Pretty Paper Christmas Trees

I explained in “Christmas No-No Decor” why I had to switch it up this year due to my naughty kittens. We are in the throes of training them…they are just a little hard-headed.

I was excited to try something new and this vision of blue and red came to mind. I went with it.

 

Apparently, the motivation from naughty cat-dom was just the challenge I needed. Without spending a dime and using things that I had on hand, I created a whole new fancy look for my mantel this year.

 

Here’s what you’ll need to make your very own Pretty Paper Christmas Trees:

3/4″ Dowel Rods or PVC pipe
3/4″ Scrap Plywood
Coffee can lid
Jigsaw
Palm Sander & Fine/Medium Sand Paper
Drill and paddle drill bits
Oops Paint or Spray Paint
Hot glue gun & glue sticks (not pictured because they were warming up for their duties)
Wrapping Paper (I used both robin egg blue and brown parchment)

 

I had two pieces of leftover 3/4″ PVC and a 3/4″ Broom stick that someone had gone ninja on. I used all three pieces to make my three trees.
Mark the desired height of trees onto the PVC or dowel rod with a sharpee. I cut my lengths to 18″, 24″ and 32″.

 

Using the jig saw and a wood blade, cut the PVC or dowel rods at the marked lines.

 

Outline the coffee can lid onto the scrap plywood. This will be the base of the trees.

 

This joke never gets old, “Cut it out.” (Courtesy Uncle Joey.)
Meaning, cut the plywood circles out with the jig saw.
Using a 7/8″ paddle drill bit attached to the drill, drill into the center of the plywood, without going all the way through.

Sand the pieces of plywood using the palm sander. Sand the PVC and dowel rods by hand with a loose piece of sand paper.
Make sure the PVC or dowel rods fit into the holes in the plywood.

 

Hot glue the PVC or dowel rods to the plywood. Make sure you burn at least two of your fingers in this process.

 

Spray the entire thing with two coats of your favorite paint. Let dry.

 

While the tree stands are drying, cut out 3″ square pieces from the wrapping paper.

 

Roll each square into a cone shape that resembles this one. Hot glue the very end to the cone.

 

Pour a glass of wine and then do that same thing about 20 times more for each tree-depending upon the height.
Some of my trees required about 20 cones, the tallest about 30.

 

Starting about 6″ away from the base of the tree, begin hot glueing the desired colored cones to the PVC or dowel rod. Move up about 3-4″ and add another round of cones. Continue doing this until you reach the top of the tree.
I made one tree that was all blue, one with rows of alternating blue and brown parchment paper, and one that alternated within the same row blue, brown, blue, brown, etc.

 

I insist you make a mess while doing this, just so I don’t feel bad.

 

Add one last cone to the top of the tree, covering up any of the remaining PVC or dowel rod. Add a few cute birds, candy canes or alternating colors.

 

Fancy it up with some cute deer, sparkly tinsel and leftover ornaments and call your mantel decorated!
Merry Christmas!

Vintage Lace Fall Wreath

With the change in weather comes a change in wreaths for most front doors. My front door needed-nay-demanded a fall wreath. Armed with some lace and an old tablecloth, I hot-glued my way to a Vintage Lace Fall Wreath.

I’ve been hanging onto a vintage lace curtain (given to me by my beautiful sister-in-law) and a vintage embroidered tablecloth full of holes and stains. They were perfect for the demands placed before me by my front door.

 

Here’s what you’ll need if you’d like to create your very own Vintage Lace Fall Wreath:
Lace Curtain or section of material
Embroidered tablecloth, or something similar
Foam Wreath (mine is silver because it’s recycled from my Whimsical Wreath I made last year)
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Scissors

It’s that simple-let’s get started!

I cut my lace to be about 12″ wide, leaving it as long as the curtain already was-about 8′. Hot glue an end section of the lace to the backside of the foam wreath.
Now, grab your partner and wrap the lace ’round and ’round the foam wreath.

 

Here’s the wreath all wrapped up in the lace. On to the embellishments (from the vintage tablecloth/fabric) that make it cute!

 

Cut out your desired embellishment from your tablecloth or fabric.

 

Wrap the raw ends of the fabric underneath, hot glueing the embellishments around the wreath however you see fit. Leave enough of a section on the side of the wreath for a bow.

 

With your remaining lace, cut out a 12″ square of fabric.

 

Gather the raw ends of the lace together, making a bow. Hot glue the bow to the side of the wreath you earlier left blank.

 

Add another embellishment in the center of the bow, if you so desire. I did-so I did.

 

Here’s a little up close and personal of my finished product.

 

My pretty Vintage Lace Fall Wreath is finished and ready to serve its purpose on my front door!

I happen to love flowers…and Mirror Art

And although this Arts and Crap isn’t about flowers, I must talk about them first. Because they are just so darn purty. Then, we’ll get onto mirrors.

If you look deep into the photo, you will see a sneak peak of what we are going to talk about today. But don’t get stuck in the past for too long. Move on, people. Move on.

Although my fingers don’t care for the rough, thorny branches. My husband helped me band-aid one more finger before leaving the house on ‘an errand’.

A few minutes later, he came home with these.
Soft peach gladiolus. (Here’s another sneak peak at what we are going to make!)

And although I like the hard work of cutting branches from a deliberately mean bush and slicing open my hands, I am fond of the store bought kind too.

Even if they don’t put up much of a fight.
“Sissies!”-Mr. Thorny Flower.

Moving on…

Now that we have that discussion out of the way, see the background behind these flowers? That is what I wanted to talk to you about.

This is the finished product we will be doing together today. The entire piece is about 4 feet wide by 2 1/2 feet tall.

You will need broken or old mirror (pretend that I included the mirror in this picture), a hammer, heavy duty butcher paper or a heavy duty paper bag, gloves, a scrap piece of plywood, liquid nails and a caulk gun.We chose to paint our plywood glossy white. But you can do whatever you want. I know you will anyways…

Place the mirror in the paper bag or wrap it in the heavy duty butcher paper. Gently tap the mirror with the hammer a few times.

Open your bag to see what you’ve won. OOOH! You’ve won a broken mirror. How delightful!

Carefully retrieve the pieces of mirror and arrange them on your plywood in whatever pattern you desire.

You’ll want several sizes of the mirror chunks-so don’t get overly particular about uniformity.

After you have arranged the mirror pieces to your liking, start liquid nailing those suckers down. Make sure you have a system so that you don’t forget a piece. I recommend putting a small square of blue painter’s tape on each piece and removing it when the piece has been glued down. I did not do this, as you can see. Big mistake.

Let dry for 24 hours. Before hanging it, test that you did glue all of the pieces down by gently raising the board up and tilting it.
If a piece falls out, don’t worry. Just re-attach with more liquid nails.

We used drywall screws and screwed our piece of plywood straight to the wall. Then I touched up the screw heads with more glossy white paint. You can also attach the mirror to the wall by using two eye hooks and picture hanging wire.

Then stand back and enjoy your work of art. You are bound to get some ooh’s and aah’s from this little project.