Christmas 2015: Outdoor Decorations

On December 1, 2015December 8, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor7 Comments

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, good food, and tons of love! We had a great time here, I ate way too much so I’m now back on my “regular diet” as opposed to my “see it eat it diet” that I was partaking in for too many days straight. 😉 I am forever working on my weight, maybe someday I’ll write a post about that part of my life. ANYway, I waited until Thanksgiving was over to decorate outside, I *think* I’m *finally* finished all of my decorating…wow, it took me 2 solid weeks to decorate the inside spaces and 2 days to decorate the outside — obviously, I do a lot less outdoors…haha. 😉

I love the look of lights in the windows, and as y’all know, I keep window lights on all year round. Also, my hubby installed wash lights, up lights, and walkway lights to illuminate the front of the house and the walkway. These lights go on and off every night controlled by a timer that turns them on at dusk and then off 6 hours later. If you’d like to see more about our outdoor special lighting, I’ve written this Special Outdoor Lighting blog. All of these lights worked in our favor when decorating for Christmas.

I will be highlighting the windows, front porch, front flowerbed, lamp post, wagon wheels, and a fence gate that leads to our backyard.

Okay, so here we go…

The hubby started the process by putting up wreaths on all 15 front windows, including the large palladium window above the little porch. We used 24″ pine wreaths, we purchased them at Michaels last year for 1/2 price. Here is a link. The wreath on the palladium window was quite a bit larger and I honestly can’t remember where we got that one. I did not make those bows! What? Nope, I purchased the bows last year at our local “And That” (Christmas Shop) store. They are pretty large and full though and that’s why I chose to go ahead and purchase them as opposed to making 15 bows…OH the hand cramps that would have ensued had I done that. 😉

As the hubby was working on the windows, I was working on the front porch decorations. Sometimes less is more you know? So we chose to only put a lit pine garland over the door and let it drape down the sides of the transom windows. We added a big lit pine wreath to the front door as well as little lit potted trees on either side of the door. I made bows to add to each corner of the garland, one for the wreath, and 2 to go on the little trees.

Now onto my little red wagon decor. For those of you who might not have seen my post about my little red wagon and all of the different looks that I’ve created to go inside of it, check out my Little Red Wagon Decor post. 🙂

I decided to move the wagon to the other side of the front porch because we have a spotlight mounted on the railing that illuminates the front door and the wagon had been blocking it, so I moved it out of the way. Here is the wagon stripped nekkid of all decor…I purchased it at our local Plow and Hearth outlet store last winter. I added that white crate that you see in the back and I have it sitting on top of my grandmother’s old milk can.

I had gone down into our basement and spent quite a while rifling through Christmas bins full of unused decorations. I knew I’d be able to find *something* to use in this wagon. I started with an old piece of pine garland. I wrapped a 35 Christmas light strand around it and placed it on top of the white crate and inside of the wagon; this garland would serve as a nice anchor for the rest of the grouping.

Next, I found an old pine wreath and wrapped lights around it as well and I made a bow out of the same plaid that I used for the over the door garland, front door wreath, and flanking potted trees.

I placed the wreath in the left hand corner and then started to build the rest of the grouping working from the top of the white crate down and from the wreath over. I added 2 solar powered lanterns (the white ones), a red lantern with a battery operated candle, a large burgundy candle stick with a battery operated candle, some poinsettias, a few sprigs of pine (placed inside of the white crate to add depth and interest). I found those sets of bells at Michaels for 1/2 price, so I hung them on the one side of the white crate and on the front center of the wagon–I used sprigs of the pine garland like twist ties and that worked beautifully to hold them in place. Lastly, I sat a pretty red and white snowman on a little red stool, and added a couple of wooden candy canes and called it done. 🙂 I got the big wooden snowman at Kirkland’s several years ago, I snugged him in beside the wagon. I stood back, took a look, and was satisfied with how it turned out. 🙂

Here it is all lit up at night:

And from a distance…

I found this large wooden snowman at The Christmas Mouse and I placed him on the other side of the porch beside the other potted tree…

Here he is at night, the spotlight shines on him too…

So, the hard part was done, now it was just a matter of changing out the decorative flags in the flower bed, switching out my gazing ball for a red one, adding a nice pine wreath to the light post & wagon wheels…

Yes, I made several of those plaid bows, and yes, my hands were so stinkin sore after doing so, but, I love that ribbon and I wanted something that would contrast nicely with the burgundy velvet window bows.

I finished up my outdoor decor by doing just a couple more little things. My dear friend Karen had given me 2 snowman wreaths years ago, at that time they had bright red ribbon bows and ribbon tied around the snowmen’s necks. I did a little repurposing to the wreaths…I decided to make new bows out of that plaid and use the same ribbon to tie around the snowmen’s necks…I hung them on either side of our “Newfie” gate (where silhouettes of our pups are located)… I also tied ribbon around the Newfs necks. 😉

It has been raining buckets here for the last few days, so I went on the search for something that I could spray on those fabric snowmen and on all of my bows that would be exposed to the weather. I found this at Home Depot…fingers crossed that it works!

To finish off my outdoor decor, I decorated up our mailbox…Here is that little design…

See that wooden candy canes sign hanging under the mailbox? That is actually meant to be hung on a little decorative pole (I had it hanging on the front porch of our other home). I didn’t have a place that I wanted to hang it here at this house, but, I’ve been using all of the “signs” that I collected throughout the years to augment my mailbox decor. I really need to do a post describing how I change out my mailbox decorations…I’ll get to that soon. 🙂 I get the signs from Piper Classics.

