Teapot Ornament Set

My granddaughter has a birthday two weeks before Christmas, so we try to make sure she gets her own separate celebration.



This year she has discovered tea, and is exploring the different tastes and all the fun tea accessories out there, so I knew I wanted to give her something along those lines. I had this teapot ornament made from clay and a glass ball which had seen better days. It was pretty beat up. I knew I couldn't make it shiny and new again.

So I used my handy technique for adding texture...torn, crumpled tissue paper and Mod Podge. The tissue and glue also stabilized the clay pieces and helped keep them firmly attached to the ball.

Her favorite color these days is vibrant apple green. Yes, her bedroom is painted this color! So I painted the teapot ball and pulled together some trims from my stash.

I sealed it with shiny acrylic and added a black teapot, a sleeping cat button, a black satin rosette, a silver bell, the original silver bow and a wood tag with her initial attached with black ribbon.

I also made her a plaque for her bedroom but this time I used a calmer color combination of black and white.

She was delighted with her gifts! The teapot went straight on the family Christmas tree and her sign is now on her bright apple green bedroom wall. And when she paints her room another color (Orange Crush, anyone?) this plaque will still fit in.

I've been making personal gifts like these for years and the family always seems to like what I make, lol! I could say it's because my stuff is totally awesome but it could also be that I raised my kids to be POLITE. ;o)

So now I'm neck deep in Christmas gift production and really glad I have ONE MORE WEEK to get finished. I always get done in time, so I'm not going to stress. Though I will not be making any rose shaped candles anytime soon. Yes, with each petal hand formed. Crikey.

Have a great week and a blessed Holiday, everyone. Count your blessings, you have more than you know!

Book Page Decor Featuring Stars

Here is the the mirror and bookshelf in my entry, all decked out in greens and lots of recycled book page ornaments. I have rosettes, balls, wreaths and stars.



I love the look of vintage books and typography and use old worn out books and music sheets whenever possible in my crafts and decor. It really couldn't be simpler....

Find a shape you like. In this case I used a 3D tin star from the Dollar Store and a worn out dictionary with densely printed pages. Even a flat star shape cut from thin cardboard (like cereal boxes) looks great covered in pieces of old book pages!

Sometimes I tear the pages up for nice ragged edges, but this time I cut them up into rectangles. A coat of Mod Podge (or plain school glue) adheres them to the shape easily. Once it is dry, a top coat of Mod Podge really seals the edges and gives it a nice sheen. You can also spray it with clear sealer for additional luster.

When your shape is dry, sand the edges with a downward stroke using an emery board or buffing sponge like you'd use on your fingernails. This trims the extra paper for a nice straight edge.

Can you tell one star is covered with pages from a different book? I just love the texture and interest the print gives to these simple shapes!

Ornaments made with recycled book and music pages are a cheap and easy way to give your decor a bit of shabby chic style without too much effort. I love the way the recycled paper ornaments look with my ruffled muslin garland, such sweet contrast!

Soon I'll show you how to make the sweet zig zag wreaths and simple rosettes. They are so simple, inexpensive and very striking!

I'll be linking up to the parties in my sidebar. Come check out the wonderful Holiday creativity!

Rosettes for Christmas

I'm still working on my Christmas decor, but I already know I'm making more rosette projects this year!

Here are two of the balls I've already made and I love their texture and color. They add so much interest to my decorating, I want to make more!

I punched out 1" circles for the backing, then tore crepe paper streamers into 6"-8" pieces. I stretched them slightly then rolled and scrunched each one into a rope shape.

Curl one end into a tight spiral then hot glue to the paper disc. (Please ignore the silver paint on my thumbnail!) Twist and glue the rest of the paper down until you have a nice round rosette about 1" across. Make more than you think you will need, a Christmas ball takes lots of rosettes.

This Christmas ball is 4" across and it was on clearance at the Dollar Store for fifty cents. Score! It took one entire roll of crepe paper streamer to make enough rosettes to cover it completely. I added fake gems from my stash to give it a bit of bling. I like it alot!

