Duck tape ice skates

One last thing to share with you about my outdoor decorations. On black Friday I got a great deal at Home Depot on some really cute Christmas Duck tape.  2 rolls for $3.88!  Came home eager to use it on SOMETHING, when I spied the ice skates I had purchased at a local thrift shop. So I thought I'd give it try.  They turned out so cute!  Afterward I attached them to a swag of fresh pines, and then to my sled.  Makes a cute porch decoration.  

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Christmas Mantel

Welcome to my Mantel!

The colors are red, white, and silver.

Everything on it is new this year.  In fact, I haven't even opened my decoration boxes from the basement yet.  Pretty much everything up here is crafted by me.  You can find the tutorial on this spool tree HERE.

The Mercury Glass is created from thrift store glass.  If you'd like to make some of your own, follow this LINK.

The JOY sign above the mantel was created with 6 Ikea candle plates, 3 Dollar Tree stars, and a portion of a banner from Hobby Lobby that used to read Joyeux Noel.  I'll be re-using the Noel portion somewhere else :D.  The plates are held onto the wall with 3M removable wall hangers. Up over a week and haven't fallen yet  ッ

I made up the fresh greens with cuttings from my yard, a few puffy snowballs, and some glass candy canes from - Dollar tree! Hot glued them on a stick. I did.

A special thank you to my neighbor Brad, who brought me back the deer antlers from his Dad's farm, and another thank you to my other neighbor, John, who said I had a nice rack, as I walked home with antlers in hand.  lol. Got to love good neighbors!!

And of course, my Poinsettia crate, which can been seen in closer details HERE.

So that's it folks!  Can't be absolutely sure if it's going to stay this way, because chances are once I bust open those Christmas bins, I'm going to see something that will NEED to go up there.

Happy days to you!

Diane

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Mercury Glass tutorial

If you have been in the stores this year, you've certainly noticed all of the Mercury Glass, especially this Christmas.  It's so pretty, but usually pretty costly.  I've seen on Pinterest where people have been making their own, so I thought why not give it a try?  It was actually really easy.  I started out going to a local thrift store and purchasing all these glass items, each one was .94 or less, but you could use any glass item you have on hand and are willing to paint.

Here is what you will need:

Mirror or reflective spray paint (found mine at Michaels)
spray bottle of water with a fine mist
bottle of Windex
glass 

You basically start by lightly misting the piece with water.  Immediately after begin to spray paint.  If the glass piece has a large enough opening and you can paint the inside, start by painting the inside first.  After putting on a layer of paint, continue by alternating paint and water or windex.  The Windex gives a slightly different bubble than the water, and really the results are up to you.  Just make sure not to use too much paint.  I also would recommend holding the water of Windex at least 9" to 12" back so it lightly falls onto the glass.  You don't want anything to begin to run.  And that's it!  Let piece dry.  I found that spraying the inside gives it a more dimensional look.  You should plan to start with a piece you don't really care about ruining, since it might take you a piece to get the hang of it.  One can of paint did 5 pieces for me.

Here is a peek at my finished pieces.  Sorry it's hard to see on some of my photos.  Reflective things can be tricky to photographer :)  

   
You will be seeing all of these things on my mantel.  As a matter of fact, I haven't even opened my Christmas decorations yet this year.  Everything I've used on my mantel has been made this year.  I did get to photograph my mantel today, so as soon as I can edit those photo, I will add that post.

Thanks for coming by.  Have a great night!

Diane

Oh so simple Christmas decoration from a spool

I found this wooden spool at Meijer.  It was an ornament.  I cut off the hanger and drilled a hole down the center.  Wrapping some twine around the spool gave it a little more character.

Then I took a sprig of a glass bead pick from Michaels, and stuck it in the hole with a dab of glue.

The end result is a beautiful little tree.  

It's large enough to be on my mantel.  Maybe if the sunny shines tomorrow I can finally photograph my mantel.  That would be so nice!

But in the mean time I was looking at Pottery Barn and I saw this tree, and it reminded me of my tree. Only it was $69, and mine was around $5.  I like the rustic nature of mine better.  Just sayin. . . 

source: Pottery barn

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Poinsettia Crate

I seems that I have gone crate crazy this year!  In addition to the Christmas crate I created for the outside, I decided to use a old crate from my basement to create a crate for in front of the fireplace.  I so love the way this turned out.  Now, if I can only keep those poinsettia live until the new year! 

 This crate originally held canned ham from Poland.

I kept the contents simple (and cheap).  The rustic bells are from the Dollar Store, only hold it, they only cost .50 cents!  The felt garland, a $1 clearance find from Jo-ann.  I used some burlap garland and $2.46 lights from the Home Depot.  

3 poinsettias from the Home Depot at half off the day after Black Friday.

The glittered reindeer are 2/$1 at The Dollar Tree.  And the sticks are, well sticks. :)

I've never liked poinsettias before this, but I am really digging them in this arrangement.

Christmas mantel is almost done and right above this, but I'm not quite ready to share.

Thanks for stopping by.

Diane

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Christmas pallet crate

 Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving with family and  friends.  We spent a great day at my in-laws and as always enjoyed the company and the food.  So now that Thanksgiving is over, it is legally acceptable to be in full Christmas mode.  Like it or not.  We experienced a beautiful week of Fall weather last week in Michigan.  A real treat for it to last so long!  I took advantage of the warm weather to get up my outside decorations and remake my Fall pallet crate into a Christmas decoration.  You may remember that it used to look like this:  

See the full article on my Fall Owl display here

We lost a few trees when the remains of hurricane Sandy blew threw.  My husband took this as a sign that he should buy a chain saw.  I took it as a sign that I could use some of that wood to create a little fence.

So while he worked on the big logs, I found some smaller branches that were nice and straight.  Trying them with twine and standing them in the crate.

I added some natural looking berries and pine branches to my old grape vine wreath and hung it on the fence.  Cost at this point about nothing.

I then purchased these four giant Christmas lights from Michaels.  30% off plus an extra 25% off brought the cost to around $13.  Using some red netting I bought at Hobby Lobby and other moss, pinecones, and picks I already had, I filled in the box.

I then created this sign from an old sign in my kids clubhouse.  Again everything I already had, so no additional costs here.  I am very pleased with the end result!  It's so fun & unique!

  

Please look at my baby dog crying in the window.  What a goof!

So after 3 days of working outside, it is finally finished (the box didn't take three days, just getting and arranging all the other lights), and guess what?!  In true Michigan fashion, it's freezing out again.  Yesterday was 60 today is in the 30's and so windy.  Hey, at least my box has held it's own in the weather.  Can't say the same about the other lawn ornaments.  Had to fix them already!

Thanks for stopping by and remember to follow me on FACEBOOK or on the sidebar through blogspot, email, or Linky Followers!!

Diane

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Thetablescaper.blogspot