I can definitely say that I am completely (and finally) finished decorating for Christmas! I plan on writing one more Christmas themed entry showing y’all our large Christmas tree in our family room (honestly, nothing all that interesting crafting wise…but it sure is filled with all sorts of sentimental ornaments) and an all-over look-see around the house. I have really enjoyed doing my decorating this year and I’m glad that I started way before Christmas, I’d be a crazy lady now trying to get ‘er all done along with all of the shopping and wrapping.

I hope that this rain stops soon, I’m not complaining about the rain, I realize that we can always use the rain, but, I think I’d rather be seeing snow! 😉

Here is one last picture of our home all decked out for Christmas…

“Merry Christmas to ALL and to all a goodnight”. 😉

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn

Christmas 2015: Light Up Christmas Canvas (With Guest Blogger My Cousin Stacey)

On November 30, 2015November 30, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor8 Comments

It’s time for another post from my awesomely talented cousin Stacey! Wait till you see what she has in store for y’all today! OMGosh, she is so inspiring, I think I want to give this “Light Up Christmas Canvas” a try!!

Here is a picture of Stacey and me taken a couple of months ago, she is the one on the left and I’m sort of behind her and on the right. 🙂

Take it away Stacey!

Hello!! It’s Arlynn’s cousin Stacey again!! A big THANK YOU to Arlynn for allowing me another guest spot!!

I’m going to show you how to make this light up Christmas canvas!!

AWESOME RIGHT?!?! The best part; YOU can totally do this too!!!

First, let’s get all our supplies together. You need a canvas, (I chose a rather large canvas of 24X36) graphite paper, some battery powered lights, paint, paint pen, brushes, glue gun, and your imagination! I also used some glitter glue to add a little extra sparkle around the lights. You can NEVER have too much sparkle!

The hardest part of this whole craft is deciding on what you want your image to say. I knew I wanted my canvas to light up so I wanted something that alluded to “light”.

Some other ideas I kicked around were “The Stars Were Brightly Shining” and “O Star of Wonder, Star of Night”, “All is Calm, All is Bright”. But, I also liked “Joy to the World”, “ O Holy Night”, “Come Let Us Adore Him” and “Merry Christmas”. You may choose whatever makes your Christmas heart sing with joy!

Again, I chose a large canvas but you may choose whatever size will work best in your home. I bought a computer program called Mindcad Tiler. This will take a picture file and turn it into a banner or several page poster. This is what I use to create my template. I can only imagine there are hundreds of these types of applications online. Whatever works best for you. I printed my template and added the stars where I thought my lights would work best.

My next step was to paint my canvas. Since it’s a Christmas canvas, sparkle and shine was a MUST!! I chose some glitter acrylic paint from Target. I’m sure there is better paint to use, but I was there, and I’m lazy and didn’t want to run all over town looking for “special” paint for canvas. (If you have read some of my earlier entries, you may remember my laziness)

OoOoOohhhh!! SPARKLE SPARKLE!! Get those brushes out and paint that whole canvas!! Don’t forget the sides!!

At first I was kinda bummed about the splotchy, patchy look of the paint. But, after I let it dry, I realized it was a happy accident! It really adds texture and interest instead of just being flat. Nice!! Laziness to the rescue! I decided to roll with it.

OK, your canvas is all painted and ready! Grab your template and graphite paper. Lay your graphite paper ink side down towards the canvas and your template on top.

Then, trace your image! The graphite paper will leave an outline and all you will need to do is fill it in with your paint!

Two game changing words for you…PAINT PEN!! These things are seriously awesome!! It’s exactly what it calls itself! A pen filled with paint!! YES!

I did all the script with this paint pen. I love you Sharpie. I used the water based paint pen with a medium tip. I found it with the painting supplies at Michaels when I bought my canvas. I’m sure all the craft supply stores sell them. Seriously, this is the best thing ever!

YEA!! All filled in!!

As you can see, I included the little stars with my template. I knew this is where I wanted my lights to go. I didn’t outline them in black. I just left the graphite outline. I allowed them to kind of fade into the background. I didn’t want to draw the eye away from the script.

You can also wait until after you have your script on the canvas and lay out how you would like your lights that way. Just be sure you space your lights in such a way that the strand will reach. I found a string of 20 battery-powered lights with a timer at Wal-Mart! You could also reuse some leftover plug in lights and up-cycle them and give them a new life. I didn’t want to have to plug in my canvas every night (hello laziness) so I went with battery powered timed lights.

Before I poked the holes for the lights, I embellished the stars with some glitter glue. Love this stuff. Found it at Michaels with the craft paints.

It has some really pretty iridescent glitter already in the glue. I thought that would be really reflective and the glue adds a 3D element. I used the glue to make some little dots just to add a little more interest.

Time to poke some holes. I used some screwdrivers to poke my holes. I think an awl would work great too. I would recommend not using a knife or blade to make your holes. I think a slit would split and not give a finished look to your holes. I also went with a smaller screwdriver to start so that the hole wouldn’t be too large and the entire light would push through! You only want the glass part of the light to come through the canvas. I used the larger screwdriver to widen the holes just enough for the top of the light to poke through.