Also in my stash I had this old foil twist that was SOOOO popular about 15 years ago. I used bunches of it back then and this is what I had left. I cut it into 8" lengths, unraveled it flat and cut each piece in half longways so each 8" piece gave me two rosettes. I love it on this ball, it is so bright and shiny and has great texture. Great bang for the buck!

And here's my lucky find of teal foil twist that was PERFECT for my wreath recycle project. I made more rosettes from this pretty foil and glued them to another ball.

It is gorgeous and sits front and center on my door wreath.

I've got the rosette decorating bug, people! I have another 4" ball that I'm covered with silver fabric rosettes, and then maybe another cone Christmas tree, and maybe some smaller balls with muslin rosettes...if and when I get them finished, I'll blog about them here, don't you worry!

What about you? What has grabbed your creative attention this year? New color combinations? A retro Christmas foil tree? Totally natural with pine cones and twig stars?
Please share!

Black and White and Red Christmas

Here's what my baker's rack looked like for November. Lots of vibrant autumn color with faux leaves, my fabric and lace pumpkins, garlands and a neat twig rosette wreath.

For October it looked like this, complete with spooky bats, a black dried vine wreath, scary cut outs and black netting. I loved the black and white theme so much I wanted to use it again for Christmas, maybe with a bit of silver.

So here was the start of the Christmas decorating and tho it's coming together, it just looked too "calm" for me. I love color and knew I had to add some to this display. I didn't go out and buy anything and knew I had to work with what I already had. The silver wreath is a great Dollar Store clearance buy after Christmas last year, it was twenty five cents!!

I looked in my Christmas storage; old balls, yarn and old silver decorations. I remade the silver tinsel wreath with lots of red in yarn and glass balls, plus silver balls and snowflakes and even a black and white ball to match the two cone trees. Hmmmm, looking better!

Here's how the rack looks now. I'm still tweaking that second shelf, perhaps adding a few more cone trees....and one wrapped with a red beaded garland...and maybe one with silver foil....thinking thinking.

This is the great fun of creating your own decor, when you get an idea you can work on it and modify it until you get the look you want. I'm not done with this design yet, but so far I'm liking the clean black and white and silver with pops of red, SO different from my normal cobalt blue, white and silver.

What about you, are you changing up your colors or style this year? It's your house, go for it!

Recycled Christmas Ornaments

If you are anything like me, you probably have old, grungy Christmas bulb ornaments mixed in with your "good stuff." You know the ones...cheap, usually plastic, flaked, dull and looking shabby but still perfect ROUND and HANGABLE if only they looked better.

So here are three I've redone in an effort to save them and also restyle a bit of our decor for the Holidays. Not so much neon red, lime green and yellow gold and more restrained with alot of texture. That's my plan!

I took a look around my craft room knowing that whatever I used I had to have a LOT of it, because those little spheres take more to cover them than I ever figured.

I have bunches of lace, including this big roll of vintage cream flat lace. I grabbed my glue gun and started wrapping.

Not half bad and I like the way the gold gleams through the pretty lacy layers. I like this one!

I also have alot of prim stars on hand for my star garlands. I coffee, vanilla and cinnamon age the paper then bake it before I make stars so each one is grungy and unique. Hmmmm, are there enough to cover a gold ball?

Yes, there are! I really like the spiky bits sticking out and the wonderful colors and textures of the individual stars. I like this one, too!

I have jars of buttons. Jars and bottles and little containers and more jars of buttons in all colors and sizes. I use alot of buttons in my designs and I've never met a bag of buttons at a thrift store that I didn't like. But what about on a Christmas ball, would they work?

They do work! I like the varied colors and textures of the different buttons on this gold ball. Where the gold showed through I put a dab of crystal glitter paint for more shine. I like THIS one, too!

Right now they are nestled together on the display stand I made from a glass plate and a candlestick, then mod podged with old book pages. I LOVE the way the three bulbs look on this retro looking plate stand! I have a bunch of ornaments in the works using recycled book pages and they will all hang on the same tree with these 3 reworked beauties. Until everything is ready I'll display them like this.

