra spacey these days so I blame it on either my allergies or my allergy medication. I'm not ready to go with the "getting old" excuse quite yet. :)

So, besides pretending to be a baker, I also put up the Christmas decorations and hung some much needed art on our blank walls.

We've been in this house for four years so I really don't have a good excuse for blank walls. I'm just pickier with each passing year, I guess... Probably as a result of my past rash decorating decisions. I've "donated" a bunch of decorative items that we bought on whim for our old house. My hubs is of the "If there's space... Fill it!" school of thought. As a newlywed, I was less particular and too busy with work to focus on particulars, so I just went with it. Also, that was way before blogs, Pinterest and other influencers... I really had no sense of my own style way back then! Flash forward ten years and NOW I care and am picky to the point of paralysis. I'm not sure what's better-- Buy and regret? Or not buy and suffer from decorating paralysis?

Click "Read more" for the full post

Make // Cork Tree

Before I sneak off for the Thanksgiving holiday, I thought I'd leave you a fun tree tutorial. All you need is a little cork, glue and a tree form.

I love the color and texture of cork and this little tree fits in perfectly with my existing collection of cream, gray and natural-colored decorative trees.

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Make // Light-up Bejeweled Ornament

When I initially started dreaming-up this ornament, I wanted to use pearl and rhinestone brooches and other luxe-looking jewelry pieces. But after a couple years of pricing new and vintage jewels, I knew that one expensive $50-$100 ornament wasn't going to make the cut. If I'm going to spend that much money, I'd rather just buy a collector's piece.

Then, on a recent trip to the craft store, I came across a large package of pretty jewelry-quality beads. With their translucent qualities,  I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.

I was the kid who couldn't get enough of  Lite-Brite... In my book, it's so much better if it lights up! :)

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Make // Faux Fur Trees

Ah yes... Are those sleigh bells I hear? Has Christmas sprung up overnight in about every retail spot that I inhabit? Except Costco, who thought it was okay to bring out the holiday cheer in August when my kids were still on summer vacation? Ahem. Yes my friends... It's that's time of year again.

I waited until All Hallows Eve was over and, although I love Thanksgiving and will honor that fine holiday with lots of good company and good eats, it's time to get BUSY!  Because Christmas will be here soon.

Stress and Excitement. That's what I'm all about.

Since I've been building a forest tree collection for the past several years (see most of them here), I thought I'd start with some pretty, soft and texturally awesome Faux Fur Trees.

Click "Read more" for the full post

Plans for Christmas 2013 Decor...

It's November. Halloween is officially over. I'm gonna go out on a limb and declare that it is now officially okay to start talking Christmas... Mmm-kay?

When I look back upon my last few years of holiday projects, I noticed that each year I tend to focus on a particular material or style.

Christmas 2010 was white felt and silver paint-- It was my first year trying to revitalize our old, tired Christmas decorations.


Christmas 2011 was all things smooth and shiny-- pearls, satin, glass.


Christmas 2012 was natural materials and colors-- burlap, muslin and mother of pearl.


So what's in store for 2013?

Christmas 2013 is going to be the year of faux fur, leather (or pleather) and... metal hardware. Haven't quite figured out how I'm going to fit this in, but... Hey, that's part of the challenge!

Faux Fur Trees coming up soon...

Make // Fabric Pinecone - Pleather & Faux Fur

If you like to craft, but aren't quite ready to go THERE with Holiday projects (I'm with ya, I get anxious just thinking of the holiday madness), then these little pinecones are the perfect project for you. They're great to use in Fall decor and can easily transition over to the winter holidays. I've made several variations over the years--

scalloped lace pinecone | felt pinecone | muslin fabric pinecone | toile fabric pinecone

While these look similar in shape to the toile fabric pinecone, this time I streamlined the process and also experimented with different textures; Bring on the Faux Fur and Pleather!!!

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Make // Fabric Pinecone - Toile

I took a month off from crafting and wasn't going to make any Fall projects, but then I started thinking about pinecones... I love pinecones! So I eeked this one out last Saturday between two soccer games and a baseball practice. Sometimes a little pressure helps the creative process. :)

I've made pinecones before-- this lace one, this felt one, and this muslin fabric one... So this time I combined a few techniques and came up with yet another version of a fabric pinecone.

Click "Read more" for the tutorial

Christmas in... June?

So I know it's probably a bit early to be thinking of Christmas-- which, ahem,  is just a mere 6 months away... But I had to share this.

There is a small learning curve with these. I will be sharing the tutorial when we get closer to the holidays!

