Use vignettes in all of your DESIGNs

Whether you are just re-DESIGN-ing a room or decorating for the holidays, vignettes (small gathering of various items that create a small scene within a room) are a great way to add texture, depth and interest to a space.

Here are some examples of the holiday vignettes I created in the living room.

DIY snowball decor for Christmas

Since moving to the South, the one thing I miss the most is a white Christmas... So I like to use "snow" in a lot of my holiday decor.

These DIY snowballs are simple, fun and REAL-ly reasonable!

Supplies:
-compressed styrofoam balls, 10 for $1.00 at the Dollar Tree
-spray adhesive
-bag of snow "flakes"
-skewer
-plastic bag

Place some of the snow "flakes" into the plastic bag (remember a little goes a long way). Insert the skewer into the ball just enough to keep it secure. Next spray the ball with the adhesive while rotating the ball to ensure it is fully coated. The spray adhesive is messy so use the spray outside or inside a cardboard box to avoid the overspray landing where you don't want it to. Next drop the ball into the plastic bag of snow, close the top and shake it. Once it is fully covered remove the ball from the bag and repeat.

Instant snowballs, that won't melt on the mantel.

Finally, the Christmas decorating has begun

I thought I was doing pretty well this year, staying ahead of the quickly approaching Christmas chaos... But then I saw all the Facebook posts and I felt extremely behind on my holiday decorating. Congratulations to all of you who have already trimmed your trees and decked your halls!!!

I started late yesterday and worked on it most of the day today and there is still more to do, but here are a few pictures of the progress. This is the before and after of the living room mantel... Stayed tuned for more.

-Glitter PEACE letters, 99 cents each at Walmart
-Glitter reindeer, 2 for $1.00 at the Dollar Tree
-Snowballs, DIY

Another holiday re-DESIGN project

Over Thanksgiving my Aunt and Grandmother were discussing how much they love charger plates and how great it is that they are finally inexpensive to purchase... In fact, they are so reasonably priced that I bought this one at Dollar General for $1.50. The Dollar Tree is also carrying them, but at such a bargain they are often sold out.

For this project, I once again used my Silhouette to cut out a fun holiday saying. By staying generic to winter I will be able to extend the display time beyond Christmas. Once again, if you do not have a Silhouette a simple paint pen will do. Make one or two to display as decoration around the house or personalize one for each place setting for your holiday guests. You could write their name, initials or keep it to a generic message. The best part is you can make your holiday table look great and send guests home with a personalized gift on a REAL small budget!!!

Great ornament for kids to make for school party or teacher's gifts

My mother made these simple ornaments with us as kids and now I will be making them with my daughter's kindergarten class as a Holiday party craft. I searched the internet for ideas, but nothing fit the ease and appropriateness of this old tried and true idea.

Materials:
-Black matte board (use Michael's coupon for large piece and cut to size)
-Popsicle sticks
-White paint pen
-Scrap book stickers (the Christmas ones were included in one of the weekly 50% off pre-holiday sales)
-Thin ribbon (also part of the weekly sales)

Loop the ribbon and hot glue it to the front face of the matte board. Then glue the sticks to the matte board to create the frame. Next have the kids write letters, numbers, words, etc inside the frame and their name and the year on the back. Lastly, glue a decorative accent to the lower corner of the frame.

The kids will love being involved in DESIGN-ing their own gifts and sharing the talents they have learned in school as a gift to family, friends or teachers.

Local tips... Don't miss the sale in Midway

Just a quick tip for all of the Savannah area followers... The International Greeting Factory Store in Midway is having two more sales before Christmas:

Saturday December 1st, 10:00am-2:00pm
Friday December 14th, 9:00am-5:00pm

I finally got to check out this great sale last week, after hearing so many wonderful things about it.

I was not disappointed (as you can tell from my box of goodies in the picture). The prices are amazing, 4 rolls of wrapping for $1.00, 3 for a $1.00 gift bags and so much more!!! And the best part of all, is although there is a lot of Christmas items, there is still a large selection of year round items as well. With such great prices, not only can you use these items for practical use, you can even justify re-DESIGN-ing them into creative projects.

Tips: go early, bring a friend and strollers would be a challenge in the small space. The line gets very long, so take turns with a friend waiting, while the other looks.

Time to re-DESIGN the home for the holidays

Here is one of my first Christmas decorating projects- a waterless snow globe. I used a large, wide mouth mason jar. I then hot glued stretched out cotton balls and two of my cute little trees to the underside of the lid and sprinkled the small flakes of fake snow into the jar. I reattached the lid and then decorated the jar with a piece of cut burlap and small piece of ribbon and the saying "let it snow" that I cut with the Silhouette. This is an easy, fun project that would make great gifts for teachers or friends.