Christmas Around The House featuring Chalkboards

My winter decor started with these signs. They are from the ski resort that I worked at. They date back to the 60s era when the ski resort was called Jackass Ski Bowl (Nice name, huh?). It's now called Silver Mountain. I have several of these signs hanging in my garage. I literally had to dig these out of the trash back in the 90s.

I hung them above my mantel. These tiny brass deer came from my Grandma's house and the trees were painted by Samantha at age 3. She is now 21. (I hang on to things.)

Here is the full wall. My chalkboard fire and little basket of birch from the tree that fell in our front yard create the illusion of an actual fireplace. My grandson Cylas added the gingerbread man and is the reason my candles are a little off center. (Keeping it real.)

The antlers were found in the woods by my son and mounted by a friend of the family. My husband was in shock when I put them here. He said he'd never thought he'd see me decorate with anything so manly. I must admit they have taken some getting use to and an Instagram pole to convince me to keep them there. 

 

This chalkboard has been used as our count-down to Christmas for many years. Sophie loves to change the number of days.

This is my favorite corner of the living room. Yes, another chalkboard. This one is my absolute favorite. I found it at a vintage market for $5.

I made these little Christmas tree jars with bottle brush trees and Epsom salt snow for center pieces at a luncheon I decorated for at Sophie's school. Now they grace this little corner of the room. 

Happy Holidays!

Snow Globe in a Jar & Coping with Frozen Water Pipes

I love the Christmas season. It's the winter I can do without. As we have been struggling to stay warm and safe in -0 temps, we discovered Friday morning that our water pipes were frozen. We are not new to this, it's happened twice before but it never gets easier. The daily hauling of water from our families homes and my family of 4 showering when it is least inconvenient for them is a struggle. One good thing is I have quit doing dishes. If you can't eat it off of paper or plastic, you can't eat it here. So that's a plus, I guess. Cooking has also come to a halt. Yea, me! :) 

This is how I would prefer to contain winter. Here in this jar, with it's evergreens and snow. While I sit on a beach somewhere warm drinking tropical drinks. Whose with me? 

How To Capture Winter In A Jar

I made this little token of winter for my Grandmother-In-Law, Virginia, who is living in a nursing home and isn't able to get out to enjoy (I use that term loosely here) the winter. It started out as a jelly (or salsa?) jar.

I hot glued 2 tiny bottle brush trees to the bottom of the jar then filled the bottom with a layer of Epsom salt. It is the perfect faux snow, sparkly, inexpensive and on-hand.

I hot glued a piece of drop cloth fabric that I cut with pinking sheers about an inch larger than the lid and then glued on a piece of ribbon on top of it. I left the ends of the ribbon open then tied it in a little knot.

She looked cute and sweet here but I thought I should add a little something sparkly so I got out my metal punches and stamped the word JOY onto a round silver blank.

I strung the JOY pendant on to a ball tipped wire and added a little pink glass bead, threaded the wire through the knot in the ribbon and used my needle nose pliers to twist the wire closed.

Grandma Virginia loved it! I bought a big package of these little trees at Michael's when they were 40% off. I am sending some winter in a jar to my parents in Arizona and am seriously considering hand delivering them.

I hope the winter has been kinder to you!

Free Printable Banner: "PEACE" on sheet music

Today I thought I would share my Peace banner printable that I created last December.

You know I love decorating with banners, right? I make them for every holiday. I made this PEACE banner on sheet music and wanted to share it with you.  

This is a quick, 20 minute craft. All you need is card stock (plain printer paper works too!), scissors, hole punch and ribbon. I used gold wired ribbon and tied it off in bows between each letter. 

Click the image to enlarge it, then right click and hit "Save As" or just print it from that screen if you don't want to download the image.  Repeat for each letter. 

Be sure to print the letter E twice.

Just cut long the inside of the dotted line, punch holes; one in each corner and string with ribbon.

The song, "Let there be Peace on Earth and let it begin with me...." Was the inspiration for this banner. I hope you enjoy it.  



Faux Burlap Printable Banner "Thankful"

Today I  thought I would re-share my Thankful banner that I created last year.  I created it in Word with a burlap background and a Google font called Great Vibes.

 

To be honest this is last year's mantel. This year I moved the mantel into another room because I repainted my living room and I'm still rearranging furniture. Small Burlap Thankful Banner


Just click the download button above and it will give you a download or print option. I printed these on white card stock and cut them out with pinking sheers to make it look more like fabric. I hole punched the corners and strung it with ribbon. Then hung it on my mantel. Quick, easy and free! Hope you enjoy!

