Travel Map Favorite Places Ornament

November 23, 2020November 22, 20205 Comments

Good morning! It’s Thanksgiving this week in the U.S., so Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I have been busy getting my house decorated for Christmas this past week. I will get some pictures taken and take you all on a tour soon.

I made this ornament for Lauren a couple of years ago but never posted it. I don’t have many pictures, but it is pretty simple to make. I have several other projects using Mod Podge. Click on the title to take a look!

Items you will need for the project:

Styrofoam ball
Mod Podge
Map
Popsicle stick
Paint brush
Glitter

For this ornament, I wanted to include the city of Seattle because that is one of Lauren’s favorite places. You can pick a favorite vacation spot, a hometown, or a spot that is special to you! If you can’t find a paper map, you can print maps off the internet to use.

I tore the map into little pieces being sure to keep the city of Seattle in the middle of one piece. I used a popsicle stick to hold my styrofoam ball.

I took the paintbrush and spread it onto the back of the piece of map and then placed it on the styrofoam ball. I kept doing this overlapping pieces of the map as I went.

Once the whole ball was covered, I spread Mod Podge over the whole thing, making sure to add Mod Podge under pieces that weren’t laying flat. I also sprinkled iridescent glitter over the whole thing while it was wet. Once the ball was dry, I added a rope loop at the top to hang it with. I made a little hole in the top with a pencil, put some glue in it and then stuck the rope inside.

travel ornament glitter sparkles and hanger

You can see Seattle in the picture below. I love how it sparkles! Oh, I also added a bow to the top.

I always buy an ornament for the different places we travel too, so this is the perfect addition.

travel ornament blue green glitter map pieces

Do you have a special place you would feature on your ornament? I would love to hear about it! Have a great week!

Nautical Inspired Seashell Ornament

November 14, 2019November 11, 201913 Comments

Good morning! Welcome to the 2019 Ornament Exchange! I’m so excited to be participating again this year! It’s such a great way to find other bloggers and some new friends. Thank you Erlene for putting this all together! Look at all these great ideas! You can click here to go back to the blog hop and link up your own ornaments!

This year I was partnered with Morgan from Charleston Crafted. She has some of the cutest ideas and the cutest little boy! I love her style and enjoy following all the diy’s her and her husband work on. Please go over and take a look at her blog!

Morgan enjoys the coastal style just like I do, so making her an ornament for her Christmas tree was easy! I started our with these clear ornaments. I found the smaller ones at the Dollar tree and loved the swirly design.

I bought some glittery paint to add to the ornaments. I knew these would be the perfect colors for Morgan.

I practiced making dots first on a piece of paper. I didn’t want to mess up the ornaments!

I used a cup to balance the ornament on and once one side was dry, I turned the ornament to paint the other side.

While the paint was drying, I made bows for the top of each ornament. I learned to make bows years ago when I took some florist classes. They aren’t too difficult, but do take a little bit of practice. If you want really nice looking bow, use wired ribbon. It makes any bow look perfect! Here are the steps for making your own bow:

!. Start with a small loop of ribbon. This will be the center of your bow.

2. Twist the long piece of the ribbon on the back of the loop.

3. Taking the long piece, twist the ribbon into another longer loop on one side. When you bring it back to the middle, twist it again and make a loop on the other side.

4. Keep making loops on each side of the center loop and keep twisting the ribbon on the back.

5. Once you have as many loops as you want on each side, make one more loop around the bottom. You can also leave extra so you will have 3 tails on the bottom.

6. Cut a small piece of wire (easier done before you start :)), slide half the wire through the middle loop.

7. This part takes a little practice. The wire should go between your two first fingers and them squeeze the two ends of the wire together under the loop.

8. Once the wire is together, twist it tightly around to secure the bow.

Fluff up each loop and cut the long tail loop and you have a bow! Did you know if you cut ribbon on a diagonal, it won’t fray?

Here is a video too that might make it a little easier to understand.

I used silver and gold ribbon, tied them into bows and glued them to the top of each ornament. I also glued some seashells onto the ribbon, just to make it look more coastal.

They look so pretty when they sparkle with the lights from the tree.

Since the ornaments were a little hard to see on a white tree, I took a few pictures with green pine too.

I loved making these and I think they turned out so good. Thank you Morgan for your ornament too! I will be sharing it soon! Be sure to go back and link up your ornaments too. I would love to see them! I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!