Poke, poke, poke! All your holes are poked, time to push in your lights. I ran a ring of hot glue around the light to hold them in place.

From the back of the canvas, push just the glass light part through the canvas.

Here you can see what the front of the canvas will look like with just the little light sticking through.

Here’s the back of my canvas with the lights glued in place.

I realized, too late, that I didn’t plan on how I would attach my battery pack. Sooo, I got crazy creative and came up with this. I used a saw tooth picture hanger and a doubled up heavy-duty rubber band! Sometimes, I even impress myself! LOL! (wow, Stacey, nice. Lazy and humble? SMH) Anyway, this does double duty. It immobilizes the battery pack AND allows you to still reach the batteries so you can change them. (You could also just use some tape, or Velcro etc. to hold yours in place)

All that’s left is to hang that glorious canvas and turn on those lights!! AMAZING!! Look at what you created!! Time to bask in all the Christmas Spirit your canvas will inspire!! MERRY CHRISTMAS and GOD BLESS!!

**Arlynn here again…Wasn’t that amazing?!! I LOVE it!! And Stacey makes it look so easy, she is absolutely awesome!!!

**Thank you Stacey…LOVE you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck Sweetie!! MWAH!!**

I am so grateful to Stacey for taking some time out of her busy schedule to contribute her talents to my Blog, especially today as I had planned on writing an entry describing my outdoor Christmas decor. I still have a few things to accomplish today, but, I promise that I’ll get that post up tomorrow. 🙂

Until then, here is a sneak peak at the front of my house all decorated up for Christmas:

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**

Christmas Decorations 2015: Living & Dining Rooms (Silver & White with Touches of Teal and Light Green)

On November 18, 2015November 22, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor2 Comments

So, I was all finished decorating the back rooms of our home, i.e. family room, kitchen, kitchen’s eating area, powder room and all spaces that dwell within said rooms. As you have seen, I used the more traditional Christmas colors of burgundy and gold for that part of the house. In my past posts I have explained that my accent color for the front rooms of our home is a pretty green that is seen everywhere I look in most stores and I pair it with khakis and creams. So, my Christmas decorating goal was to utilize that same green and add silver, teal, and white therefore creating light, airy, and hopefully cozy rooms. Let me reiterate a bit about my decorating style, my all-over goal is to always provide a place where whomever enters feels as if they can sit down, put their feet up, pet a big dog, have a cup of coffee, tea, or hot cocoa, and be as comfortable here as they would feel in their own home. I always, no matter the time of year, use warm mostly earth tones throughout the house and I add pops of color with my decor. I mostly stick with burgundies, khakis, and creams (for my regular decor) in the back rooms of the house, and that pretty green color for the front rooms. All that said, I was worried that by adding the lighter colors of silver, white, and teal for Christmas that I might ‘cool’ those rooms down a bit. BUT, I was determined to try because I love the clean and bright look that those lighter colors can bring to a room. Also, those rooms are a smidge more formal to begin with just because of the cherry wood furniture; I have 3 pieces that were handed down to me from my grandmother and then my mom, we also have our own dining room furniture; all pieces are a dark cherry color. Before we moved in here, we purchased a new couch and 2 chairs for the living room selecting comfortable, lighter colored furniture that would help to stave off the formality that the cherry furniture inherently puts forth. We tried our best to mix the old with the new, I feel like we accomplished our mission.

All that said, I’ll now show you how I decorated these pretty rooms that sit on the front of our home separated by the foyer…

This is looking at the back of our our front door, living room to the left and dining room to the right, family room behind me…

First, the dining room:

Here are a couple of things that I created for the dining room, first, the dining room table’s lantern centerpiece. I will not bore you with another “how to make a lantern centerpiece” in this entry. If you would like to know how to do so, please check out my A Lantern Centerpiece For All Seasons link. 🙂

Here are all of the accent pieces that I used to create this centerpiece (using the very same tray and lantern as I highlighted in the link above):

I also made a bow and attached some of the same accent pieces that I was using in the arrangement to the back of the bow via the pipe cleaner with which I closed the bow and tied it onto the top piece of the lantern. Here is my Bow Tutorial (Video) if you’d like to see how to make a tiered bow…

Next, the sideboard.

First, my Aunt and Uncle gave us that pretty white and silver bowl on the left, I was sure that this was the place that I wanted to show off its prettiness…so that was the very first thing that I set up on the sideboard. I then added the candle sticks, Christmas trees, reindeer, and then set my sights on creating something special to go around that lamp…

The lamp was my grandmother’s and then my mom had it in her house for many years, and its resting place before coming to me was in my mom’s nursing home room.

