Magnolia Love

I just love magnolias, do you?  I decided I wanted a little more magnolia in my house.

What I started with

Earthborn Homewares had the most beautiful artificial magnolias on sale for half price at $9.95 per stem, so I picked up 4.  I already had the white butterfly pot.  It is a Jamie Durie one from Big W.  The dry floral foam is from the discount shop (Overflow).

I cut the magnolias down to a size that better suited the pot.  I used wire cutters as them stems were thick.

Then I cut the floral foam to size with a knife and inserted it into the pot.  To arrange the flowers, I just pushed the stems into the foam.

The problem is - you can see the foam (not pretty), so I cut a piece of fake moss mat that I had (from House & Garden), then pushed the flowers back through the moss and the foam.

Here's my magnolia arrangement.

You can play around with the stems and leaves, bending them into shape. 

This is in my family room, and just around the corner is the magnolia wreath in the dining room. 

Magnolias make me happy.  How about you?

Sharing at French Country Cottage

Making Paper Chains

I took part in the Christmas Good Mail Club late last year run by Sarah from Molly's Maison. The idea was to send everybody on the list a hand-written card and a little something special.  I chose to make Happy New Year paper that could be made into a paper chain.

I printed Happy new Year onto some parchment paper in different fonts - the fonts are from top to bottom - Callie hand, Engravers MT, St Nicholas, Chopin Script, One Starry Night, Angelic War and Eraser.  Most you can download free from DaFont.

I then used a deckle edge blade on my Fiskars paper trimmer to cut the paper into strips.  This gives a slightly crinkled edge rather than a perfectly straight one.

For some I punched stars in between the words.

For others I punched decorative edges.

Until I ended up with a pile of decorative paper strips, which I bundled together and popped into the card I made.

I kept a few for myself too.

You could easily apply any of these ideas to make your own paper chains next time you have a celebration.  They were fun to make.  I remember making paper chains in primary school out of coloured paper to decorate the classroom.  Did you?

To see more Christmas decorating, please visit my new blog DIY Decorator

Loving My Sticker machine

I'm still having so much fun with my sticker machine.  I just wanted to share a little matchbox project.

I have been burning my Glasshouse White Christmas candle pretty much every night during December.  It smells so Christmasy.  I leave the matches next to it for easy lighting, but a normal Redheads pack is not very attractive, so I covered it.

Two pieces of gift wrapping paper through the sticker machine and then straight onto the matchbox.

That looks better.

Even the tea lights didn't escape a ribbon sticker.

Got to stop putting stickers on everything and go wrap some presents.

To see more Christmas decorating, please visit my new blog DIY Decorator

Giant Christmas Wreath

I really like to decorate the front of our house for Christmas, and the big arch window was just crying out for a giant wreath, so I made one.

How To Make a Giant Christmas Wreath

You will need:

• A dog who chews his moon chair apart leaving only the circular frame or a plastic hula hoop which will be lighter and easier to hang.
• plain garland - I used 2 x 1.8 metre garlands from Spotlight
• Ribbon to make a bow
• Baubles or decorations
• Battery operated fairy lights

Step one - Wrap the garland around the hoop.  My garland was wired so it stayed in place without the need for glue.  Fan out the branches to cover the frame.

 Step two - Make a bow.  Make a loop, then make two more.  Cut a small length of fabric and fold it around the centre of the loops.  Cut a long length of fabric and fold it in half.  Place it at the back of the bow and staple into place.  You could also glue it in place if you don't want to see the staples.

Step three - Decorate the wreath.  I wrapped 2 x 20 light battery operated fairy lights around the wreath.  Attached some gold baubles I had to the wreath with some green wire, and attached the big red bow to the top.

I really wanted to make a big bow out of red hessian/burlap like one I saw at Pottery Barn, but it seems everybody else had the same idea, and Spotlight was completely sold out.

Step four - Hang the wreath.  This is where a light weight hoola hoop would be better than a heavy metal frame.  I ignored all the instructions on the packet and attached 2 large clear command hooks to my arch window.  The benefit of these is they have clear strips which you can't see through the window.

and voila - a very Christmasy giant wreath.

It looks pretty all lit up at night, but unfortunately I'm not a good enough photographer to capture it for you.  Maybe next year?  Only 11 more sleeps.

To see more Christmas decorating, please visit my new blog DIY Decorator

How to Make Your Own Stickers

I love stickers.  They are such a quick way to decorate something.  Recently I discovered the Xyron Create A Sticker, and I knew I would have so much fun with it.  I bought the Xyron 250 which makes stickers up to 2.5 inches or 6.4cm wide.  I bought it from Queensland based Crafts Online here.  It's not a sponsored post.  I paid for it.

