Holidays

Old World Charm Christmas Tree

2 · Nov 1, 2015 · 3 Comments

+ This Old World Charm Christmas Tree post is brought to you by Michaels +

A few years ago my family was lucky enough to spend the month of December in Germany and France. We fell in love with the way they celebrate Christmas in Europe. They keep it simple, natural and all about family. I was enchanted with all of the simple decor that our friends in Germany used to decorate their homes.

Every year when the kiddos and I bring out the Christmas decorations we’ve always felt a little let-down, it just didn’t have that magical old world feel. It has been my dream to bring that same feeling to our home here in Lincoln. This year is the year! I have been working on all kinds of fun simple projects to bring that old world charm to our home for the holidays.

The very first project and the heart of the Holiday home is the Christmas Tree.

I started with the 7.5 ft Hartford Pine Christmas Tree from Michaels and then I found some fantastic natural wood elements that are perfect to create that rustic European look.

I added all kinds of texture with sprigs of berries and pine cones, perfect for that old world look. Michaels has these fun metal ornaments that you can decorate with all kinds of goodies. I wanted to keep the natural feel so I glued some wooden snowflakes in some and added some buffalo check ribbon to a few and it looked perfect.

I even drilled some holes in some candles from Michaels and fed some floral wire through the hole and wired them onto the tree to get that true old world feel. We won’t light them of course, they are just there for the effect.

I LOVE how this simple tree turned out. At the base of the tree I added a sign that I had painted to add a little pizzaz before the tree gets filled with presents.

So what’s your dream Christmas? Do you like old and rustic or are you all glitter and glam?

Inspired to start decorating your own tree? Make sure you visit Michaels’ blog, The Glue String, to see the other 49 Michaels Makers’ dream holiday trees that were created this year.

From now until November 14, you can get FREE shippingon all Christmas trees that are 6ft or taller on Michaels.com!
If you’re just getting started on your holiday decor, you can also check out some of the ornament projects and tutorials available on Michaels.com.

Disclaimer // This post is brought to you by Michaels however, all thoughts and ideas are my very own.

An InLinkz Link-up

Rosie the Riveter Costume

27 · Oct 1, 2015 · 6 Comments

+ This Rosie the Riveter Costume Post brought to you my Michaels Craft Stores +

You guys, I’m so excited… Halloween is right around the corner!!

I have a love/hate relationship with Halloween. I’m not a fan of the macabre scene, full of blood and gore, but I do love all of the fun creative ways to dress-up for the holiday. I love coming up with fun ideas for costumes with the family. I like to keep things simple, I don’t want to spend a ton of time or money on costumes for sure.

This months Michaels Maker’s Challenge was to create a simple DIY Halloween Costume.

My daughter and I thought it would be fun to put together a quick costume with the iconic Rosie the Riveter as our muse. I have always LOVED this graphic.

Rosie the Riveter Costume Materials

Here’s what you will need to make this simple costume.

Elmer’s foam core board
Red and white polka dot fabric – available in store at Michaels, not online
Blue vinyl
1 1/2 inch navy ribbon
Utility knife
Silhouette CAMEO – Not a deal breaker, but nice.
Blue button down shirt

Instructions

This is one of those costumes that really takes minutes if you have a Silhouette cutting machine. If not, NO WORRIES. It will take a little bit longer but you can still do it. With the silhouette all you need is to download this file that I created, and you can cut the image out of vinyl for your poster.

The poster board is 20×30 and this will fit perfect to the top of the board.

You will need to weed your vinyl, than place some transfer tape on top of it. I used the transfer tape to hinge the top of the vinyl transfer to the top of the board. Then I pulled the backing off the vinyl and with the hinge, laid the vinyl down right in the perfect spot.

Now, hindsight being 20/20… I would have either laid down some white vinyl or spray painted the top of the board white first. That would make the letters white, but I’m not too worried about that.

Next, I used a utility knife to cut some slits into the board right where I wanted to place the ribbon to create a kind of backpack effect. That way she could wear the board on her back with ease. I used navy ribbon so that it would blend in with the shirt and just tied it in cute bows on the back of the board.

It works perfect! Now all you have to do it tie-up your hair with the red & white polka dot fabric and you’re all set!!

It’s SUPER simple and so fun! What are your Halloween costume plans? Need some fun ideas? The rest of the 49 other Michaels Makers have been hard at work creating some fun ideas for you. You can check them out here!

An InLinkz Link-up

Disclaimer // I am a member of the Michaels Makers Crew and received store credit in order to create my project.

Halloween Tree Decorating

5 · Sep 25, 2015 · Leave a Comment

I’ve tried something new this year for Halloween… Have you ever decorated a Halloween tree before?