It is a very, very special lamp so I wanted to do it justice. Unfortunately, I was concentrating so hard on making this arrangement that I neglected to take pictures of how I created it. It wasn’t hard though, all it really is are a couple of white flocked pine picks, a few white and silver pinecone ornaments, and a few sparkly white and silver poinsettias. OH, I did add a battery operated mini light set (with a timer)…

The dining room hutch’s decor is simply a green pine garland wrapped with white lights, 3 big silver bows, and a few silver Christmas trees, the lanterns and the rest of the decor remain on the top of the hutch year round…

Now for the living room:

The first thing, I created for this room was a smaller lantern centerpiece to go on top of another one of my pieces that used to be my grandmother’s, this little table:

As you can see, it has a glass top on it, but check this out, you can actually lift the glass top completely off. I keep whatever doily that I am using under the glass…

I started my centerpiece with a silver tray that used to be my mom’s (as you can see, there are many sentimental pieces in these rooms)…

I placed a lantern on the tray and surrounded it with a pip berry garland and then started to add the other accent pieces

I placed a battery operated candle inside the lantern and stepped back, I was happy with what I saw…

There is one more little grouping that I just made up today after I took a trip to our local Kirkland’s store. I purchased those stackable lit gift boxes, I just couldn’t resist them, they were the perfect color to pair with the rest of the decor that I had planned for that rod-iron and glass table (which I also got at Kirkland’s shortly after we moved into this house)…

12246775_10207681669310199_2196726655940247164_n

12249670_10207681669550205_6863634880438833604_n

This old secretary is one of my favorite pieces that I inherited from my grandmother. My Aunt just told me a couple of stories that I had never heard about this piece of furniture. Apparently, my grandmother purchased this Secretary by selling her homemade candy (I remember as a child we’d help her pull butter mints, I’m not sure if that’s the candy to which she is referring, but what a neat story!). And apparently, the 13 panes of glass in each door represents the first 13 original States. What?! I love these stories!!! 🙂 ANYway, I love to give it a different look as the seasons change. I remember sitting at it as a child and opening up all of the drawers that contained all sorts of fun treasures and pretending like I was a secretary…sweet, sweet memories. ANYway, I choose to leave the big door open and put a bit of decor on the inside (maybe when I have grandchildren one day, I’ll have to fill up those little drawers with all sorts of goodies and help to make some sweet memories for those little tykes). The picture on the top is a picture of my beautiful mom on her and my dad’s wedding day. **Miss you mom!!** Anyway, here is how I decorated it up for Christmas this year:

I purchased our white Christmas tree last year at Walmart if you can believe that?! lol And it is a beauty! It does put off a pink hue though, so I kept the decorations on the tree to a minimum. I didn’t want to fight with the pink and I didn’t want to add tons of pink to the decor in the rest of the space. So I added a big iridescent bow topper, a lit tree topper above the bow…

Then I added silver beaded garland, and ornaments in silver, white, a few pink, and ornaments that were a very subtle green…

I put a white tree skirt on the floor and added a little lit church and tree and called it done. 🙂 It looks beautiful sitting in the bay window, I love to see the reflections of the tree in all of the windows.

And check it out from outside…wow!!

Here are some pictures of the rooms as a whole…I am quite pleased with how it all turned out. I have found myself walking in there and drinking in all of the memories that are conjured up while moving my eyes from one piece to the next. Sweet, sweet, precious memories that I hold very close to my heart. ❤

I hope y’all have enjoyed seeing all of my creations for this Christmas, the only things that I have left to do are the big Christmas tree that will go up on Thanksgiving Day in the family room (the family will help to decorate that) and the outside. I will be sure write a little blog about both things. Let me take a moment to thank those of you who have commented and those of you who come back and check to see what this silly crafter has been doing. I’ve really enjoyed sharing my creations and home with you all…

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**

Cousins Craft Weekend – Part 2 – Grapevine Fall Wreath

On September 27, 2015October 15, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor1 Comment

Hi Everyone!

As I mentioned in Part 1 of this little “Cousins Craft Weekend” series of posts, I was able to spend a few fun-filled and very productive days with a couple of my sweet cousins. Here is a picture of all three of us at Stacey’s house (left to right – Donita, Stacey, and me (Arlynn):

Stacey composed Part 1 of this series and explained how she created a deco mesh ruffle Halloween wreath and she will be composing Part 3 in which she will be describing how she created a deco mesh lighted garland to pair with her wreath. I can’t wait for y’all to see how she created that beauty; here is a sneak peak at just a piece the finished garland (that is Stacey’s gorgeous lab Piper sitting and posing so prettily):

I will be handling this “Part 2” entry and I will be describing how I made Donita a Fall wreath for her to hang in her home.

I started out with an oval shaped grapevine wreath; I was so happy that I found the oval shaped wreath at Hobby Lobby, it really made for a pretty finished product. All of the Fall decor craft items were on sale for 40% off so I was able to pick up all of the components that I used for the wreath for a great price.

Here is my haul, admittedly, I purchased a few extra items that I didn’t end up using, but Stacey was able to use a couple of things in her home and the rest, well, I will always be able to incorporate them into my other Fall decor:

The very first thing that I did was to make a “wreath hanger” out of a pipe cleaner. I try to always hot glue one of these to the back of all grapevine wreaths as most wreath hangers aren’t large enough to accommodate a grapevine wreath. Then I made a bow…

Next I took a leaf garland and laid it on top of the wreath and started to glue it into place…this process took a while because waiting for that glue to dry was frustrating. This probably wouldn’t be an issue for y’all but, my hot glue gun is like a weapon and the hot glue that comes out of it practically melts things instead of glues things…haha. I really should invest in one that isn’t quite as dangerous! 😉

While the glue was drying on the wreath and garland, I took the opportunity to glue pipe cleaners to the backs of those pumpkins, they were pretty heavy and I knew that hot glue–even my industrial strength glue wasn’t going to hold them in place on the wreath.

