Christmas Mantel DIY

I've written a post before about how much I am obsessed with the company Unfinished Wood Co. They have the cutest monogrammed items that you can customize to match your decor. Now that Christmas is coming up I wanted a Christmas mantel for my living room. I was getting bored of my silver mirror I had up simply because it wasn't a huge eye catcher. I'd been scouring the internet and Pinterest for inspiration. Here are a few of my favorites....

Source

Source

As you can see I have a slight theme to my obsession with mantles. I really wanted something with a deer head or antlers. I DID not want a real deer head that had been mounted because that's not my style. It seemed like I was having a hard time at all the stores I went to however finding a cute deer head. Then I lucked out on Groopdealz  and found an amazing deal on Unfinished Wood Company's Antler Monogram. 

I feel like this could be used year round if you have a rustic look to your home, but I wanted it specifically for my Christmas mantle. Therefore, as soon as it came in the mail I knew what I wanted to do with it. I ran to Home Depot and got their 12 oz. Gloss Apple Red General Purpose Spray Paint. 

I love Rust-Oleum spray paint! It always looks great on my projects plus it's a great deal since you get paint and primer in one. For my project I also needed red fine glitter. I already had some in my craft supplies so I gathered everything and went out side to get to work. I started by laying out my monogram on plastic sheeting and placed rocks along the edges to hold the plastic down in case a stray wind decided to mess up my project. I then started spraying. I used 2 coats of the Rust-Oleum to cover the whole thing and make sure no excess wood was showing. I don't think I even used half the container so I have extra for my next Unfinished Wood Co. project I'll be starting once my antler ornaments come in. 

As soon as I finished spraying before the paint was dry I got to work shaking glitter all over the piece.  I used the wet stickiness of the spray paint before it dried to stick the glitter to the antler monogram. I then left it sitting outside for 30-60 minutes to allow ample time to dry. 

As you can see there is glitter everywhere. That is exactly why I did it outside and on top of plastic. Once it was dry I gingerly picked it up and let the loose glitter fall off onto the plastic. I contemplated trying to conserve some of the excess glitter, but decided it just wasn't worth my time during the busy Christmas season. I then bundled up the plastic and threw it all in a bag and straight to my dumpster. After that I carried my new Antler Monogram into my living room and hung it on my mantle.

I still have more to do to "complete" my mantle, but I love how the glitter monogram looks with the glitter on the candle centerpiece and the glitter in the Merry Christmas banner. I think it takes time to accumulate all you need to have a full mantle like the ones you see on Pinterest. I think for our first Christmas in this house I'm pretty proud of what we have so far. I especially love our tree!

DIY Halloween Wreath

Happy Almost Halloween everybody! I found that cute little metal pumpkin basket at my local Marshall's. I think it would be super cute to hold candy, but you might need big pieces of candy so that it doesn't fall through the holes. I love decorating for the holidays. This is my first year as a homeowner so I have to basically start from scratch. For now I'm doing my best to DIY what I can to also not go bankrupt decorating my house. My first DIY of course was to create a Halloween wreath for my front door. As you can probably tell I'm sort of obsessed with having wreaths for every season/holiday. This year I found the perfect time to get the supplies for my wreath while Michael's was having a sale for 40% off your entire purchase, including sale items. That allowed me to get all my supplies for under $20!!! That's a great deal, especially since many wreaths are close to $100 on Etsy!

I used: 

Celebrate It Glitter Tulle 8 yards x 3 

1 bag of Glitter Colored Balls and Purple Glitter Spiders

Ashland Wire Wreath Frame

I started by weaving the glitter tulle through the many rims of the wire frame. I weaved and weaved and weaved. I made sure to pull a thick enough bunch through each row many times to make it look fluffy. I would also periodically stop to fluff the poofs. As you can tell from the picture probably using glitter tulle is pretty messy. By the end my feet, my pants, my table, and my floor were all covered in black glitter. It took many days of vacuuming to clean up after this DIY project.

 

After I was finished weaving I then used my hot glue gun to glue on the different colored balls and purple spiders. My husband said I can make the inside of the house as cutsey and homey as I want, but the outside has to be creepy. I did my best to make my wreath "creepy".  While gluing on the spiders I allowed the little string that comes off the glue when using the hot glue gun to spread across the wreath at parts. I figured that would make it a little more "realistic" so that it would look like it had parts of a web. I went for mostly a spider theme this year for our outside. I will also be buying some of the fake "webs" they have at Target to put on my bushes out front.

Here's my end product...

I did however splurge and buy this amazing cat...

I love this thing! The head turns periodically so sometimes when it's just right it'll turn as your driving around the curve to get to my house. It's creepy and awesome! I have multiple families that have come to our house to check out the kitty cat with their kids. I actually got the chance to meet one of my neighbors because of the conversation piece this cat is.

<3 Kelly Jean

My Home Office

I have finally chosen a room in the house to use as my office/craft room. I haven't fully decided how to decorate the whole thing, but I'm slowly updating items to make it look the way I want. I think I want to go for a glitter/gold and pink theme for the room. I've only had the time and supplies so far to update my desk organizer and pen holder. I want to eventually get a white desk and a cute/comfy chair...plus do a WHOLE lot more. 

I got my desk organizer at Target. 

Original Outside View

Original Inside View

At first it was pretty ordinary, but still cute with it's chevron zig-zags on the inside. I really wanted to do something to the outside though so it didn't just look like a cardboard box... So I gathered my supplies. I found a gold paint pen, gold glitter, and modge podge. I love modge podge. I always find so many uses for it.

My end product looked like this...

After Outside View

After Inside View

I was happy with the end look. I may end up changing it a little more, but for now it has it's own little flair.

Going with the glitter theme I decided to glitter-ize {we're going to say that's a real word....even though it's not} my pen holder. I painted the end with modge podge and dipped it in glitter. It helps to add a little glam to my desk.

<3 Kelly Jean