Beachy Christmas in the Dining Room

November 29, 2017November 28, 20171 Comment

Good morning! I don’t usually show up on a Wednesday, but I wanted to finish the tour of my living room/dining room! You can see my entryway and living room here. I just love having these rooms to decorate! It was so much fun to put it all together.

*This post has affiliate links. To find more of Oriental Trading decor, click the link.* http://www.orientaltrading.com/holidays/christmas/christmas-decorations-a1-553184.fltr

I received several of my items from Oriental Trading. It felt like an early Christmas when I opened up the box! I knew everything would look great in my turquoise and white dining room!

I found these very cool ombre’ turquoise and white trees at Hobby Lobby and I knew they would be perfect for my table! I almost waited too long, but snagged the last two!

I used my white dishes and layered them on top of these silver placemats from Oriental Trading. They added the perfect touch! I just checked the website and I don’t see the silver ones, but they do have gold. I also added little silver and white candy boxes to each place-setting to give as little gifts to my guests.

I added dark goblets, white fabric napkins, and a silver bowl filled with tiny ornaments.

Down the middle of the table, I placed some silver faux leaves, candles, pointsettias, wooden beads and silver deer.

I almost forgot about the pretty feathers! I added these to each place-setting and also some to my tree. There are lots of different colors and they add the perfect touch.

I added a few Christmas touches to my white hutch too. I found the boxwood tree at a thrift store and added some tiny turquoise berries to the little pitcher. Here is one more of my cute little hedgehogs!

I have been collecting these Shiny Brite ornaments for a few years now. Anytime I see them at thrift store, I pick them up. I was able to fill this driftwood bowl with them.

My turquoise and gold bar cart holds a couple of lanterns and my last little hedgehog! I stored some of my extra candy boxes on the bottom shelf.

My shelves stayed pretty much the same, just added in some Christmas touches. By keeping the background neutral I can add any other colors and it still looks great! I also added some white Christmas lights to add a little more sparkle!

I found these turquoise glittery snowflakes at Oriental Trading too. They come apart so they are really easy to store.

I have a box of Shiny Brite ornaments that once belonged to my dad’s mom. I love having these little special heirlooms to add to my rooms. This Merry Christmas ball is just one of them, so I figured it needed a place of honor.

I really enjoyed giving you a little tour and so glad you came by! I will be back with more next week!

2017 ORNAMENT EXCHANGE-FROM URCHIN TO JELLY-FISH

November 16, 2017November 16, 201713 Comments

Welcome to the 2017 Ornament Exchange & Blog Hop! This year, there are 47 amazing bloggers participating in the exchange. The rules of the challenge were simple: be partnered with a fellow blogger, create a handmade ornament for $15 or under, create a tutorial, and ship the ornament off to a new home!

My partner this year is Terri Steffes. She has been married for 40 years! She has one daughter and two dogs (she would love to have a cat). I was excited to find out that she is a retired school principal who started out as a preschool teacher, just like me! She loves to read, write, decorate, travel, cook and entertain. We have a lot in common! She actually has 2 blogs, ChristmasTreeLane.blogspot.com and terristeffes.com. I can barely keep up with one! She also likes coastal decor for her Christmas tree like I do, so this was an easy one for me!

You can find all the participants and links to their blogs below. Also, if you would like to join the link-up, there is a button at the bottom to join in the fun!