Since I/we had such a lovely time <rolling eyes and oozing sarcasm> trying to get the leaf garland to stay put (Stacey and Donita took their turns at holding said leaf garland in place along with me), I decided to add to the fun by looping some of the bow ribbon around the wreath and over the garland. It sure looked pretty so I was determined to get it to work but that stupid glue was giving me issues again; to say that I was ecstatic is an understatement when Stacey provided me with a wooden skewer to be used to hold the ribbon in place while the HOT glue dried! Goodness gracious, what a little task, but we were laughing and joking all the way through the process which made it a bit easier.

Next, I glued pipe cleaners to the back of an initial and while that was drying, I started to place some other accents into place on the wreath. I used acorns, pip berry picks, a few Fall colored sunflowers and added the bow; it all came together beautifully.

Here is the finished wreath all ready to travel home with my cousin Donita and to take it’s rightful place in her home. 🙂 She absolutely loves it which of course warms my heart! I would much rather give than receive any day of the week!! ❤

And that completes Part 2 of our little “Cousins Craft Weekend” series. Stay tuned for Part 3! I can’t wait for y’all to see how Stacey put together her lighted deco mesh garland; trust me, it turned out so nice!!

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**

Cousins Craft Weekend – Part 1 – Deco Mesh Ruffle Halloween Wreath with Guest Blogger (my) Cousin Stacey

On September 26, 2015October 15, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal Decor4 Comments

Hi Everyone!

I just returned home from my cousin Stacey’s house, she lives 1-1/2 hours away from me and during our visit we had a wonderful time laughing, crying through laughter, hugging, chatting, and crafting with another one of our cousins Donita. Here is a picture of the three of us, left to right: Donita, me (Arlynn), and Stacey (I adore these two ladies!!):

We’ve dubbed our fun time together as “Cousins Craft Weekend” and I will be posting three separate Blog entries to showcase what we created during our time together. Stacey will be contributing to two of the entries, this one (Part One) where she will describe a ruffle deco mesh Halloween wreath, and another one showcasing a matching deco mesh garland. Both things turned out fabulously well, and have now adorned her front porch with a splash of Halloween fun! Stacey is an amazing mother/wife/daughter/cousin/friend AND crafter! I love her dearly and I know that you will enjoy her sense of humor as you read through her entry as she describes the process that she used to create her finished product. 🙂

Here goes:

“Hello!! My name is Stacey and my fabulous crafty cousin has graciously allowed me to hijack her blog for an entry! (I hope she doesn’t regret that!) I, like Arlynn, love my family more than my own life and enjoy making my house a home using crafts. I love to paint, build, design, create and repurpose just about anything to accomplish that task! Maybe, in the future, I’ll share some of my other creations here as well.

Since Halloween is almost upon us, I’ve decided to show y’all how to make a ruffle deco mesh wreath and garland to spookify your front porch! The hardest part of this entire craft is deciding on a theme. This is really important. Stick with your theme. If you try to add too many different ideas into one craft, you will end up with a disjointed and confused product. We want FABULOUS not WTF? (What the Flip)

I decided to go with Monster Eye Balls! I don’t really do ghouls, witches and anything especially dark and/or scary. You may choose whatever makes your little holiday heart go pitter patter!

Once I decided on my theme, I took myself to our local craft stores and purchased all the goodies I needed! And even some I didn’t! LOL!!

For the wreath I bought a 16” pre made wreath form, three 10” rolls of Deco Mesh, Halloween ribbon, eyeball ornaments, assorted picks and black pipe cleaners. The 10” deco mesh can sometimes be tricky to find. I found mine at JoAnn’s Fabric but there are lots of great online stores that sell all colors and even patterns of this particular size.

To make the garland, I recycled some old pre lit Christmas garland I had languishing in the basement. I bought two rolls of 12” deco mesh and one roll of 5.5” deco mesh. I purchased some foam balls and painted them to look like eyeballs. (More on that in the garland post.)

I began my project with the wreath. I decided instead of the traditional deco mesh wreath, I would make a ruffle mesh wreath! Let me tell you, it was WAY easier and super fast!

I also loved using the pre-made wreath form! What a time saver! These forms already have the pipe cleaners attached and spaced.
I started by laying out a tape measure and taping it to my workspace. I then rolled out my deco mesh and cut 20” lengths of mesh. One thing you must know about me before I go on. I am incredibly lazy and impatient!! So, with that in mind, you will see that I stacked all three rolls of mesh on top of each other, cut them all at the same time and made 17 rolls. (the number of pipe cleaner attachment spots).

Once I had all my rolls cut, I scrunched them up and attached the bunch at each pipe cleaner. *Remember my laziness? Well, I didn’t even separate the colors! I just left them all stacked and bunched them all at the same time!! YEA Laziness!!

After all the spots had been filled in, I started work on my ribbon accents. I began the same way as before. Rolling the ribbon along the tape measure and cutting 12” lengths of ribbon. *Note to self. If you decide to use glitter ribbon, be prepared to look like Tinker Bell exploded all over your skin, counter, floor, dog etc!! That stuff is harder to get rid of than grey hair!!

I had all my ribbon lengths cut. To finish the ends I just cut pretty little tails on them. To do that, fold your ribbon lengthwise and cut at an angle.

OK!! At this point, you have all your deco mesh attached, and all your ribbons cut!! TIME TO FLUFF AND DECORATE!! Fluff and separate your mesh to add the fullness and ruffle effect. Then, use your creativity to add ribbons, eyeballs or whatever makes your Halloween Wreath strike fear into all Trick or Treaters!!

