Rustic Mini Christmas Tree

Oh happy Christmas days!! as soon as Thanksgiving is over, the joy of Christmas flows everywhere. My house has been completely transformed for the season. I have so many projects I want to work on and I hope I get a chance to share them with you. I always see beautiful Mini Christmas trees at the stores and I want to buy them all. I see inspiration everywhere and this time I decided to create my own. And guess how much I spend on this gorgeous rustic tree? not more than $1.00, since I already had glue sticks and some of the other materials at home. Yes, that is all I spent on this beautiful project.

I used a cardboard box that I got from my job and cut a piece big enough to make a cone.

To facilitate the process, I removed one of the layers. This made the folding or wrapping a lot easier.

I shaped the cardboard in the form of a cone and secured it with duct tape, then I used hot glue to make sure it was perfectly glued.

I bought these raffia from the Dollar Tree. One little pack of three was just enough to cover this tree that measured about 20 inches long. It looks small in pictures but it was a good size.

With the help of hot glue I layered the raffia as flat as i could and began the wrapping process. I added a little bit of ribbon thinking it would be needed, but it really wasn't. At first, the raffia might seem intimidating because you will probably feel that it goes everywhere, but if you hold it together, you will realize that it is actually very friendly to work with.

Sorry about my hands, those are the hands of a crafty mom :(

Continue wrapping the cone with the raffia all around it. 

Don't loose patience! it will look beautiful, I promise. 

After you finish the whole tree, you might notice a couple of empty spots or some thin raffia strings in some areas, just wrap a little more raffia and cut the strings.

Done!! I love the way it already looks. This is perfect if you want to just leave it like this and maybe add a little ornament or star on top to embellish it. 

I wanted to add a little bling, because of course, Christmas! So I used some of these little rhinestones that I already had to put around the tree and these pretty poinsettia that I have left from my previous project. 

And there it is! It turned out so incredibly beautiful and for almost nothing! just a little patience :)

I know the tone of the raffia rolls were a little different but I think that is still ok. I really like the way it turned out. It loos so beautiful with the rest of my Christmas decorations.

And this is why everyone loves Christmas, all the glitter, the gold, and all the beautiful decor. Thank you so much for stopping by! 

Christmas Wall Decor

During Christmas time, I love going to craft stores and just look around all the gorgeous Christmas decoration. I get so inspired to create my own projects, especially because the are honestly just too expensive! Wall art always catches my attention, and for my next project I had in mind a couple of frames for my mantel. I made this gorgeous LOVE and JOY rose gold signs.

I used my Cricut machine to cut the words JOY and LOVE on these rose gold glitter fabric sheets that I found at Hobby Lobby and they were $1.67 a piece. I bought one for each frame so that I could make the letters as big as possible

Also at Hobby Lobby I found the white fabric to cover the frames. This type of white 

velvet was $6.99 per yard. I bought whole yard but ended up using only half a yard for both frames.

I wasn't really able to find that many rose gold decorations that I could use to embellish the frames. The little decorations I found were kind of pricey and that was going to defeat my purpose of creating my own projects. So I headed over to my local dollar store and I found these silver glitter poinsettia ornaments and decided to paint them myself. I used the DecoArt Acrylic paint in color "Rose Gold." I really have to say that this was probably my favorite part of the project. Maybe because I was hesitant about painting over glitter with acrylic, but I was not disappointed at all!! They turned out great and I loved the color. The glitter irradiated beautifully even over the paint. I was very happy with the results.
I also added a few pink pearls in the center of the poinsettia to make it even prettier.

 

I really was very happy with the way they turned out, and they look even better on the frame :)

The frames I used for this project were 11X14. I was able to find these frames at my local Dollar Store too. These were the biggest size I found for $1.

I used the back of a gift wrapping paper that I already had add some type of liner so that the letters wouldn't be visible under the fabric.

'

It worked out perfectly. I just covered the frame with the white fabric and a little help from my glue gun.

 

The fabric sheets are super easy to work with. I used hot glue to adhere it to the fabric and this was probably the best option. I decided to keep the center of the letter "O" so that i could place the poinsettia on top of it.

And lastly, I added a little bit of ribbon to the back of the frame to hang.

 

I really enjoyed working on this project and I know that if I saw these frames at Michael's or any store, I would be completely in love with them! That's how I know I was successful with my DIY.

I hope you enjoyed my post and that you find inspiration or motivation for your own creations. 

