A crafty Christmas project

Do y'all remember that great fortune I got last week when we had our annual look at Christmas lights and buy a tree night? Well, it was a keeper. And I'm already making good on it. I'm really proud of this project because I feel like it really fits me but is something I probably never would have done in years past.

Last month, I entered a contest for a room redo idea board and I won. Not only did that light a huge fire under my rear to make things the way I want them in my house, but it also introduced me to a great blog I hadn't known about. Ashley from The Handmade Home has a great design eye and she's always coming up with something fresh and fun for her house. The other day, she shared a project she did in her dining room that I knew I had to try. I was needing something for the space above my mantle and I could see this filling it.

I'll spare you all the details of my project as she has a perfectly good post on the whole thing over at her site. But I will share some of the process and some creative problem solving I had to do in order to get things just right.

Here we have a "u-g-l-y you-ain't-got-no-alibi" wreath I got from Goodwill for $1.99. Come to think of it, I probably paid too much for it. ;) It had decent bones, though, so I snatched it up. And I am so sorry for the orangey-ness of this photo. I hope I didn't burn your eyes. I couldn't find a good place to take a picture where that stupid wreath didn't camouflage itself into the background. After stripping it down of all it's gaudy fall glory, I had a plain old straw wreath to start my project.

I didn't get pictures of this next step because I was on a mission and when I'm on a mission, I can't be bothered by taking pictures of every tedious step. I hope to change that this next year. I know people like a good visual.

Basically, I took an old vintage Christmas tablecloth that I got at a thrift store for $2, took a deep breath  and started ripping it into strips. It was actually quite liberating. I tend to hold on to things when I find a good deal, but that often turns into a hoarding mentality and I never end up using all the good stuff I find. I knew those kinds of tablecloths were a dime a dozen if you know where to look so even if my project didn't work out, I still wouldn't be out much. I took those strips and wrapped them around my wreath, hot-gluing until the wreath was covered, then I set out to find some little trinket/ornament type stuff to dress it up. I was liking the direction it was going but I couldn't see where it was going to end up and I needed more supplies to make the letters that would go on either side of the wreath, so I went to town and figured it would all just come to me.

After a crazy day in town, with my three girls, I felt like it was close to a wasted trip. I had some silver glitter and white satin ribbon and some spray adhesive. I forgot to take an extra strip of my material so I could make sure I got the right shade of red or green so I ended up just going with silver glitter and white ribbon which made for a very blah arrangement. Here's how things looked after I finished cutting out and glittering the letters.

 Ummm, I'm not feelin' it.

I was determined not to scrap the whole idea because I loved it so much. I went digging through my craft stash looking for something that would work with those silver glittered letters when I spotted a tablecloth I had picked up at Goodwill during the summer for $1.89. But it was a blue plaid. Hmmm, blue plaid. I started looking at that blue and remembered how much I like houses with blue lights on them, especially when there's snow on the ground. Something sentimental about it, I guess. I decided I would go with an icy blue theme and switch the location to my kitchen window where I have a line of vintage blue Ball jars. Perfect.

I covered the wreath in strips of the blue plaid, found an old plastic ornament, glittered it up and added a couple of glittery white plastic leaves that fell off of one of my centerpieces. I hung it in the window with a thumb tack and hot glued the letters to the metal frame of the window. Viola!

I'm loving the blue in my kitchen. I couldn't get myself to think outside of the red/green box until I encountered a roadblock, but once I did, it opened up something different that I love. I seriously can't stop looking at it! Which is convenient because that sink is where I spend a good 60% of my day and that window is what I look at the whole time I'm standing there.

Linking to The Nester and
these blogs:

Centsational Girl