Category: Holidays
Shooting Star Garland
Paper stars – cut from the pages of an old book – are strung onto quilting thread and suspended from our Christmas tree’s branches. My kids love this – the stars appear to float around the tree…
Quick Change Christmas Tree
A supermarket tree is given a green makeover using a shopping bag and paper from the recycling bin…
A Wreath So Easy To Make, You Can’t Beat It With A Stick
A recent walk through a local forest preserve provided me with a nice bundle of branches. I cut them down to about 4-inches in length and hot glued them to a grapevine wreath (available at craft stores)…
Cutting The Deck – To Deck The Halls
One thing I always see in resale shops are decks of old playing cards. They can usually be purchased for pennies and no one seems to be buying them. I like the way they look and thought up a few tricks for using them in my holiday decorating this year…
Scenes From A Mantel
Small Cypress Trees (picked up at The Home Depot for $19.99 each) are dropped into aged terracotta pots and perched on top of decorative gifts and surrounded by other small treasures…
Last Minute Tricks For Your Holiday Table
The clock is ticking down – Thanksgiving is quickly approaching. Feeling like you may have dropped the ball on some of the smaller details? Don’t fret – try using some everyday household items in a new way to add personality to your table…
Going Topless For The Holidays
Broke the top to a favorite teapot? Lost the lid to a sugar bowl? Don’t discount your topless pieces – bring them out and find new uses for holiday entertaining…
Easy & Green Holiday Styling
Homegrown wheat grass is dropped into a vintage champagne glass and surrounded by fresh cranberries – it doesn’t get easier (or cheaper) than this…
Yarn Garland
I’ve started working on a yarn garland for my Christmas tree. Yarns of the same color, but three different textures are linked together to create this wintry look…
Grocery Bag Makeover
Make a quick gift bag out of a paper grocery bag. A few cuts, folds and staples will transform a grocery bag into a fun gift bag in minutes. I added a stenciled design, but you could leave it plain too…
Off The Cuff
I’m still working with those old clothes – turns out a shirt cuff can double as a quick wrap for a gift of wine. Just cut off the cuff and button it on a bottle of wine. Tie a gift tag onto the button…
Poison Gift Bag
To wrap a few treats for Halloween – try making this simple canvas gift bag. I cut two rectangular pieces of canvas – roughly 8″ x 10″ in size and sewed the three sides together using the serge setting on my sewing machine…
Junk Drawer Pumpkins
This project is great for little ones – there’s no carving involved. A small pumpkin is given a face with the addition of a few screws, a button, slices of cork, rubber bands and plastic bread bag clips…
Spider’s Nest Pumpkin
A white pumpkin is cross-sectioned to reveal a creepy spider’s nest. To make this pumpkin, I sliced off approximately 1-inch from two opposite sides, cored the center, screwed black drywall screws around the edge of the openings, placed a plastic black spider inside and stretched fake spider webbing over the screw heads…
Plaid Pumpkin
This pumpkin had a ribbed surface. Following the natural lines in the skin, I cut out the recesses, cored the inside and pulled a strip of tartan fabric through the openings. An LED light illuminates things from within…
Black Lace Screen Door
I cut a sheet of black lace to fit perfectly against the screen panel in my front door. A quick Halloween trick that thrilled my kids like crazy…
Plastic Bag Flowers
A plastic bag is cut into strips to create this plastic bag bow – a green way to wrap a gift. Ready for giving – a bottle of wine is placed in a simple linen bag and wrapped with my easy to make bag bow.
Bootleg Vase
This is really recycled – a coffee can and part of an old pair of jeans make up this vase. I love to add surprising textures to my designs…
Bloody Good Candles For Halloween
Old footed glassware is dripped with red glass paint to create some bloody good fun for Halloween. These are so simple to make. I dropped a few squirts of red glass paint into my glass, swirled it around a bit and then…