Halloween Mantel

 The girls and I finished up our Halloween mantel over the weekend.

 I had wanted to buy some vintage sign letters to spell out "BOO", but after I checked out the prices on Etsy and ebay, I decided to just make my own.  I used some scrap wood and cut out some big letters with a jigsaw.  The girls helped me to paint and distress them.

The large spider web is from Dollar Tree.  What a deal for $1!

 We made a banner to display their past Halloween costumes.

 We folded scrapbook paper accordion style and glued them into medallion shapes.  We then hot glued the photos and some buttons on and attached it all to some jute.

Lastly, I left up this big print of the girls, but added some black paper masks.  I just freehanded a few different mask shapes on some cardstock, cut them out, and them lightly taped them onto the print.

A little bit spooky, but mainly fun -- that's how we like Halloween around here!

Barnwood American Flag

I wanted some patriotic decor for our mantel for the rapidly approaching Fourth of July holiday.  So, I went out to our pile of leftover barn wood that we used for our house siding and dug out some red and white painted pieces.  I cut a few pieces to the same length and scraped off any big chunks of peeling paint.

 

I attached some scrap pieces of plywood to the back to hold it all together.

I printed out a large star shape to use as a pattern and began hammering small nails around the outline of the star.  When finished, I ripped the paper away and was left with tiny nails that I didn't hammer all the way in.

 I used some navy blue yarn and tied one end onto a nail at one of the points of the star.

I kept wrapping the yarn from nail to nail, keeping the tension fairly tight on my yarn.  I found that it helped to wrap the yarn all the way around each nail, to keep it from slipping off.  When I was happy with my star shape, I went around the outside line one more time and connect all of the nails with my yarn before tying it off.

I set my primitive version of an American flag up on the mantel and our living room was ready to celebrate the Fourth!  I added a large star that I made by cutting some branches to the same length, then tying them together with twine. A stack of books, some glass jars, and an old bowling pin finished it off.

Tomorrow, I'll show you my little banner I made on the front of the mantel out of old bottlecaps.

I'll be linking up to the following parties:

 

Spring Mantel

 Our mantel needed some lightening and brightening for Spring.  I ditched all of the previous decor and started fresh, just like Spring.

 From left to right we have:

- an old chicken feeder to remind us of our chicks that will be arriving in May

- my handpainted garden gate sign (tutorial to come tomorrow!)

- a sweet little bunny

- some paper pinwheels stuck in a rusty yellow sap bucket

- a pot of daffodils on top of an old wooden box

- my little tree stump with our initials

Combine a new mantelscape with this beautiful warm weather we're having in Indiana, and I'm ready to go outside and get my garden planted!

Be sure to go check out all of the beautiful Spring mantels at Layla's Spring Fling link party!

Valentine's Day Mantel

I thought I would take a moment to share my Valentine's Day mantel decorations.  As we moved in, I would throw things up on the mantel as I ran across them.  I just kept my eyes open for anything that would work for the season and would add a little red to the mantel.

From the left:

- a red minnow basket that I got last year at an antiques store that was closing

- a glass milk jug from the same antiques store

- my three scoops of love, photo is mounted on foam core and is just leaning against the stone fireplace, photography by Joni Streit Photography

- old gas station sign for the five of us

- vintage bowling pin

- photo of us on canvas by Joni Streit Photography

- old wooden box with a hinged lid

- book bundles, I picked out some paperbacks at the thrift store with red edge pages, ripped off the covers, and tied them together with twine

- rusty sap bucket holding some twigs and branches from our yard, bucket purchased here several years ago

- doily banner was quickly made by cutting some doilies in half and sewing them between some double fold bias tape