Meet the 2017 Ornament Exchange Hosts

Erlene ⋅ My Pinterventures Kim · Made In A Day Amanda · Domestically Creative

Shirley · Intelligent Domesticatons Michelle · Our Crafty Mom

Beverly · Across the Blvd. Christene · Key to Inspiration Pili ⋅ My Sweet Things

Nicki · Sweet Parrish Place Megan · C’mon Get Crafty

Hilary · Raising Fairies and Knights Emily · Two Purple Couches

Tina · One Crafty Mess Marie · The Inspiration Vault Debra · Shoppe No. 5

Trisha · Rosewood and Grace Jeanie · Create and Babble Katrin ⋅ Kreativ K

Terri · Christmas Tree Lane Maureen · Red Cottage Chronicles

Toni ⋅ Small Home Soul Ula ⋅ Lulu & Celeste Sue ⋅ A Purdy Little House

Pamela · Home On The Corner Lorelai ⋅ Life with Lorelai Cindy ⋅ DIY Beautify

Debbie ⋅ Tweak and Style Stephanie ⋅ Swoodson Says Chelc ⋅ Inside the Fox Den

Susan ⋅ Super Mom – No Cape! Molly ⋅ Just a Little Creativity

Roseann ⋅ This Autoimmune Life Angela ⋅ Simply Beautiful by Angela

Vicki and Jenn ⋅ 2 Bees in a Pod Joanne ⋅ Our Unschooling Journey

Tylynn ⋅ Bitterroot DIY Sam ⋅ Raggedy Bits Mary ⋅ The Boondocks Blog

Cyn ⋅ Creative Cynchronicity Dione ⋅ Clever Chameleon Quilting

Erica ⋅ Erica Ever After Chelsea ⋅ Love Paper Crafts Evija ⋅ From Evija with Love

Samantha ⋅ Little Bits of Home Hope ⋅ Hopes Crafty Niche Anne ⋅ Orange Bettie

Pam · P.S. I Love You Crafts

When I found out that Terri liked coastal decorations like I do, I was very excited! I had an idea for some ornaments I wanted to make and now I could make them for someone else too! I love creating special gifts for others. I already had the sea urchins and I found the embellishments at Michaels. They were on clearance, so I was able to create these very reasonably. I did find sea urchin for sale on Amazon and Etsy and online at Jo-Ann’s. There were even some pink ones, which would look very cool too.

Since my sea urchins came from the California coast, I made sure they were clean before starting. 🙂

I took a small piece of white ribbon, folded it and hot glued it into the small hole on top of the urchin.

I put the ribbon on before the glitter, so that I would have something to hold onto while gluing and glittering. I brushed regular Elmer’s glue all over the urchin and sprinkled on the glitter. I used in iridescent glitter, but you could use other colors too. I made sure to rub it all over the shell. I had a hard time showing you how glittery they are, but they look so nice.

I love the purple one!

Here are the embellishments I found. I didn’t end up using everything, mainly just the different ribbons. I did add some small beads to some of them with some beads I already had on hand.

I cut each type of ribbon into small lengths and then hot-glued them, in the middle, on top of each other, one at a time. Now I had 6 ends hanging down. I made two sets for each urchin.

Once the pieces were glued together, I hot-glued them into the bottom of the urchin, pushing them way up inside using a pencil so I didn’t burn my fingers.

Ready to hang on the tree!

You can see some of the turquoise beads I used on this one.

I also glued some individual beads onto the white ribbon.

I love how the tails turned sea urchins into jelly-fish!

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to make these for my new blogger friend, Terri! Thanks to Erlene, from My Pinterventures, for hosting another year of Ornament Exchange! Remember to check out all the other ornaments below! Have fun creating!

FIND ALL 47 HANDMADE ORNAMENT TUTORIALS BELOW AND SHARE YOURS TOO! Use Hashtag #2017OrnamentExchange so we can see your creations on social media.

An InLinkz Link-up

Creative Easter Eggs!

March 24, 2017March 24, 20175 Comments

I AM SO SORRY FOR THIS BEING LATE TODAY! WE HAD NO INTERNET YESTERDAY SO I COULDN’T UPLOAD UNTIL NOW! PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGY!

So, Easter is coming fairly soon (April 16th to be exact). And of course, what is the number one thing that people think of for Easter? PEEPS!

No, just kidding. It’s the Easter eggs.

And don’t you think that most Easter eggs are boring? They are just a single color, for the most part, with nothing creative. So here are some ideas for how to have more creative Easter Eggs!

Supplies you need are eggs, glue, glitter, ribbon, acrylic jewels, and any other things that you think you want to decorate your plastic eggs.

So I started with a pink egg (obviously). It is very simple and I knew what I wanted to do on the egg.

I took my glue and drew my own design in it to cover with glitter. I decided to draw a sun with some other designs like dots and swirls.

Next, I went with a yellow egg. This one was going to get a very simple makeover. I decided to use my pink ribbon to add something to the egg.

Finally, I went with a green egg that has white polka dots on it. So, it is a little more creative.

So I decided to add a little glue to each dot and bedazzle it! Is that super obvious for me? Here is the first one I did before I covered the egg.

So here is the finished eggs in a cute Easter basket!

I love how they turned out! They were super easy and it only took about 10 minutes for each egg! I did have some trouble with the green egg because while the glue was drying, the jewels slipped into a different spot. But, they still look pretty!