So what do you have in your stash that you can use to restyle an old ornament? Buttons? How about old sets of silver snaps? Beads? Chains from old necklaces? Old beaded garlands? Hey now, that's an idea I can run with. I feel another blog post coming on, lol!

Teal, Silver and White Wreath Redo

Here is the Christmas wreath for our front door. This is the third redo of this twig wreath and probably not the last.

I love the way it came out so close to the idea in my head. Don't you like it when a project works out like that?



Here's the wreath in it's first incarnation, painted gloss black and adorned with a glittery haunted house silhouette and lots of curly black streamers for Halloween. Dollar Store spider webs and spiders and a bevy of bats finished it up.

For its second life for November and Thanksgiving I reworked it with colorful fake autumn leaves and flowers, and mini pumpkins on skewers. I LOVED the contrast of the gloss black with the vibrant colors, especially on my blue door.

And here's the start of it's third look, several coats of gloss white spray paint, which I had on hand. It's been so cold here that it took several days to get this done. I knew I wanted to add blue ornaments but didn't want to spend a lot of money, so I kept my eyes open.....

..and found these vibrant blue balls in a bag of silver ornaments, plus a whole roll of teal blue foil twist ribbon at the local St. Vincent's store. Thirty cents for the ribbon and ninety nine cents for the bag of balls. Score!

I covered one silver ball with teal rosettes made from the foil twist, and wound strips of it around wire to make some nice curlicues for accents. I knew I'd never find anything like them in the stores and they are perfect for the look I wanted for this wreath.

Here it is, all done with lots of hot glue. I added a few silver snowflakes and a few blue berry twigs and hung it up outside. I LOVE the way it all came together! It looks great on our blue door.

Here's a few of the elements....blue and silver glass balls, silver snowflakes, a crackle painted blue ball and the rosette covered ball. I particularly like the blue curlicues, they came out great!

And another look...this just makes me smile. I always know when a project is finished when I end up with a big grin on my face!

I'll be posting about the rosette covered balls and the crackle painted balls soon. They are easy and clever ways to make something totally unique for your decor, and not just for Christmas.

I'm joining the parties on my sidebar, come on by and check them out. There are some great decor and gift ideas out there and yummy recipes too.

Snowflake Chandelier First Version

February 2014 update here.....
http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2014/02/wintry-snowflake-chandelier-dollar.html

Our 90's era house came with this blingy brass and glass chandelier. Still serviceable but really dated. It will have to do until I find just the right, perfect, beautiful dining room chandelier.

So for October thru November I wrapped it in a double garland of colorful silk leaves, like so....

...and I really liked the way it looked, especially all lit up. Martha Stewart did something similar but with tea lights and real leaves. http://www.marthastewart.com/276216/pumpkin-chandeliers-autumn-wreath
Ok, hers is prettier, but mine won't catch on fire.

Then I found a bag of assorted snowflakes (including a snowflake garland) at Goodwill for 99 cents. Score!!

The big snowflakes hooked over the hanging glass and the mini snowflake garland was just the right length to drape nicely all the way around. Hmmmm, looks okay in the daylight. Then I turned on the light....

KAPOW!
Look at the beautiful, crystally, snowflakey chandelier!
I really really like it and so does The Welding Man. It looks like a big Christmas wedding cake hanging over the table! Or an alien mothership made out of icy crystals!

Ooh aah. With all the snowflake glitz and detail to fool the eye, it actually looks quite pretty.

And I still have snowflakes left. I'll try hanging more around the bottom...or leave it like this? I can hardly wait to see it after dark.

And now, in 2014, here's the current look for this pretty snowflake chandelier....

I guess this means my holiday decorating is kicked into gear. I'll be posting about my favorite gifts and ornaments to make in the next few weeks, including a special request for making simple but pretty yarn angels.

I'll be joining the parties on my sidebar, too. Come check them out for some excellent and creative ideas!