12 Projects of Christmas: Window Decoration

I love to decorate for Christmas. I love the colors, the lights, and all the beautiful ways you can dress up your home! We do our house in mostly red and gold, which you can see in our tree:

Normally, we just hang garland and lights in the windows, but this year I wanted something a little more.  I'd had an idea for this for a while, but the 12 Projects of Christmas finally gave me a reason to sit down and make it.  I have to say, it turned out beautifully (the picture doesn't do it justice--it looks so beautiful at night with the lights around it!) and I'm loving the look of it.

First, lets get our materials:

2 styles of Christmas balls
1 1/2" thick wired ribbon
Hot glue gun (not pictured)
Scissors (not pictured)

You're also going to need a window.  Here's mine!

I love the garland and lights, but I felt like it needed something else.

Start by determining how many pieces or ribbon you would want to hang across the window.  I decided 5 was a good number.  I didn't want them all hanging the same length, so I cut each one a little shorter than the last.

Then I arranged them so they varied a little--didn't want them hanging all in order!  Gotta mix it up a little! :)

Then, I laid out the Christmas balls.  See how the ribbon lengths and ball styles are varied?

Now it's time to make the bows!

Cut 5 pieces of ribbon about 12 inches long each.  Then cut 5 more pieces of ribbon about 3 inches long each.

Take one of the 12-inch ribbons and fold it into thirds.  You want it to look like an untied bow (see my pic)

Next, take one of the 3-inch ribbons and wrap it around the middle of the folded 12-inch ribbon.

Twist the 3-inch ribbon ends around the back of the folded 12-inch ribbon so it creates a bow shape with the tied part in the back.  Fluff your bow up a bit, until it looks how you want.  

Then, thread the ends of the 3-inch ribbon through the look on the ball and twist to secure it.  Turn it around and play with the ribbon until it looks how you want it to.  This is exactly why you need wired ribbon.

Use the hot glue gun to attach one ball to the end of each ribbon strip.
Here are mine!  Don't they look lovely!  :)

Cut a long piece of ribbon that will span the length of your window with a couple inches extra on each side.  Lay it out across the top of your ribbon strips and space out your ribbon strips so they are all equally spaced across the long ribbon.  The long ribbon is what will hang with the garland across the top of the window.  Use the hot glue gun to attach the non-ball end of the ribbons to the window-length ribbon.

Once it's completely set, you can hang it up across your window with the garland!

I love the look that this adds to the window--whimsical and fun, yet classic!

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xoxo, Melissa

12 Projects of Christmas: Button Tree Pillow

You know what really gets me out of the Christmas spirit? Computer viruses. On the 11th day of Christmas, my husband gave to me: a computer that's (almost) virus free! After spending most of the day trying to get the viruses and malware off my computer, I'm almost cleaned up. But I made him take a break and let me upload 2 projects because I'm slacking!

The first project I'm posting is my button tree pillow. This turned out super cute, although I think if I make it again I'll get more buttons and make my tree a little larger, or make multiple trees. But for my first version, I have to say--I LOVE how cute this turned out!! It was so simple, and it took me less than 30 minutes to make.

Look at how stinkin' cute this is!

Okay, time to get our materials:

Misc. sizes/shades of green buttons (I used about 30 to make my tree)
Very small multicolored buttons
Identical brown buttons to create the trunk (I used 4)
Yellow button for the star on the tree
1/2 yard of material for pillow case
No-Sew
Hot glue gun
Iron and ironing board (not pictured)

You need to start by determining how large of a pillow case you will make.  I laid my pillow onto the material while the material was still folded (the way you get it from the store when you purchase it off the bolt).  I left about a 2 to 2 1/2 inch border around the edges to account for the hem and for actually being filled by the pillow.

 Next, I turned the material inside out and used No-Sew to "sew" 3 of the edges of the material together (including the side that is folded).

On the final edge (the non-"sewed" one) I turned down about an inch and No-Sewed around the edge to create a finished hem.  I don't want to permanently keep the pillow inside so I wanted a nice hem on my pillow case.

Once your pillow case is done, you want to turn it right-side-out and go over it quickly with the iron.  Then fold the pillowcase in half length-wise (or hot-dog style as my preschoolers call it!) and crease it with your fingers.  You don't want to iron the crease in, but you'll want it as a reference to the middle of the pillowcase for laying out your button tree.  Now that you have the middle, lay out your buttons to create the tree shape.

