Kitchen Christmas Tree

We were charmed with the bay window and breakfast nook at one end of the kitchen when we bought our house, but more and more it's become a backwater of stacks and storage. I decided at least for Christmas we needed to clear it out and make it work for our Holiday desserts and treats.

I threw red velvet over the oak table and added a lighted tree in a garden urn. For a kitchen theme I started pulling little kitchen items out of the drawers and red ornaments from the rest of the house. I also found a box of old salt dough stars that look like sugar cookies and some dark brown applesauce/cinnamon stars from way back. Score!

So this project cost nothing since everything we used was already on hand from years past.

Then I loaded it up with everything small, red and kitchenny I could put my hands on. Kitchenny. That's a word, isn't it? I tied red plaid Christmas ribbon to a bunch of utensils and made bows out of the rest of the ribbon and piled it on this little tree.

My grandson made the snowflake garland using a Martha Stewart punch and pages from an old dictionary and phone book. Glued from point to point they make a really pretty and easy garland.

See the little stars? They look like little bitty shortbread cookies but they are baked salt dough. I added measuring spoons, wooden spoons, tin cups, a flower sifter, silvery tart pans and twig wreaths, along with glittery glass hearts and rolled felt roses.

The applesauce/cinnamon stars still smell sweet and a group of fake gingerbread ornaments went up there too.

The snowflake garland is a nice white touch on the otherwise red and green tree. I just tied ribbons to ordinary flatware before hanging them up.

A tin cup, fork, tea ball, measuring spoon, fir cone and more stars mix with the snowflake garland.

I added red plaid ribbons to a few wooden utensils and grouped them in a red container then put some treats on cake pedestals. The blue glass jars are a perfect counterpoint color. I've got my eyes open for more kitchen ornaments for this tree because I really like the way it's turned out!

And at night it sheds a pretty, glowing light in the kitchen instead of the light in the range hood. Much more festive, too. I love projects like this. Spur of the moment, done with items on hand, not a lot of time invested and a really nice result. What's not to love?

Teeny Tiny Wine Cork Reindeer

Look! A tiny reindeer made from wine corks and twigs for your Holiday decor!

If you accumulate a lot of wine corks or keep running across them at yard sales and thrift stores, here's a nifty little project for the holidays that is so stinkin' cute and sort of easy, plus cheap. I make these little guys to go with my Santa dolls and while making them today I went ahead and took pictures of the process.

Here he is surrounded by the supplies for his creation. Wine corks, little twigs (some with forks) and round headed pins. You will also need a tool for cutting like a razor craft knife and wire cutters.

Punch four leg holes at a slight outward angle in the bottom of one cork for the twig legs. Use a nail or ice pick or whatever gives you the right size holes. The holes need only be about 1/4" deep. Cut four sorta matching twigs for the legs, about 2" long, using a razor knife or wire cutters like those shown.

Put a bit of hot glue in the hole or on the twigs and insert the twigs into the holes. You can press the sticks in with gentle pressure against your work surface or use a pair of pliers. Stand the body up and if any leg is out of whack trim it JUST A LITTLE with a knife or the wire cutters. If you take off too much you'll have to trim the other legs and then the first leg again and it will only end in tears, trust me on this.

BUT, if this happens you can use a heat gun or blow dryer to soften the glue and remove the sticks so you can start over with 4 new twig legs.

If your chosen head cork is too large, trim one end straight off with a razor knife til the proportion seems right. Do the same same punch-holes-trim-twigs-glue-in-holes for the tiny forked antlers and the neck twig. Notice the neck twig is angled, so punch your holes with that in mind.

                                          Look! Teeny tiny super cute wine cork reindeer!

LOVE these little guys!

But wait, what are the ball pins for? This little guy needs a red nose, of course. I snipped the pin off short then painted the ball bright red.

Then I added a bit of tiny green tinsel around his neck. Perfect. You can add more tiny trims like the bow on his brother in the top pic, or a tiny star, or a little bell.

They are great in a tabletop display or trooping across your mantle. They are not strong enough to be used as toys but for your Christmas decor, what could be easier or cuter? And now you have a nifty project to use all those wine corks you have in that glass jar.

I'll be posting this to the blog parties in my sidebar. Come join the fun!

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!