The last thing I added was a “Boo Y’all” sign! How cute does that look?!!

Oh now look at that!! What a beauty!! Guess what?!?! Yours will be AWESOME too!”

***Arlynn here again…Wasn’t that wonderful? Stacey is as sweet and funny in person as she sounds in this entry. 🙂 Stay tuned for Part 2! I can’t wait to share with you the wreath that I made for Donita and Stacey will be sharing the deco mesh garland that she made to match this awesome wreath!***

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**

A Dressier Lantern Centerpiece

On September 21, 2015October 15, 2015 By ArlynnIn Lanterns2 Comments

Hi Everyone!

It is a rainy, rather dreary Monday afternoon here in Virginia so I thought I’d sit down and put together this little post about my dining room lantern centerpiece and also show you how I transform it to match the season or Holiday. I found the large lantern featured in this post in a local country store and for its measurements, please refer to my “A Lantern Centerpiece For All Seasons” blog post; where along with the lantern’s measurements, I also give a bit of a tutorial showing you how to put one of these centerpieces together.

I’ve been using a very pretty country sea foam green as my accent color in the dining and living rooms; I love the light and airy touch that it adds to a room. I have been pairing it with grays and taupes and have been very happy with how it has all come together. It has been a bit of a challenge for me to stay in my country comfort zone while using that accent color, but I do believe I’ve successfully kept my decor warm and have created some cozy groupings, arrangements, wreaths, and centerpieces to keep within the country theme.

Here is the first lantern centerpiece I created for the dining room table:

I purchased the same mirrored tray that I used for the kitchen lantern centerpiece to go under this lantern and it is used to build all of the arrangements featured in this post

Easter was the next Holiday, in years past, I haven’t typically decorated for Easter, but this lantern inspired me to create a new centerpiece.

I also made that wreath that is hanging on the wall…it didn’t stay there for long though as I moved it out onto the porch and added it into a grouping that I put together out there. There it is added to the front porch grouping…

Next, I needed something to go with our family reunion decor, so I switched out the tablecloth and a few other decor items that helped me incorporate my red and white gingham, gerber daisies, and mason jars reunion theme.

This centerpiece and the red and white accents only stayed in there for the day of the reunion.

After the reunion, I went ahead and changed the dining room decor back to its softer color tone, here is the centerpiece that I chose to make to complete the room’s transformation back to ‘normal’:

This arrangement stayed in place until it was time to decorate for Fall. I was very happy with how this one turned out, I just love to add that bow/pip berries topper. 🙂

Fall has arrived and here is the dining room with the Fall decor including the lantern centerpiece in place:

And here is the bow, pip berries, fall pick topper:

The Fall decor in this room is quite subtle, but I’m happy with how it looks. I feel that it still looks warm, inviting, and cozy despite not using all of the typical Fall colors.

I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying working with these lanterns and creating all of these different centerpieces. I do use lanterns in other capacities as well–a subject for another blog post. 😉 I do feel as if the softer green color lends itself to a ‘fancier’ centerpiece; I don’t want it to be too formal in the dining room, but I do want it to be a bit lighter and airier in design.

Well, it’s time for me to get myself in gear and to make my hubby and I some dinner, so, until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**

Burlap Wreaths and More Burlap Wreaths

On September 4, 2015October 15, 2015 By ArlynnIn Wreaths2 Comments

Hi to all of you lovelies out there!

I am like the energizer bunny, I hardly ever sit still and I am always planning my next project, event, trip, decor change, etc… One of my hubby’s nicknames for me is “The Planner”; I know I must drive the poor man crazy at times! 😉 So, when I was gathering pictures for this blog post, I surprised myself with the sheer number of wreaths that I’ve made this past year . I’ve created some of these for my own use here in our home, and I’ve created a few to give as gifts. My plan for this blog entry is to just *show* you the different wreaths, if you would like to know how to make one you can reference one of my earlier blog posts here. 🙂

So here goes:

This one hangs in our “mud room”, I hung it on the door leading to the garage–I added that wreath hanger that you see in the picture on the left, it is awesome. You can find it online here:

I made this one for one of our guest bedrooms…

I threw this one together because I wanted a little something more for on that corner shelf:

I made this one for a dear friend who loves owls:

I made this one for a friend…She asked me to make her something to hang on her Mom’s nursing home room’s door:

I made this one for another one of our guest bedrooms, I actually utilized an old Boyd’s Bear Bunny that had been stuck in a box in my basement for years:

I hung this one in the laundry room…:)

I made this one to go with the family reunion decor (red and white gingham, gerber daisies, and mason jars):

This one was to add to an Easter grouping that I had put together out on the front porch:

I made this one to be hung on the front door from Memorial Day through July 4th. You’ll also see our pups in one of the pictures below. The Newfoundland dogs names are Sophie and Samson (brown), and the Golden’s name is Gracie. I love them like crazy! ❤

And last but not least, I just made this one the other day. This is for a very dear friend of mine who lives in another State. My hubby is constructing a box for me to pack it up in for shipping…it is 30″ in diameter (as wide as some front doors, in other words, it is huge). 🙂

Well, that does it for the burlap wreaths that I’ve made in the past year. I’ve also made some grapevine and deco mesh wreaths as well–subjects for another blog. 🙂 I hope that one of these wreaths will inspire one of you to try to make one for yourself. You can do it! And I’m right here if you have any questions at all, feel free to leave me any questions in the comments. Happy Crafting!! ❤

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**

Above the Kitchen Cabinets Decor

On September 3, 2015October 15, 2015 By ArlynnIn Country Decor Ideas6 Comments

Hi All!!