Basically, you can insert anything (paper, chipboard, fabric) and pass it through the machine by turning the handle and it will come out the other side as a sticker.  Shall we give it a go?

Making Paper Stickers

I cut out some gift wrap paper, put it through the machine and voila ...a sticker.

All I have to do is peel the paper away from the backing sheet and stick it on something.  This was fun, so Little Miss Stylish and I did some more.

This time we made Christmas stickers from Christmas wrapping paper.

Making Fabric Stickers

Next I decided to make some fabric stickers.  You can just cut the fabric up and put it through the machine, but I am hopeless at cutting circles so I thought I'd try and use a paper punch to cut the fabric.  This leads to a funny story, but if you haven't go time then scroll down.

To use a paper punch on fabric, you first need to stiffen the fabric.  I remember using Plaid fabric stiffener years ago, so I headed to Spotlight.  I asked the lady for fabric stiffener, but she had no idea what I was talking about.  She checked with the other staff.  No they don't have fabric stiffener you can brush on, only iron on interfacing.  I tried to explain to her ... you know, I want to stiffen the fabric so I can use a paper punch like Martha Stewart.  I've used it before.  Tonia Todman used to use it.  Well, she looked at me like a 20-something does as if to say 'Who the hell is Tonia Todman?'  Lucky I didn't ask for the prodcut by name, it's called Stiffy, and apparently it's hard to get Stiffy anymore (laughing as I type this).  Anyway, I googled it, and you can use a 50/50 mix of PVA glue and water to replace Stiffy so that's what I did.

Paint it all over the fabric, with baking paper underneath, then hang it on the line to dry.

Well I got about 6 circles cut before my paper punch decided it didn't want to cut any more fabric.  Maybe I needed Stiffy afterall?

I did manage to cut out lots of the smaller shapes and create stickers out of them.

With the left over fabric, I cut out tags, and because they were stiff I was able to punch a hole in the top.

Making Ribbon Stickers

Finally I wanted to try ribbon stickers.  This was easy, I just cut lengths of ribbon and thread them through.  I ran through two at a time to save my sticker cartridge.

So what do you think?  Honestly, for $30 this machine was a whole heap of fun to use.  I can't wait to make some more.

Decorating Christmas Crackers or Bon Bons

How's your Christmas planning going?  Started yet?  I've only bought a couple of presents, but I've made the Christmas crackers.

Every year I make Christmas Bon Bons or Crackers.  I don't know why?  I must be crackers.  I think it's because I don't like the tacky gifts they put inside the store-bought ones or the cost of the 'luxury' crackers.  This year I cheated a little and bought a kit, which made it so much easier.  This silver kit is $3 at Spotlight and includes 6 pre-cut crackers, snaps, ribbon ties, party hat and bad jokes.

Here's how to make them.  I didn't want plain silver, so I decided to decorate my crackers with a simple white doily.  Just glue it on (it's a bit messy).  Turn the cracker over and tape down the snap towards the back of the cracker.

Then I added an embellishment.  These silver snowflakes were $2 for 6 from Overflow.  There are so many pretty decorations available, just choose something flat that can be attached easily.

I attached the snowflake to the cracker with a hot glue gun, then folded the cracker into shape.  Use a gentle up/down motion to get the tabs into the slot.

Now tie a piece of ribbon or string around the bottom of the cracker.  I decided to use the silver ties that came with the packet (both packets were one tie short Spotlight!!!) as I wanted the doily to be the feature.  Previously I've used pretty ribbon so it becomes the feature.  Now you can fill the cracker.

I used the hats and jokes that came in the packet and added some Christmas Lindt chocolates.  These are the same chocolates I used for my Lindt Chocolate Christmas Tree last year.  Other gifts I've used before include; lipsticks, key rings, beaded bracelets, earrings, scratchy tickets, lollipops ....  You can use pretty much anything that will fit inside the cracker.  You can also type up your own jokes or write inspirational messages to put inside.  Once the cracker is filled, tie-off the other end and it's finished.

Sparkly Snowflakes (leave glitter everywhere)

I'm not hosting Christmas at my place this year, but if I was I'd decorate the table with these pretty silver reindeer - $4 each from KMart

and I'd bring in some roses from the garden, and pop them in little silver votives.

I'd use the new silver charger plates I picked up from KMart for $2 each, and hopefully my table would look like this.

If any of you have any suggestions for what gifts you can put into a Christmas Cracker, please share it with us in the comments section below.

To see more Christmas decorating, please visit my new blog DIY Decorator