After you have the general layout of the tree, use your glue gun to attach your green tree buttons and your brown trunk buttons.  

Then you can use your glue gun to attach your small multicolored buttons to create lights on your tree, and attach your yellow button as the star at the top.

Here's my pillow completed.  Please ignore the wrinkles in the pillow case--I was in a hurry to iron it!  I love how simple and festive this pillow case is, and I want to make a couple more, especially with how unattractive our couch pillows are!

Cost breakdown:
Material:  $3
No-Sew:  Had it
Buttons:  $7


Total cost:  $10
Not too bad for a super cute pillow case!

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xoxo, Melissa

12 Projects of Christmas: Joy Door Decoration

It's December 1st!  You know what that means... Christmas music playing in the kitchen while I bake cookies for our first holiday party this weekend!  I'm so excited for the holiday season, I seriously could barely control myself today--I got 3 of the 12 Projects of Christmas done today.  No joke!  Which is honestly kind of a good thing because we've got a very busy weekend ahead--including driving halfway home to meet my dad so he can give me our Christmas tree and ornaments.  Somehow I managed to grab the box with the branches and stand, but not the box with the pole and the ornaments...oops.

So here's the first of the 12 Projects of Christmas!
I'm really excited about this one.  I came up with the idea while walking around Hobby Lobby (easily my favorite store ever) and not being able to find a door decoration that I loved.  In their defense, the selection was pretty picked-over after the big 50%-off sale.  So I decided to come up with a plan to make my own, and it turned out absolutely beautifully!

"Why not a wreath?" you ask?  Well, we have a wreath that hangs on the wall in the livingroom that I love and want to see more than just when I'm coming and going from the apartment.  But mainly because our peephole is placed in just the spot where it will be covered by a wreath hanger no matter what I try...boo stupid apartment building.

So anyway, here is the tutorial for my Joy Door Decoration (ps. You can use any word, but JOY is perfect for the holidays and isn't so big that it overpowers the door or the decoration.  Feel free to use any word you like.)

First grab your materials:
2 complimentary colors of paint (I used the red and gold that matches our house and our Christmas tree)
1 1/2" wide ribbon in a complimentary color
20 inches of garland (I cut mine off of a 7' piece that was too long to use around our window)
4" wooden letters
Glue gun (not pictured)

Start by painting your letters.  I used 2 coats of the red paint as the base color...

and used the gold paint to do a faux plaid.  Please don't judge how unstraight my lines are--I know I need some practice, but you get the idea :)

Next, cut 3 strips of ribbon, 15 inches each.  The letters won't hang 15 inches down, don't worry--you need that extra length later on.  Use the hot glue gun to attached one of each strip to the back of each letter.

Once the glue is dry, space out your ribbons about 3 inches apart from each other and tie them on to the garland's main wire.  Make sure to leave about a 4 inch tail.

Next, cut 3 more pieces of ribbon, about 12" each.  Fold the ribbon to create a "faux bow" like you see in the picture.  You don't want to actually tie it, just fold it over.

Next, lay your faux bow on top of the knot where you tied the letter ribbon onto the garland.

Fold the extra tail of the ribbon over the faux bow (see, told you you'd need that extra!)

And tie the tail to the main part of the letter ribbon.

Repeat the faux bow with all three letters.  It should look like this:

Next, cut a small piece of ribbon (about 3 inches) and create a loop, then hot glue it to the back of the garland where the middle letter is tied.  This will give you a way to hang it.

Here's the final project, all hung up on our (ugly) apartment door!

I know it looks like the "Y" is hanging lower, but I think that's because I was on the stairs looking up at an angle.  When you look at it head on, all the letters hang evenly, but you can play around with bending the garland and the length of the ribbon to make it work for you.

Here's the money breakdown:
Garland: (already had it)
Ribbon: $2
Letters: $3 ($1/each)
Paint: (already had)

Total cost: $5 (this will be more if you need to purchase the garland or the paint, of course)

I also recommend if you're going to hang it outside to spray the letters with a sealant to make sure it doesn't get any weather damage.

Happy Holidays!  Stay tuned for 11 more Christmas projects to come!  :)

xoxo, Melissa

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