Glittery Green Outdoors

The one area of my house that's more modern than anything is actually my front porch.  It's a bit misleading, since at the door you'd think you're walking into a modern home, only to find that the decor is much more traditional.  Since I showed you a selection of my indoor holiday spaces yesterday, I thought it was fitting to show these as well. 

Without further ado though, here is a photo tour of my entryway, one of the spaces I love to walk by the most.

Enjoy the glittery bright green accents on the wreath and garland.  :)

I purchased a total of 3, 9 ft lighted garlands at Target's clearance sales last year.  They were $3 each, instead of $9 each.  Savings: $18

 Did you notice the ornaments hanging on the garland?

I found 4 of these perfectly matching ornaments while thrifting

 

I purchased 6 of these glittered rhinestone ornaments from the $1 bin at Michael's

 

This ribbon is about 2.5" wide, and perfectly glittery (yes, it flakes off and gets EVERYWHERE)  I love the wreath being wrapped with this bling

 

This wreath was $2 at Michael's Thanksgiving sale.  It needed a good fluff-up, and it's perfect!

 

 Have you seen the glittery word bin in the dollar section at Michael's?  That's where this puppy came from.  I also grabbed a red glittered "LOVE" for use a few months from now.  :)

So the total for this space breaks down:

2 Garlands= $6

1 Wreath=$2

4 green ball ornaments=$4

6 glitter rhinestone star ornaments= $6

2 ft Glitter Ribbon= $0.50 (I didn't use the whole role, which is about 10 yards.  I think the whole roll cost about $3 on sale at Michael's Thanksgiving day sale.)

TOTAL= $18.50

Now that's a glittery green score!  :)

Link up to your outdoor spaces- I'd love to see them (and of course gather inspiration for my spaces next year!

Thanks for stopping by :)

Pearl Passion Ornaments

Ok, so do you all just get on one of those "kicks" and all of a sudden become a madwoman productive?

That sometimes happens to me (ok, a lot of the time happens to me) but yesterday was even above my normal craziness!  Perhaps it's the looming party deadline (see this post for everything I have to do TOMORROW) but I fell into the spirit yesterday and tackled many decor and prep tasks for Saturday.

I made these too, what a nice surprise!

 

I was digging through one of my craft boxes for some fishing line I know I have to hang some glittery snowflakes, and came across a stash of craft perals in all different sizes, that I've probably had for 10+ years.  Then, I recalled a failed project I never posted, but related to one I will post soon, that involved styrofoam balls.  The light bulb went off.  No, really, it did!  I could adapt this project Lindsay posted on Centsational Girl showed us to make some classy ornaments for my tree!

So, here you have it folks: how to make Pearl Passion Ornaments!  Enjoy!

Materials Needed:

2" styrofoam balls (mine came in a 12 pack)
dressmaker pins (small box has like 350 or something in it.  I used nearly the whole box for 2 ornaments of this size)
Pearls (I used about 300 on 2 ornaments)
Silver beads (smaller than the opening of the pin head, and the pearl opening so they don't slip off)
ribbon, rope, or other string to attach as a loop
Hot Glue Gun (optional)

 

This is so simple, it's not really tutorial worthy, but here we go:

Take a pin, and attach one silver bead, then a pearl.  Push the pin into the foam.  Yep.  That's basically it!

After I put the first full circle of pin+bead+pearl pins in, I cut my gold cord ribbon to the length, and attached with a pin.  I hotglued it down  into the styrofoam, then glued on top again.  Depending on the ribbon you use, you may be ok with pins only.

I read somewhere to do a full circle around one direction, then switch 90 degrees and do another circle.  Then, you should have 4 distinct sections to fill in.  This seemed to work well for me.

I made two, and hung them on the tree!

 Can't you just envision the variations you could do?  I think these would make pretty vase filler, or table accents.  I want to do a LARGE one and use in the off season.

If you make it, I want to see!  :)

DIY Ornament Party, 2009

My Fav, Kate, over @ Centsational Girl is holding her link-up, DIY ornament Party today!  Yahoo!

Too bad I didn't get my stellar projects done in time...

I did link up though, with the Monogram Gift Tag post & The "Finally Wreath" made of red ornaments, because the monograms can be turned into ornaments laters, and the wreath, well, it's chalk full of ornaments!  :)

Take a gander!

Thanks Kate!

The FINALLY Wreath

Have you ever seen something in a store, that you think you just have to have, but it looks so simple to make?  I'm pretty crafty (duh) and felt I may have been the only one in the world without one of these yet:

After seeing a few posts in blogworld lately on how to construct one, I promptly knew what I would do with the stacks and stacks of red & silver ornaments I had been picking up while thrifting over the last month in anticipation for the season :)

First, I tried it the way I saw it over at Thrifty Decor Chick and at Chris's place, Just a girl.

(I have to say, this wreath may be in my future for Easter...  I don't even want to think THAT far ahead yet!)

But that was a big, fat FAIL for me.  Even Eddie Ross did it, but I couldn't?

Boo.  I felt the crafting spirit drain from my body.  THEN, I realized I had two 10" foam wreaths that I could use.  Done.  And the crafting spirit was back, baby!

Here's what YOU need to make this in my version, and how I did it:

(I made two wreaths, so I used twice this material)

Foam wreath, 10"
Red Spray Paint, Cardinal Red
~48 ball ornaments of various sizes (for each wreath)
Glue Gun
Ribbon (to hang)

 

I sprayed the foam wreaths with cardinal red spray paint, because when working with round objects, you'll never be able to cover the entire surface properly (learned this while making this project).  So, in order to blend in, I painted the wreath the color of the majority of the ornaments.

After taking Chris's advice, I glue the tops on all of my ornaments prior to beginning.  In reality for my version (glued to the foam wreath) I probably didn't need to, but when someone like Chris or Eddie tell you to do it, you do it.  :)

I just started gluing the largest ornaments on first, then started filling in with smaller ones, working in sections so that it looked full.  Its supposed to look random, yet still circular.

 

I added a small ribbon and hid it under the ornaments, so that later I could use it to hang with if need be.

 

That's it!  Super easy project, but a bit tedious to make the ornaments fit in the sections the right way- sort of like a puzzle.  Add a ribbon, hang, and again, admire your work!

 

And, here's the aftermath of the boxes, and boxes of ornaments I used to complete these two wreaths :)

 I added my wreaths to flank the sides of the front room windows.  With the tree tomorrow, they'll add a nice pop of color to the blue walls.

Cost:

2 Foam Wreaths, $2 ($1/ea at Dollar Store)
Ornaments, $16
Spray Paint, already had

$18 for two wreaths :) and a big smile on my face

Have you done this project???  Any suggestions to the readers for those that have yet to create it?