Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas dear friends

Paper Christmas Tree

Today I am joining in  The Nester's Christmas Craft Party and continuing with  my no cost decorating theme.  Today's project is a paper Christmas tree. It's not really no cost, but only three dollars. I don't know about you but I get excited by the challenge of making something for little or no money.

Lately I've been inspired by some of the things I've seen on Pinterest that are made with pages of old books.  The first project I did was this wreath.  Once I figured out how to make the cones a uniform size, the rest was easy.  I'm not going to show you how to make it since because there are plenty of instructions online already.

In keeping with the theme of no cost decorating, the  letters for JOY are cut from a cardboard box and the O is an extra plate.  I have LOTS of extra plates!

 The wreath was fun and easy to make so I decided to try and make a paper Christmas tree.  Supplies needed:  tape , 5 or 6 poster boards ( not sure if that's the right name, it's what you use to make  posters), a glue gun and a couple of books.  Try to find  books that are the same size and the paper is similar in thickness and color.

First step was to  tape some poster board paper together into a cone shape.  Then tear the cover and spine off the books and tear the pages out.  Roll each page into a cone shape and glue the end so it won't unroll.

 Then begin to glue the paper cones around the shape doing one row at a time.

 Here is the finished paper Christmas tree.  It is about 4 feet tall.  I am very happy with how it turned out!  I wonder if anyone else has a tree like mine?

No where to put it?  First I tried it  on the left side of the couch, but the whole wall looked  lopsided.  I think that's because I  still need to put something to fill up the wall space beside the wreath. Actually I'm not happy with how that wall looks at all, but for now that's the way it is.

 So  I moved it to the other side and I think it looks better there, at least for now.

Here is a view of it through the mirror on the opposite wall.   You can see the mantle with the fabric scrap wreath I posted about a few days ago.

The nice thing about my Christmas crafts is that they aren't very "Christmasy" so I can leave them up after Christmas if I want to.

There are lots of bloggers joining The Nester's party so make sure you check it out  and happy crafting!

See you next time,

Rhondi xo

No Cost Decorating

No cost decorating.  At this time of year when  there are so many things to spend money on, the prospect of doing some decorating without spending any money is very appealing to me!  What do you have in your home that you could use to decorate with for the holiday?   I think you can take pretty much anything and tie a bow around it or hang it on a tree:  spoons, jewelry, little toys,stuffed animals.   When our kids were little we made yards and yards of popcorn strings and  paper chains.  There are lots of possibilities to decorate without spending money.

I love china, especially blue and white. When I see a plate for $1 at a yard sale or a vase for just a couple of dollars I feel the need to bring it home with me.   Needless to say I have too much blue and white china!

So I "shopped the house".  That's the easiest way do no cost decorating and I found some things to tie on the tree: a small cup

                                                                                            a little teapot

                                                           a cow creamer a friend brought back from France

                                                                          some miniature Dutch shoes

                                        a Delft shoe my Dad brought back from Holland many years ago

                                                                   a napkin ring ( I've got lots of those)

 Usually this  little tree goes in the sunroom but since I did the twig tree there I decided to put it in a corner of the dining room instead.  The plates on the wall sparked the idea to use some of the china to decorate the tree.

 Other years I have trimmed a little tree on the kitchen island,but this year  I used some larger pieces too, since the tree was larger.  I ran into one  little problem a I began to tie the china onto the branches: my little tree began to  lean forward.  So I took some strong wire, tied it around the trunk and nailed it into the chair rail so it would not come crashing over one night when we weren't home.

Placing  it on the wicker tea trolley made it a good height.  And there you have it a beautiful tree without spending any money.  No cost decorating, my favorite way to decorate.

Do you have any no cost decorating ideas you'd like to share with us?
PS The walls are not this bright yellow.  The ar much plower than this!
Rhondi xo

DIY Fabric Wreath 2

Yesterday I told you to come back and see where I put my fabric scrap wreath.  I wandered around the house for awhile looking for a place to hang it and this is what I finally came up with.  I took the mirror off the wall in the dining room and just leaned it up against the wall over the mantle  in our TV room.  I hung it a bit off center. It 's  kind of hard to take a photo of a mirror without  getting yourself in the picture!

            I also borrowed some blue and white china from the dining room and added my BELIEVE sign.

                        A group of thrift shop candlesticks and two little Christmas trees and it's  done.

                                        I tied a few fabric scraps on the trees which I think looks nice.

                       Now all we need is a crackling fire as we sit back and enjoy a hot cup of tea and chat.

There are lots of  parties happening in blogland this week. I'm  joining in a Christmas Wreath party at On Sutton Place and a Christmas mantle party at The Lettered Cottage and a Christmas vignette party at Southern Hospitality. Visit them for  more  inspiring ideas for Christmas decorating.

I am working on another  no cost DIY project which is fun so come back and see me again soon.
Rhondi xo

Fabric Scrap Wreath 1

Do you get lost on Pinterest?  There are so many beautiful and creative things to look at aren't there? I am fascinated by all the different kinds of wreaths there are and thought it would be fun to make  a wreath from fabric scraps.  I am a quilter so I have lots of fabric scraps.

A few years ago I bought some men's shirts at Goodwill to make a quilt.  The fabric in men's dress shirts is very good quality and soft.  Anyway, I decided  to make a great quilt I found in a Kaffe Fasset book  using the shirts I bought.  The quilt was half finished when I abandoned that project ( do you ever do that?) because I thought it would be perfect  to cover a thrift shop bench instead.  There was lots left over so I sewed some of  it into patchwork and covered 2 dining room chairs.

When I made this wreath I used more of the leftover scraps.  All I had to buy was a $3 wire wreath from Michael's.  It was very easy, just  cut up strips of fabric and tie it on the wreath frame.  It took  AWHILE  to tie all the strips!   My husband likes to watch football or NASCAR on Sunday afternoons.  Not being a football or race fan I am usually doing something else in another part of the house, but today instead I worked on my little project in the TV room while he watched the games so we spent the whole afternoon together ( sort of).

I'm not going to show you how I made this wreath because there are already so many  tutorials on the internet. Besides I forgot to take any pictures of the process along the way!

Now that I've finished it I can't decide where to put it.   Comeback tomorrow and hopefully I'll have found a place.
Rhondi xo