Christmas Fab on a Budget- Rocking the Mantle

Christmas Fab on a Budget- Rocking the Mantle!

Welcome Back!  If you missed my Previous Postings you can Jump over right Here:)

My First Door Wreath

Sparkly Table Centerpiece

Ok- Today I need to confess my recent Crush....it's Burlap.  I'm pretty obsessed.  I have it in Dark Brown, Light Brown, white, off-white, ecru.....well...you get the picture.

What do you think happened to me when I was trying to survive Walmart on a Saturday in December???  There I was trying to avoid the Creepy Direct TV guy when I caught it out of the corner of my eye...

Burlap Ribbon!!!

  I know, I know you've seen it before...but not for $3.49 for 20 feet!!!  I KNOW right?  It was the Holy Grail of Burlap!!!

I swam through the General Populace and Grabbed one before the Current pushed me onward...

So- that leads me to Today's project.  It was one of the first ones I put up.

The Mantle Piece:)

For two years in a row I have the Great Honor of Decorating our Church for Christmas!  Now- before you get the wrong idea- I showed up to not One- not Two- but Three Professional Interior Designers...all of whom had volunteered their Busy Beautiful Selves to make the Room Amazing.  I was the Grunt of the bunch:)

They literally spent HOURS making two Wreaths.  They were Amazing!  They looked, well,  professional:)  My job was to run around with tape, wire and cutters and just Soak it all in.

I am aiming at Far More Casual than Professional:), but

one of the things I watched them do is take a perfectly ordinary garland and make it look really Full and Fabulous.

 Here is what it started like- It was a pretty nice one that I am pretty sure I stole from My Sis-in-law's wedding...

Here's a Close up- it had some cool Pine cones and Berries on it.  I think this is the nicest one I have so I put it in the Most 'Looked at' Place.

So I can pretty much sum up all of the Awesome Tips I learned....

"Fill that Sucker up!!!"

Here are my Top 3 Tips:

1)  Wire more than one Ornament together!  It seems like a simple thing- but making sets of Three makes it look FAB-u-lous!

2) Weave a Big thick Ribbon through the whole thing.  

And this is where I broke out.....my Burlap!!!

I just literally twisted it around in there.  It was a really wide ribbon so it filled in all the gaps and made it look really Expensive if I do say so myself!

At first I wasn't too sure I liked the 'Country Vibe' and the 'Modern Vibe' together...but it grew on me.  And it kind of tells our story.  We are City Folk turned Country Folk.

3)  Use Pointsettias, Pine Cones and Other Natural Stuff or Sparkly stuff...

They now make Poinsettia's in Every Conceivable color.  But they were a little too Pricey for me at this point.  I just tried to use a different style of Ornament here and there.

Maybe next year we will spring for some Turquoise Sparkle Poinstettias....they grow around here you know..

4) Use what you Have!!!

These girls scour the Thrift Shops, Antique Shops and Consignment Stores weekly so they have a lot of Cool stuff at their disposal.  They use things over and over again and are always Repurpousing.

So,  I used my 45 Cent Glittery finds to make this Tower that is always there a little more Festive.

It felt so much more Luxurious and full!  And it was so much Fun!  My house used to be very French Country- mostly Red's and Yellows and Toille-ey Goodness.  But as I usually paint my house at least every other year- and since we were going through quite a bit of stress- I opted for fun and fabulousness:) We have all kinds of Bright Colors and fun, quirky things.

So our Christmas had to be just as Quirky:)

Tomorrow we are on to the Tree:)  And YES- Burlap IS involved!!!

Love to all!

Photo Bombing Elf...