Rose Christmas Wreath

Christmas time is here and all the decorating has began. Since I moved in with my husband about 11 years ago and was able to afford my own place, I have always liked to choose a color scheme for my decorations. The first year in my little apartment with my husband and my little 3 month old baby I chose white and silver. Since then, I have switched to white and red, purple and silver, purple and teal, purple and white, gold and brown, gold and silver and more purple. This year I want to incorporate rose, brown and gold. Rose is a tone that its very in style. I know its very feminine so I also want to add touches of brown and gold. My first project was a wreath for my mantel. There are tons of different tutorials on how to make them and probably the easiest ones, in my opinion, are the ones made with burlap or think ribbon. This could be because the thicker the material, the more space it covers and the quicker it is to complete it. I have to admit that this particular wreath takes a little more time, but the results are worth it! And with all honesty, it is not hard to make at all.  So here is how I made this gorgeous and super chic wreath.

I found this simple wreath at my local Dollar store. This store is not a Dollar Tree or a 99 cents Only store. It is just a local little dollar store that carries really nice items for only $1.00.

I removed all the green stuff so that I could have only the base. The size was perfect for only $1 :)

I used this pretty 1 1/2" rose satin ribbon that I also found at my Dollar Store. I used two 4 yards spools for the whole wreath.

I also used a needle and pink threat. The thread won't be visible once the ribbon is layered but I still wanted to choose something that would go with the color scheme just in case. 

My objective was to create ruffles with the ribbon to layer them and create a nice abundant effect. I followed a simple sewing pattern of about 1 centimeter. This does not need to be perfectly measured because the ruffles don't need to be perfect. But following the pattern will make the process easier.

I made the ruffles in sections. Making a very long section will probably make your life a lot more complicated when attaching it to the wreath. Once you think you have a section that you can work with, pull the thread to create the ruffle. I made ruffle sections of about 10 to 12 inches long. That means a longer section of ribbon of course, because when you pull the threat the section will obviously shrink. 

I attached the ruffles piece by piece and continued until I had the outer circumference of the wreath covered. I continued the same technique layering the ruffled ribbon on top of the first layer.

Half way through the process I realized I din't want the center part of the wreath so I removed it and added one last layer of ribbon to cover the plastic entirely.

This is how it came out after six layers of ruffles. It is exactly how I had it pictured.

Now I tried to arrange the ornaments to have an idea of how I wanted them around the wreath.

After I arranged the ornaments to my liking, I hot glued them around. My favorite part about this wreath is the fact that the ruffles are very friendly, they can be moved and arranged and they will still look beautiful. I added a gold ribbon bow to add a metallic touch and I also glued a little butterfly hanging from the bottom of the wreath.



This is my first Christmas 2017 project and I am not disappointed at all. I love the pinks and the metallics  together and this will definitely be the scheme I will try to put together for the rest of my Christmas decorations. I hope you enjoyed reading and that you find some Christmas inspiration for your own little projects. Stay tuned for more coming up :)

Farm house inspired Thanksgiving decor

I love November, it is such a beautiful month here in Texas (most of the time). Sunday was such a beautiful day and I was enjoying my mom's company. I was in a great mood and decided to get creative and make a couple of decorations for Thanksgiving. Again, I feel like Christmas takes away a little from Turkey Day, and its just not fair! Thanksgiving is a beautiful holiday too and it deserves recognition. I took a little trip to my local dollar store and looked around to see what kind of decorations I could come up with. I have seen some gorgeous farm house decor all over pinterest and instagram and I have been inspired to DIY something similar. And here is what I came up with...

I found these wood 10X12 picture frames. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to find more that two of the same shade, but I was going to cover them so they were fine.

 

I also found this wood-like shelf liner and I thought it was perfect to give the frames a wood like appearance.

I covered each of the frames, and I have to say that the liner I chose was very flexible and friendly to work with. I did use a few hot glue drops here and there to reinforce the adhesive.

I decided not to attach all four of them together until they were covered since I figured this would be easier. 

The pattern was perfect and I could already see the farm house style being reflected. I used hot glue and a few drops of Gorilla Glue to secure the frames together. I also used some masking tape for additional support.

I cleaned and put the glasses back on each of the frames and I was done. Probably the part that took the most time was covering each of the frames with the liner, but it honestly wasn't hard at all.  

I arranged the frame in a couple of different ways but I didn't feel it wasn't decorated enough. So I added a little touch of Fall. Much better!

I still had some liner left and since I really liked the way it looked, I decided to make a couple of simple but cute Thanksgiving frames using the back of the frames that I didn't use.

I covered them with the remaining liner and cut out the words "Thankful" and "Blessed" with my Cricut Machine. 

   

I also added a raffia bow to enhance the "farm house" look. 

They look so adorable and they have been one of the easiest projects I have made. I think my house is getting closer to being ready for our Thanksgiving dinner. I hope you enjoyed reading!:)