Free Printable "PEACE" on Sheet Music Banner

You know I love decorating with banners, right? I make them for every holiday. I made this PEACE banner on sheet music and wanted to share it with you.  

This is a quick, 20 minute craft. All you need is card stock (plain printer paper works too!), scissors, hole punch and ribbon. I used gold wired ribbon and tied it off in bows between each letter to mix it up a bit. 

Click the image to enlarge it, then right click and hit "Save As" or just print it from that screen if you don't want to download the image.  Repeat for each letter. 

Be sure to print the letter E twice.

Just cut long the inside of the dotted line, punch holes; one in each corner and string with ribbon.

The song, "Let there be Peace on Earth and let it begin with me...." Was the inspiration for this banner. I hope you enjoy it. 



Happy Holidays!



Stenciled Christmas Sign Tutorial

 

 

I made this little, rustic Christmas sign for my mantel and thought I would do a tutorial for you.

 

 

For this project you need:

1 x 6 pine board 32 inches long (Mine was old and dirty and found in Joe's wood shop.)

Painters Tape

Martha Stewart's Pearl Craft Paint in Aqua

Minwax English Chestnut wood stain

4 inch Nueva Stencils

Stencil Brush

Staining Brush

Rag for staining

 

I wanted to keep it simple by just stenciling the word Christmas. I sanded the board and rounded the edges a bit with the palm sander.  I laid out my stencils to make sure I had enough room for the entire word. I used 4 inch stencils in Nueva font that I found in the drawing section at Michael's. I taped them in place. I used a stencil brush and Martha Stewart's Pearl Finish paint in Aqua. It took 2 coats for each letter.

I started a few inches from the left side of the sign and stenciled each letter; allowing a little drying time in between stenciling.

I really liked this glossy pearl finish.

Once I got all of my letters stenciled on, I let it dry for a few hours then brushed on Minwax English Chestnut stain (we used this on our stair refinishing project HERE.) I brushed the stain on the entire front side of the sign, right over the stencils, then wiped it off with a clean, lint free rag.

I stained all sides of the board in thin even coats and wiped the excess stain off.

 

Let each side dry before moving on to the next. Make sure you lay out a drop cloth and wear gloves because stain is well... it stains, everything. :)

The pearl paint is still glossy and bright but the stain gives it an aged quality. This is part of my Christmas mantel decor. I am still working out rest. This technique could easily be used for any sign.

Happy Painting!

Thank You!

On this day of thankfulness, I wanted to take the time to thank you, 

my readers for always being here for me! 

You make my heart feel this big!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Mantel Size Thankful Banner Burlap & Blue Printable

Yesterday I posted this Thankful Banner in Burlap with Blue Great Vibes Font. It is very large about 5 1/2 feet long. See it HERE. So today I thought I'd share a smaller version. This download has entire banner on one PDF file so it will be easier and faster to print.

Here is the smaller version on the mantel of my faux fireplace.

Small Burlap Thankful Banner


Just click download button above and it will give you a download or print option. I printed these on white card stock and cut them out with pinking sheers to make it look more like fabric. I hole punched the corners and strung it with ribbon. Then hung it on my mantel. Quick, easy and free! Hope you enjoy!

Let me know if you have any problems with the download and I will just email you the file if that works better.

Burlap & Blue Thankful Banner Free Printable

I thought I would share a new banner with you. I created it in Word with a Burlap background and a google font called Great Vibes.

I printed it on card stock and cut it out with pinking sheers to make it look like fabric.

To trim that little bit of white paper at the top I used my paper cutter to get the straightest line as possible.

 I used a hole punch on the top corners and threaded ribbon through each. Pretty easy project to make. This banner is large approximately 5 1/2 feet. If you would like a smaller, mantel sized version of this banner click HERE.

I am trying Scribd for the first time, let me know if you have any problems with this download and I will email it to you.

Enjoy! 

Just click the "download" button on the images below.



T Thankful Banner on Burlap

H Thankful Banner on Burlap



A Thankful Banner on Burlap

n Thankful Banner on Burlap

K Thankful Banner on Burlap

F Thankful Banner on Burlap

U Thankful Banner on Burlap

L Thankful Banner on Burlap



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June Printables

Every month, I make a new calendar for my computer screen background. I thought I would share it with you. I also made this little 8 1/2 x 11 printable for my holiday corner, to brighten things up a bit. Both images are printable, just click on the image to enlarge it. You can either right click and "save picture as" then print or right click and "set as background image".

Here's how the printable looks in my holiday corner. Hope you enjoy it!