One of the main reasons that my hubby and I chose this model of home to build for our retirement home was because of this kitchen. It is definitely my dream kitchen and I feel humbled and blessed to be able to cook in it daily. While our house was being built, I was doing a bit of building of my own, I was building the decor that I would be arranging on top of the kitchen cabinets. First, I have been collecting Longaberger baskets for decades so I knew that some baskets would definitely be part of the design. I have also been collecting Dickens Houses for decades, and I’ve always added them into my decor no matter the time of year, so I knew a few of those would also be incorporated into the design. I love wooden plates and had collected quite a few of those too. To round out what I needed to complete my vision of the cabinet decor, I spent many a day collecting lanterns and battery operated candles to go in them as well as a *very* large plate and a couple of metal stars (for above and on either side of the hood).

The day finally came for me to arrange the cabinet decor. I truly had no idea where to start, so I gathered everything that I had earmarked for this project and laid it all out on the island.

My hubby went and retrieved a ladder; I sweetly (honest) directed and he placed things where I asked (bless his heart, he had to readjust a few items several times until I was satisfied with the placement). It didn’t take us long to get in a rhythm and we had everything placed in no time. 🙂

I am really happy with how it all turned out! To add, my hubby attached little chargers to the candles and plugged them in up there–during the building process we had arranged to have wall electrical sockets installed above the cabinets and they all run to a switch down on the wall. Because he did that, I never have to replace the batteries in the candles and they stay on all of the time. 🙂

As you will see in future blogs, I love soft lighting and what it adds to the overall feeling of a room. My goal is always for a room to feel warm, welcoming, and cozy, I feel as if I accomplished that goal with the overall decor selections and my hubby’s help with placement and the magic he performed with those battery operated candles. I love it when a plan that has been formulating in my brain comes to fruition! 🙂

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**

picstitch — Here is a before and after comparison from one direction and then below from another direction:

The Lantern Centerpiece Gift

On September 2, 2015October 15, 2015 By ArlynnIn Lanterns6 Comments

Hi Everyone!

I always enjoy giving homemade gifts to people that I know will appreciate the planning, preparation, and plethora of work it takes to create an entirely new concept just for them. My dear friend Karen is one such person. Karen and I have been friends for over a decade now, our daughters were in the high school marching band together and Karen and I were very involved in the Band Parents Association. She and I had much more in common than just our girls though, she is also a crafter and she can create beautiful things that I admire greatly. So, when she and her hubby built a beautiful new home my wheels started turning and I tried to come up with a new and different Housewarming gift. What does a crafter give another crafter? It can be tricky…luckily, our ‘talents’ lie in different realms of the crafting world. Karen herself actually gave me the idea of what I ended up making for her. She texted me one day to ask me if she could borrow my red gingham tablecloth to use for an upcoming get-together. Well, when she asked me that the light went on in my head and the bells started ding, ding, dinging, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for her; a lantern centerpiece 🙂 First, I purchased her a red gingham tablecloth of her own. Then I made a lantern centerpiece with a red gingham bow, pip berries garland, red and white gerber daisies, black metal stars, a red battery operated candle, and a “Family” wooden sign, all arranged in and around a cream colored wooden tray and cream colored wooden lantern. I also put a red gingham placemat in the tray to serve as a nice decorative base for the design.

**Side note–I love arranging my lantern centerpieces in trays, the tray provides an anchor for the entire design and *bonus* it is easily picked up and moved from place to place**

Here is that finished centerpiece:

I then thought, well, I don’t want to pigeonhole her into having to use the red gingham accents all of the time, so I took it a step further and supplied her with the necessary materials with which to change out the red gingham accents and insert a more neutral design; utilizing the same metal stars, lantern and tray. I made a new bow out of chevron and burlap ribbon and supplied a different colored pip berries garland, a cream colored battery operated candle, different colored gerber daisies, a different “Home” sign, and a neutral placemat. Also, I made it so that she could easily change out the bows by hot gluing velcro on the ends of a piece of the same ribbon and attaching it to the bows; they were then secure when in place, pretty, and functional. 🙂

Here is that version of the centerpiece:

I packed up all of the neutral design materials along with a picture of how she might want to switch out the red and white gingham elements and replace them with the more neutral elements.

I delivered the red gingham version of the centerpiece to her with the neutral version packed in a gift bag. I immediately knew that I had chosen right in giving her a homemade gift because when I handed it to her, her sweet eyes welled up with tears and I got the very best hug ever! My day was made, completely made!

In my opinion, it is *always* better to give than to receive, and when it comes from your heart and is made with love and with the receiver in mind, it makes for a good day all around.

**LOVE you Karen** ❤

Front Door Burlap Wreaths

On September 1, 2015October 15, 2015 By ArlynnIn Uncategorized14 Comments

Good Afternoon!

