Wednesday, February 22, 2012

St. Patrick's Day Mantle

Even though we have had a very mild winter this year, I am anxious for Spring.  I have started a bit of Spring with my St. Patrick's Day Mantle.  I detest the usual tacky plastic kelly green decorations that are for sale  at most of the stores.  But I love lush green that reminds me of new grass and new growth in the garden which became my inspiration. 

My favorite new item is the leaping moss bunny that I bought at Pier 1 for $2.69!
I added some yarn and shamrocks to my candle holders.  I used that same yarn, some burlap and fabric to make the garland.   Those green mercury glass vases were in the clearance section at Joann Fabrics last year, I couldn't pass them up, one of my better finds!

Here's hoping you have a Happy St. Patrick's Day!



Sunday, February 5, 2012

Valentine Sign


Here is another quick and easy Valentine Project.  I found a Friendship rubber stamp that  I really liked and thought it would be a fitting quote for Valentines day.  So I changed out the word "Love" for "Friendship" and I think it works well!

I bought an $11  frame (11X14) at Walmart - I could have gone cheaper but I liked the matting that came with this particular frame.  I stamped my Friendship stamp (Hampton Art/Kolette Hall - Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon -so I paid about $4.79 for it) on a plain piece of paper.   I cut off the word friendship,  then scanned it into our computer and enlarged the image and moved into the position on the page to leave room for the word Love.  It is just printed on regular 8 1/2 X 11 cheap computer printer paper.  I cut out the word love on my Cricut from the Sweethearts Amoureux cartridge.  The fun part was punching out (using a Fiskars heart punch I had) at least a hundred little hearts to place around the quote - I originally was going to place them on the matting too - but then I thought I might want to reuse the matting for another project and decided against that.

Now I have a cute little sign to add to my Valentine decor without spending much $$. After all it is all about the little things!!