Tutorial Monday: Snowflake Luminaries

Last year I did luminaries with flocking… And tell you what… That was a flocking mess. It got everywhere… It shed everywhere… If you even looked at it, you ended up with it all over you… So I decided to try something a little different.

Look thru the tutorial and see if it’s something you’d like to do yourself. If you do, make sure to let me know! I’d love to see your creations.

Supplies you’ll need: Jars. JARS JARS JARS. You can have as many as you’d like. Serisly. You can buy new jars or you can reuse ones in your fridge. That’s what I did. There’s a banana pepper jar, some old jelly jars, etc. You’ll also need some Mod Podge. You can use the regular kind, or like me, the outdoor kind. You’ll also need silver paint, a paint brush and a sponge brush, a snowflake stencil of your choice and salt. You can use Sea Salt, like I have or Kosher, rock, etc.

Step One: Apply your snowflake template/stencil to your clean jars.

Give each one a relatively light coat of silver paint. Remove stencil, let dry.

Step Two: With a light hand and your sponge brush, brush on the Mod Podge.

Step Three: Section by section, while the Mod Podge is still wet, add your salt. Shake off any excess and continue until entire jar is covered.

And you’re done! Let dry overnight then add a tealight or two and put them where you want them!

I added them around my little shabby tree for a cute look. Later on tonight I’ll light them and make sure to get a pic or two!

Tutorial Monday: Key Garland

Hello there, my wonderful Witchie-Poos! Here comes the first of hopefully many Christmas tutorials.

I have a thing for old things… Shabby chic is a style I’d love to embrace but goodness, it’s expensive! So I came up with this cute, relatively inexpensive Christmas décor idea.

Supplies you’ll need: A pair of scissors (duh!), old skeleton keys, or a mix, (I found two packages of old-ish looking keys at Hobby Lobby 50% off) and jute twine. If you’re wondering why some of the older keys look a little white… I was going to frost them, but changed my mind.

You’ll want to pull out a length of twine as long as you want it. I think mine was about 6 feet long originally, but I ended up cutting off quite a bit.

Step One: Cut a smaller length of twine, fold it in half and then push the fold through the opening of they key.

Take the loose ends and bring them through and tie a kind of a slip knot.

Continue with the rest of your keys until you have as many as you want done.

Day 1: Just remember that in every pothole there is hope.

Step Two: Tie each key to the length of jute twine.

Continue on down the line until you’ve used all your keys and have the length you want. Drape your key garland onto your tree and enjoy!!!

I think it looks fabulous on my little shabby tree!!!

If you end up making this, make sure you let me know!!! I’d love to see your creations!

Tutorial Wednesday: Lighted Burlap Garland

So I’ve been on a DIY kick the last two holidays. I have to say, I love it. It’s a heckuva lot cheaper than going out and buying the stuff already made, in the long run. And besides that, something that’s made is always closer to the heart, y’know?

The next few days I’ll feature a few of my DIY tutorials. Today I will start with this:

A lighted burlap garland! I had found this tutorial on pinterest. Well. OK it was just a picture, so I kinda took the idea and ran with it.

It’s cute and all, but it’s just not… Me. So I did it MY way.

Here’s what you’ll need: Lots of bits of lace. They don’t have to match or be the same color. There’s some white, cream, pink and yellow lace bits in there and they went great! You’ll also need some burlap. Now you can buy it in yardage at Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Joann’s, etc. I found these rolls of jute burlap that you use for wreathes. And I was going to make a wreath, but I can’t find the forms in the size that I want. Each of these rolls has 15 yards of burlap and it’s about 6” wide. It’s perfect for strips. You’ll also need a good pair of scissors and of course, lights. Now I used a huge flipping strand of lights. I don’t suggest it at all. Use a shorter strand of 50 to 100 lights. They’re much more easily manageable.

Step One: Cut a strip about six-seven inches long.

Step Two: Cut three to four strips out of each six to seven inch strip.

I cut the entire roll of burlap ribbon and half of the next one. If I really wanted to do the entire string of lights, I could have used the entire second roll of burlap. But by the time I got done I was so itchy and cross from all the fiber that the burlap created that I didn’t want to go any farther lol.

Step Three: Cut strips of lace about the same length as your strips of burlap.

Step Four: Start tying your burlap to the cord of your lights. I do three, then two lace and repeat. Sometimes I did four of burlap, three of lace. You can vary it up a bit!

And it’ll look like this! Just keep on going until you reach the end of your string of lights (or as far as you want to go). If you use jute burlap, take it outside and shake it out very hard to release all the stray fibers.

Plug in and check it out and then place on your tree!

I must say, I was a little worried that my garland would be a little too much for my tree. But I am very pleased that it’s not. I think it looks fabulous!!!

And here’s little Holly Day Hedgie to say hello!

If you make one, let me see it, and your tree!

DIY Corner: Shabby Chic Luminaries

So I got a wild hair and decided to do some DIY Christmas decorations for outdoors. I had some leftover mason jars from a previous post, so I decided to get a second life out of them.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. Flocking, Santa snow, that powdery crap you put in your windows to make them look icy- either way you put it, you’ll need a can of it.

2. Paper, could be copy paper could be scrap paper. Either way, you’ll need it.

3. A pair of scissors. All I could find were my daughters scissors from last year.

4. Lash glue or any other kind of adhesive.

5. Mason jars of any size or shape.

6. Battery operated tealights. (not shown)

Step One: Cut your best snowflakes and unfold them. Using a light amount of lash glue, glue on the edges and in the middle. Don’t use a ton, because then it will smear out and look gross.

Step Two: Lay your snowflakes on the mason jars the way you want them to lay.

Step Three: Using a LOT of newspaper to cover your work surface and background, and holding the can of flocking at least 10 inches away from the jar. If not you’ll have a big globby mess of flocking like I do in the middle of the snowflake.

Step Four: Then CAREFULLY remove the snowflakes from the jars while the flocking is still wet.

You’ll want to let your luminaries sit out for at least a day or so to become completely dry and when you do decide to pick them up and move them be VERY careful as they will flake off.

When you have them where you want them, insert the battery operated tea lights and voila! Cheap and cute DIY luminaries!

Here they are paired with my “shabby chic” Christmas tree on my front porch. I put a couple of my prop suitcases in the corner, put the tree on it and covered the base with a gorgeous, but falling apart lace table cloth. Next to the suitcases are some old, faded, vintage Christmas ornaments in glass vases. I bought a couple of old Christmas ties at a flea market and cut them up to make bows for the Christmas tree and used lace as the “garland”. The most expensive part of the setup is the Merry Christmas banner, but I reused it from my Christmas minis from last year. Pretty darned cute, if I do say so myself.

And I used the flocking to put a little “frosting” on our front door (notice the streak marks left by my dear, sweet daughter. *grumbles*).

Such a cute and inexpensive way to decorate. And when you’re done with them, you can simply wipe off the flocking and store for next year!