As is typical of me, I woke up one morning with the idea in my head that I wanted to make something. What I chose to do on that particular day was to make my aunt a burlap wreath for her front door. The only problem with that was that I had never tried to make a burlap wreath and I had no idea where to start. So, I took to google search (one of my best friends…lol) and I started reading and watching tutorials; this gave me the basic idea of how to, at the very least, *start* to make my wreath. I will admit that I spent a bit too much time searching “how-to” blogs and videos and not enough time trusting my own abilities to accomplish my goal on my own. So, I put my computer down, got in my car, and headed to my local go-to craft store Hobby Lobby. We also have a Michaels and an AC Moore here in our town, but I am usually successful at finding exactly what I need to bring a project to fruition at Hobby Lobby. So, anyway, I started walking through the store collecting my needed supplies. When all was said and done, I was successful at making my aunt a wreath and then I made my cousin one too; I gave them to them for Christmas last year. But, I wasn’t exactly satisfied with those two wreaths even though my aunt and cousin loved them and were so sweet with their compliments regarding just how much they loved them. Here are pictures of those two wreaths:

I decided I would try again (I am nothing if not determined to try and try again until I’m satisfied with the end result) and so I set myself to the task of making a burlap wreath for our front door, I wanted it to be quite large because our home sits pretty far back from the road and I wanted to be able to see the wreath on the front door from our cul-de-sac. So off to Hobby Lobby I went yet again and I began to gather my supplies. The first thing I picked up was a 24″ metal wreath form with the twist ties already attached. I then collected all of the other things that I thought I might need to make my wreath. I will try my best to put into bulleted form how I constructed not one but 2 burlap wreaths for my front door…yes, I said 2…lol…I made one for the inside of the door too. We found a wreath hanger that we could manipulate over the door that provided a hook on either side of the door. I was very happy with what I ended up with and I have made many other burlap wreaths since, so many that my hubby has made me a wreath hanging station in our basement. In another blog, I will post a bunch of pictures of the burlap wreaths that I’ve made, some for my own use, a few for gifts, and one or two for friends who sweetly asked me to create one for them.

The two specific wreaths featured in this blog are wreaths that hang on my front door at times of the year when we are not celebrating a Holiday or for times when I am not using a specific seasonal decor…in other words, these are my “everyday” wreaths. I switch out the outside front door wreath A LOT… 🙂 Here are pictures of the finished wreaths:

Here is how I put all online tutorials out of my head and created my own version of a burlap wreath:

*Supplies needed for a very large burlap wreath: 24″ wreath form with the twist ties or pipe cleaners already attached, or you can attach your own pipe cleaners at regular intervals around the form–not hard, 2 rolls of burlap–for these extra large wreaths, I used burlap “runner” rolls, a coordinating colored burlap or ribbon, any accents that you might like to add such as pip berries, silk or dry flowers, wooden words, wooden or metal ‘pictures’, wooden or metal initials, seasonal decor, and so on…Let your imagination run wild

*Find a large surface with which to work and lay out all of your supplies

*Plug in your hot glue gun–I try not to use too much glue on these types of wreaths, but I do glue pipe cleaners to the backs of pictures and/or other accents (wooden initials, pictures, etc…) so that I can tie them onto the wreath frame. And when necessary, I do glue certain things into place if they just won’t stay by attaching them with the pipe cleaners

*Work your way around the wreath form starting on the outside ring gathering and catching burlap into each pipe cleaner and then moving to the inside ring and doing the same thing. I’ve seen some people online who measure the length of burlap that they put between each pipe cleaner, I do not do that, I just eyeball it and go for it. So once you have your outer and inner rows of burlap attached to the form, add your coordinating colored burlap or ribbon catching it into one of the outside pipe cleaners (by untwisting the pipe cleaner and adding it to the burlap that you already caught) and working to the next inside pipe cleaner, then back to the outside and so on all the way around the wreath.

*Take a moment to glue pipe cleaners to the back of anything you might want to attach to the wreath form as you see me doing in the picture below.

Instead of gluing, I just threaded a pipe cleaner through the metal clasp on the back of the picture

*Then start attaching anything else that you’d like to put on your wreath either via the pipe cleaners that you attached, or directly into some of the pipe cleaners (you’ll see what I mean in the pictures below–SO hard to explain). I chose slightly different things for each wreath, I chose to put our last name initial on both wreaths as well as a bow (that I made…I’ll need to do another blog about how to make a bow huh?) on both. Then I chose other specific items for each wreath consisting of pip berries, gerber daisies for the outdoor wreath to match our red door and the coordinating ribbon, other silk flowers and a wooden framed picture for the indoor wreath to match my room decor.

Here is a link for the Wreath Hanger that we used

So there you go, I was finally successful at making burlap wreaths that met with my own approval…haha. Give a burlap wreath a try! Nothing is perfect in the crafting world, that’s what makes it so much fun and unique to just you! 🙂

**In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations**

⚜️ Arlynn's Country Craft Corner ⚜️

Tag: Crafting

Christmas 2015: Outdoor Decorations

Christmas 2015: Light Up Christmas Canvas (With Guest Blogger My Cousin Stacey)

Christmas Decorations 2015: Living & Dining Rooms (Silver & White with Touches of Teal and Light Green)

Cousins Craft Weekend – Part 2 – Grapevine Fall Wreath

Cousins Craft Weekend – Part 1 – Deco Mesh Ruffle Halloween Wreath with Guest Blogger (my) Cousin Stacey

A Dressier Lantern Centerpiece

Burlap Wreaths and More Burlap Wreaths

Above the Kitchen Cabinets Decor

The Lantern Centerpiece Gift

Front Door Burlap Wreaths

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: