Update: Rustic Metal Star Christmas Decoration

Before the holidays, I posted a tutorial on adding handmade touches to store-bought Christmas ornaments.  In my post, I mentioned that I thought I should find another frame for my rustic metal star decoration.

Well, over the holidays, I had to buy a cheap frame to use to replace the glass in picture frame which had broken.  Since I was buying this frame simply for the glass, I chose a simple wooden frame that I knew I could transform to work with my rustic star.

I painted my cheap wooden frame with acrylic paint in a blue/green teal color.  But while my paint was drying, I dipped my brush in some clean water and gently brushed it over the surface of my frame in long strokes.  This thinned my paint in places and let the original brown surface come through a little, giving my frame a slightly worn or aged surface.  It was exactly what I wanted.

Then I attached my rustic star to the frame and stuck my cardboard backing back in place.

We've been having rainy weather, so the colors are a bit off in my photos.  But I love how this rustic metal star looks on my holiday mantle.  Hope you had a wonderful holiday season!  Best wishes for a bright new year!

{Craft Tutorial} Adding Special Touches to Store-Bought Christmas Ornaments

I bought this plain galvanized metal star at Michael's as an impulse buy (sorry, I didn't take a photo of just the plain star I bought).  I think it was $2.99 and I had a coupon.  I didn't have any plan for what to do with it, but I liked it and I knew it could be made into something special.

Then dumb luck and some inspiration hit:

1.  When we were hanging our wreath over our mantle, my husband had to trim a little piece of branch off of our fake pine wreath.  I knew I could use this pine piece to add a little color and holiday cheer to my metal star.

2.  I also knew I had a rusty brown bell somewhere in my craft supplies.  I dug out the bell, ran some wire through it, wrapped it around my pine pieces, and strung it through a hole in the galvanized star.

3.  Then I looked through my bits and pieces of artificial flowers and found some red berries that had fallen off something or other.  I nestled those in among my pine pieces and hot glued them in place.

Total time for this endeavor: about 7 minutes.

So then I had a pretty, dressed up ornament, but didn't really know what to do with it (since we don't have a Christmas tree).  But I decorate our mantle with framed Christmas stuff, so I thought of hanging this ornament in a frame.

I grabbed the closest frame, which was this shiny fake silver frame.  I took out the glass and backing stuff so I had just the rectangular frame.  Then I wired my ornament so that it was hanging in the center of this frame.  This worked really well, but when I put it on my mantle, it got kind of lost.

So Plan B - I left my star still in the center of my frame, but put the backing material back in it, including the corrugated cardboard filler.  This turned out to be the perfect backing for my little ornament.  I think the cardboard perfectly compliments the rustic look of this galvanized metal star.

I probably need to look through my other frames and see if I have a wooden frame that would look better with my star, but for now, I like it.  I'm glad I bought this little beauty!

Easy No-Sew Christmas Pillow Cover Tutorial

Every year, I like to add a few new elements to my Christmas decorating, and I try to make things using materials I have on hand.

This year, I made this festive no-sew pillow from two pieces of scrap fabric, some paint, some glitter glue, and a few more embellishments.  You can find all the materials and directions on my Hubpages.

The pillow pieces are held together with fringe ties.  Then you can decorate each side as you choose.

On one side, I created a winter wonderland with a snowman using some acrylic paint and a pencil eraser.  On the other side, I added a reindeer head outlined in glitter glue.  Then I used some buttons and plastic snowflakes for extra decoration.  Check out the full tutorial on my Hubpages!

Decorating Ideas: Refresh the Look of Your Fall Wreath!

So, this used to be our fall wreath for our front door.  I bought it at Homegoods about 3 years ago and I still love it.  But with sun and weather, the bright falls colors had faded from the leaf accents on the wreath and it looked a little sad and worn.

I happened to find a super cheap bag of fake leaves at the dollar store.  They were a little cheap looking, but I liked the colors of the leaves and I realized I could use them to pump some cheer back into my wreath.

I figured the easiest way to add these leaves was to hot glue them around the center of the wreath.  The brightness of the new leaves would blend with the existing accents and give the whole wreath a fresh look.

I may decide to add more leaves in spots around the outer edge of my wreath, but for right now, these additional leaves adds the boost of fall color I needed (particularly when viewed from the street).  This was an easy and inexpensive way to extend the life of my wreath.  I'll definitely get one more year of use out of it next fall.