Whimsical Seussical Mantel

 

At last! Well, almost. I have one more piece to put together. It may be a little overwhelming but you can't possibly overwhelm an 8 year old with Christmas decorations. It melted my heart when she said, "Kort, you're the best at Christmas Spirit." Exactly what I was going for. But then she went on to tell me that the outside of a house is more important than decorating the inside...my measly strand of lights isn't cutting it.

Seuss Felt Stockings

Okay, so I didn't recycle these. But they only cost .60 each. That's fair, right? We are celebrating Christmas at my inlaws so we are taking our massive tree with us. (Whew!) Does anyone else start to feel a little claustrophobic with a huge tree in the house? This year we are putting up a few small trees and keeping it simple. We couldn't have maroon stockings to go with our theme so I whipped up some quick felt stockings, and by quick, I mean quick. I hot-glued these. :X Is that a sin? It should be. I've been known to hot glue costumes together while wearing them.  I traced some stocking printables and cut the shapes out and made another piece for the backing. I think they are kinda cute.

Sharpie Cookie Plate

 

First! Okay...this is maybe a little too embarrassing and I shouldn't post it but I'm so excited to make one of these so who cares, right? I'm so so so in love with these plates on etsy, but not in love with the price.  Bakey-Bakey? I probably shouldn't post this but we are firm believers in dessert. We have it every night. Most days we are so lazy that we just put some pre-made cookies in the toaster oven...hence "bakey-bakey."

 Before: Plain white plate from the Dollar Tree. Write, draw, scribble on the plate with a Sharpie. Feel free to doodle as much as you want because you can wipe it off if you made a mistake. Really, you can. I was so afraid! I put a little hand sanitizer, because it's always handy (pun intended) on my plate and started over a few times. To finish it off, place it in the oven for 30 minutes on 350 and enjoy!

Copper Garden Ball

Disclaimer: This isn't a tutorial, more like a what not to do entry.  I've wanted to make one of these for a long long time, and really how hard can gluing some pennies to a bowling ball be? I almost lost my mind! First of all, finding bowling balls isn't as easy as one would expect but I did hit the jackpot at Savers...for $9.99 each. This better be good! I got $5 worth of pennies at the bank and some gorilla glue...which doesn't dry clear. In fact, it goes on clear but then becomes 3x its size and turns white. I covered 1/5 of the ball with pennies glued in this before it dried and I realized what I had done. The other thing I should mention is, before the pennies dry they really want to slide off of this spherical surface. I don't have an answer to this. After the first pennies dried, I was able to start adding and the first pennies became a boundary so nothing could slide past them. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but if you make this ball, you'll quickly understand what I mean. Also, you will note from the photos below that at one point during this process I wore gloves. Am I the only person out there who can't use their hands at all when wearing gloves??! Needless to say, I might get cancer from carcinogenic adhesives. OH, the glue that I found and loved is 9001. I got it at Hobby Lobby and I can't tell you the price because my lazy (but kind) cashier just picked one out of her head when it didn't have a sticker on it. What did I do with the white glue catastrophe, you ask? I did what anyone else would do and I Sharpied it! I'm attaching a photo/link at the bottom of my inspiration ball. When the ball sits in the rain it will patina and look super cool. This ball is for my father in law's 70th birthday. What else to get a rich old Jewish man? Money!

 

* Inspiration ball from Beth Evans Ramos

Anthropologie-Style Silk Necklace

 I loved this Anthropologie necklace but not $148 love. I stumbled into my local yarn store and found the perfect yarn to make one with. The yarn is 100% silk from Nepal and the label said the proceeds provide safe shelter, healthcare, and education for people in Indonesia, so I'd call this purchase a big win! 50 yards allowed me to make 8 necklaces in less than 45 minutes. I laugh at how simple the idea is and how awesome they look. I hope no one sees this before the holidays, if so disregard. ;) Oh, I almost forgot, I put a large silver bead at the back for a little flair. I chose to have these go over the head instead of worrying with a clasp.

I took my silk yarn and tied a knot in it every 8-10 inches. I then wrapped it around my neck as many times as I would like depending on how many colors I wanted to show. To finish them off, I tied the ends together while tying the other pieces together.

Fall Fun Frame

Pardon the dorky alliteration... I just couldn't resist. My daughter and I had a great time making these acorn photo frames, inspired by the BHG acorn frame. We are fortunate (ha!) to live on a street lined with oak trees so there were many acorn caps to choose from.

You will need: Elmer's glue, acorn caps in various sizes, and a frame (We got ours at the Dollar Store)