Merry Christmas

Wishing you a beautiful Christmas!

image via carolyn cochrane on etsy

With Love,

[Home] Our Christmas Home

With the last minute Christmas shuffle and two little guys that are out of school and stir crazy, our home is rarely photo-ready this time of year (or ever, to be honest). The rest of the house is still in disarray, but I wanted to drop off a few photos of our Christmas decorations... if anything for posterity's sake!

Our Tree...

after almost buying a new tree because of broken strands of light, this gadget came to the rescue! no black hole in the christmas tree this year!

Some of the handmade ornaments that I've made in the last few years...

clockwise from top left-- burlap stamped ornament : giant muslin ornament : lace pinecone : crushed shell ornament : old ornament upcycled with puffy paint (snowflake design), spray paint and glitter paint.

 The back of the tree (facing our great room) has an entirely different vibe...

 vintage ornaments from my childhood and my kids' creations. some day i'll have enough handmade ornaments so that these guys will get their own tree.

The Living Room...

our card display.  i just took these branches, punched holes in the cards and... voila, instant card tree!

The Santa Photo Display...

the only downside of having these photos together... when your kids start asking why all the santa's look different.  oops!

The Tree Vignette in our Entry...

details and links to the diy here

The Family Room...

i embraced my inner-girl and purchased this mini white tree and candy-themed ornaments on deep discount. it's the Martha Stewart brand from Macys and i LOVE it!

i used gold lame (my old diy tree skirt) and my snowflake garland to spiff it up.

and our very cheery JOY mantel.  

And THAT is a wrap!  I have a couple more errands to run and we should be set for Christmas!

sharing with...

[Make] Destash and Wrap

Like most people who like to craft, I have a TON of stuff just waiting to be used-- leftovers of this and unopened packages of that.  Instead of buying more (so tempting sometimes), I decided to dig into my container of this-n-thats for some gift wrapping inspiration.  After the dust & fluff had settled, here's what emerged...

Happy Pom-Pom Gift Wrap (inspired by the popular Anthro wrap of course)--

free ticket gift tag download from how about orange

mini pom-poms (similar)

Click "Read more" for the rest of the post

[Make] Stamped Wrapping Paper

Instead of buying a bunch of wrapping paper, this year I decided to invest in a bolt of craft paper-- A ginormous bolt that will literally last a lifetime.  I kept it simple and used stamps, fun tags, twine and pompom yarn to keep it interesting.

I usually dread wrapping presents, but this is kinda fun!

Click "Read more" for the details

[Our Lives] Holiday Card 2012

Our 2012 Holiday Card!  

My duties are done.  Now I can relax under the tree with a jug of egg nog.  :)

[Our Lives] 12.19.12

The kids are officially on Winter Break (yee haw!) and the holiday preparation craziness is subsiding (phew!).  Here's what we've been up to this week... Is it only Wednesday???

Prepping the Teachers' Gifts

some of the house boxes are printed on the diy marbled paper that i made this summer. i filled the boxes with an assortment of Dove wrapped chocolates... sea salt caramel... nom nom nom.

[house box template from design mom]

 [diy marbled paper tutorial]

Wrapping Presents

gift wrapping is slowly coming along

[cinnamon ornament tutorial]

Making Salt Dough Ornaments

the boys' salt dough ornaments. metallic paint & glitter "fix" everything!
[salt dough ornament tutorial]

Making Gingerbread Boys & Girls

my mom and my 30+ year tradition! each year we say "maybe not this year", but then the gingerbread guilt kicks in and by the end of the night i have tendonitis in my right paw.  ;)

Click "Read more" for the full post

[Round-Up] Holiday & Christmas Projects

Christmas is 10 days away.  Say it with me "What??!!!".  I think I say this every year, but this year seems EXTRA crazy! Self-imposed crazy, of course, but still enough to keep me chugging along late into the night. Anyhow, I thought it would be a good time to do a round-up of my past and present Holiday projects. After all, there are still 10 more days to create!! :)

Hope you're having an awesome weekend!

[Home] JOYeux Mantel

Here's our kid friendly, "not boring", somewhat disco-like mantel in our family room.  It's bright and colorful and I think it'll transition nicely to New Year's Eve.  This all started with the water color star garland that the boys made (mini tutorial coming soon). The bright colors brings a perfect pop of "joy" as the days get shorter and the light in our house becomes more gray.  

Click "Read more" for the details

[Home] Christmas 2012 Living Room Mantel

We haven't put up our tree yet (saving that for the weekend), but I feel like I'm finally getting into the holiday spirit. This year I decided to decorate our living room mantel.  It's been ignored for too long!  I have something fun and kid-oriented planned for our family room mantel, but I decided that the living room would be for me... When I need a time-out.  :)  

Click "Read more" for the details