I know the trend is picking-up steam and people are doing all kinds of cool things for Halloween. I’ve teamed up with a handful of talented bloggers for a fun Halloween tree blog hop and GIVEAWAY! You need to run over and check-out Jennifer Perkins, Cathie Filian, Tried & True, My Paper Crane! Their trees are also so fun!! Hang tight and I’ll have the giveaway info at the bottom of the post.

I had a ball decorating this beautiful white tree from Treetopia with black, white & gold glam for Halloween. I LOVE how it looks with my Jack O’ Lope display that I created a few weeks ago… The tree adds a beautiful new element to the room that I just adore!

I’ve alway been in love with black & white decor when it comes to decorating for Halloween and knew that I wanted to carry that through with this tree. I found some fun large & small pumpkins at Target that were perfect. I was planning on painting my own, but these were already so cute I caved and bought them instead.

I added some beautiful fox masks from JoAnn that I fell in love with.

I also added more of my favorite black & white dice that I made a few weeks back and some apothecary jars from Target. I was looking for some kind of black filler to add some dimension to the tree and couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something that looked kind of like feathers mixed with spooky foliage. Weird, I know. I looked all over the place for the right look. I finally found a wreath in the Halloween section at Target and it was perfect. I deconstructed the wreath and used it as my tree filler. LOVE IT!

I also absolutely love my white tree from Treetopia, it looks perfect up against my black chalkboard wall for Halloween. It’s the Whisper White Cashmere Tree and it is fabulous. I’ve wanted a white tree for awhile now and I’m just so darn picky I couldn’t find one that I liked. They always looked so cheap. This one is nice and full and looks beautiful. I was so impressed with how easy the tree was to set-up. It has an extra long cord with and on/off foot peddle for ease of use. It also has a plug at the top of the tree to plug-in a tree topper if you have one of that sort, BRILLIANT!

The folks at Treetopia are giving away some fun trees for Halloween, Head over to their Facebook page for all the details!

Details // This post was sponsored by Treetopia however, I had a ball decorating this tree and wouldn’t have shared with you if I didn’t truly love the product!

Pumpkin Halloween Decorations + The Jack O’ Lope

4 · Sep 1, 2015 · 5 Comments

Guys I’m so excited… We are heading into my favorite time of year!

AUTUMN!!

And with Autumn comes all kinds of fun decorating… Back-to-School, Fall, Apples, Pumpkins and Halloween to name a few. I am thrilled to be one of this year’s Michaels Makers and this months challenge is PUMPKINS.

I’ve always loved pumpkin Halloween decorations and I decided to take kind of a silly route with my challenge and make my version of the Jack O’ Lope…

I thought it turned out fun! It was so easy to put together, I just gathered a few supplies at Michaels Craft Stores. Did you know that Michaels is carrying HALF pumpkins?! No more will we need to pull out the heat knife to try and cut our craft pumpkins in half. We can buy them that way now! Well played Michaels, you always know what we need.

I found this great chalk board at Michaels (I couldn’t find it online, but it is in stores) and thought it would be fun to add some antlers to my half pumpkin for a fun wall piece for my Halloween display, to make a Jack O’ Lope of sorts.

First, I seasoned my chalk board to give it that worn in look.

I crushed a little chalk and then rubbed it all over the board with a cloth or paper towel.

That way it looks more like a used chalk board rather than a black sign.

Then I hot glued some antlers that I had hanging around onto the board…

Then, I glued the half pumpkin in place right on top of the antlers.

It fits perfect!

Next, I set-out to create a fun Halloween display to show-off my Jack O’Lope.

I grabbed some of Heidi Swapp Marquee Bats (sorry, they aren’t online but they are in-store) and spray painted them black with Krylon Chalkboard Spray Paint.

Then I added some paper wall bats that are also available in-store.

I added a Halloween printable that I created last year, I still LOVE it!

You can download it HERE.

To fill-out the scene, I added some more pumpkins to the drawer of my buffet…

I wrapped one with a pumpkin sleeve from the Martha Stewart Halloween collection at Michaels. They look really cool and are an easy way to dress-up any pumpkin.

Last but not least and made another set of large dice to use as decor this time. I just love how they fill-in the scene with a little more whimsy. These are super easy to make and are fun to have on hand for all kinds of things. I LOVE my new black set for Halloween!

All together, I think it makes a pretty fun scene for the season. My kiddos think it ‘s pretty cool anyway.

How do you like to decorate with pumpkins? Do you like to decorate for fall, or do you jump right into Halloween like we prefer to do?

Michaels is having a great sale on the crafting pumpkins this week, 40% off… Run and grab some quick before they disappear!

Disclaimer // I am a member of the Michaels Maker crew, this is not a paid position but I do receive store credit in order to create projects for the Michaels Makers program.

Holidays

Rosie the Riveter Costume Materials

Instructions

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