Vintage Ornament Upcycle

 

I've seen so much beautiful, vintage style Christmas decor using bottlebrush trees & vintage ornaments. So, when I saw some pretty, vintage ornaments at a local antique store for only $1 each, I bought them. I knew I had everything else needed to create something pretty, starting with vintage tart tins. I bought the tins at a yard sale. It's been years so I don't remember what I paid. But, I've used quite a few of them in other projects.

I removed the cap & hook from the top of the ornament, turned the tin upside down & glued the ornament in place using E6000.

All the projects like this that I've seen have the bottlebrush trees glued into the ornament. I wanted my tree to appear as though it is in snow. So, I piped spackle onto the top of the ornament. You can see how I pipe the spackle onto another project HERE.

Bottlebrush trees are something else I have an excess amount of! I looked for one that appeared a little more vintage, removed the wooden disc base, & inserted the tree into the ornament. The spackle will work as glue once it dries.

I like it! But, I wished I had "snow" under the ornament too. At this point there's not much room to add it. But, luckily I had bought 2 of the vintage ornaments.

So, I took the cap from the second ornament & glued it upside down onto another tart tin. Then I glued the bottom of the ornament onto the cap so that I still had an opening at the top to insert the tree.

This gave me enough room at add some snow underneath the ornament.

I love how they both turned out & am not sure which is my favorite.

I'm going to be on the hunt for more vintage ornaments to make these for friends as gifts for next year!

Linking To:

The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors, The Answer Is Chocolate, Flutter Buster, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction,  Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers, The House On Silverado

Double Duty Christmas Decor

 Have you ever had a clear vision for a project & somewhere along the way it turns into something completely different? Well, this is one of those projects... kind of. It can still be used for it's original purpose, but I'm using it in a different way.

When I saw these trees at Hobby Lobby, I thought I could pop them off of their base & use them as part of a pretty wreath.

To start my wreath, I used a flat wreath form & glued 2" half wooden balls to the form.

I left a space to add the trees.

My original thought was that I could take a hammer to the trees & knock them off of the base they were standing on. However, they were inserted into the wood & I didn't want to break them.

So, I decided to leave them attached to the base.

The trees & base were too heavy to glue onto the wreath form, so I screwed the wreath onto the base to attach it.

The trees came with a little greenery in front of them, but I wanted to add more greenery to cover the wood board that created the base for the trees. I took 2 picks of spruce with pinecones that was similar to what was already on the base, twisted their stems together, added glue along the base, & also added a screw through the stems to make sure it was secure.

To hide the board & stems, I covered them with Snow-Tex using a pallet knife.

I used the pallet knife to add a little "snow" to the greenery & the pinecones.

The final product worked fine as a wreath...

But, because I left the base on the trees, it stands up! So I decided to use it on my buffet. Now I get to see it everyday.

And, who knows, maybe next year I'll hang it on my front door!

Linking To:

The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors, The Answer Is Chocolate, Flutter Buster, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction,  Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers, The House On Silverado

Easy Cardinal Christmas Sign

There is a saying, "When cardinals are near, angels are here." And, I believe it because every time I see one I think of my mother. Even if she's not here, the cardinals evoke sweet memories of her. She loved them so much. And, I don't know anyone who doesn't love a beautiful cardinal!

The beautiful red color of the male cardinal makes them perfect for Christmas decor. And, this sign is about as easy to make as they come.

I got this stained board from Michael's & the wooden letters from Hobby Lobby.

I wanted a rustic look for the sign, so I used a dry brush technique to paint the board. I used the color Sawmill Gravy from the Dixie Belle Paint Company & let some of the stain show through.

I'd love to be able to say that I hand painted the beautiful cardinal. But the cardinal, pinecones, greenery, & berries are one of the designs in the Evergreen & Holly transfer from Dixie Belle. The transfer contains 4 sheets with multiple designs on each sheet.

You simply remove the white backing, then rub over the design until it releases from the clear top sheet.

I used tacky glue to add the letters to the board. I chose to leave them natural, but they'd also be pretty painted red or green, or stained a darker color.

Wow! That was easy. And, quick!

Another easy project... I added a holly design from the evergreen & holly transfer sheets to a battery operated candle. A simple way to take a plain candle to festive decor.

Linking To:

Ginger Snap Crafts, Chic On a Shoestring,  Simply Sweet Home, The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors,  Sugar Bee Crafts, Flour Me With Love, The Answer Is Chocolate, Skip To My Lou, The Thrifty Home, Flutter Buster,,  Finding Silver Pennies, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, The Painted Hinge, Yesterday On Tuesday, Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Creatively Beth, My Hubbard Home, County Road 407, Pieced Pastimes, Southern Sunflowers

Joy Ornament Door Hanger DIY

 

I'm not a traditional wreath type of girl and love a great door hanger that I can customize. And, there are so many options available to create something unique.

For the door hanger that is on my front door for this Christmas season, I added a little JOY!

I started with a large wooden ornament from Signopoly.

I painted the ornament with the color, Fluff, from the Dixie Belle Paint Company.

I used painters tape to add grain sack stripes with the color, French Linen.

To soften the paint colors, I washed over the French Linen with the Fluff, then washed over the Fluff with Grunge Glaze.

I cut a J and a Y with my Cricut Maker to make a stencil.

When you apply Cricut vinyl to a surface you put transfer tape over it to be able to place it easily and keep wrinkles out of the vinyl. Once I peeled up the transfer tape, I placed it at the top of the vinyl. Because the letters are close to the edge at the top of the vinyl, the tape will act as a barrier when I stencil so the paint won't go outside of the vinyl and end up where I don't want it.

I used a makeup sponge to apply the color Evergreen to the stencil. I did 3 thin coats to get good coverage.

I added Gemstone Mousse in the color, Diamond, to the top of the ornament and gave it a little accent of the paint color, Coffee Bean.

I placed a boxwood wreath between the J and Y to represent the O. I used a combination of hot glue and E6000. Hot glue will hold for now, but E6000 will hold forever.

A little JOY for my door!

Linking To:

Ginger Snap Crafts, Chic On a Shoestring,  Simply Sweet Home, The Cottage Market,  Funky Junk Interiors, The Dedicated House,  Sugar Bee Crafts, Flour Me With Love,  Domestically Speaking,  The Answer Is Chocolate, Skip To My Lou, The Thrifty Home, Flutter Buster, The Foley Fam,  Finding Silver Pennies, Our Hopeful Home, My Thrift Store Addiction, The Painted Hinge, Yesterday On Tuesday, Confessions Of A Plate Addict, My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia, Dabbling And Decorating