Christmas Backdrop at Our House (Part 2)

Christmas Backdrop at Our House (part 1)

Let the festivities begin. The backdrop to Christmas is finally complete at our home. Thought I'd simply share it in pictures. If you came to the Christmas open house, you will see the projects posted through out November. Please check out my business website to see how you and your guests can have fun together creating home decor knick knacks at www.picadillyandcompany.com Enjoy and Merry Christmas. I will be taking a small break from the blog! Please note: I am limited in the number of pictures I can post, so there are more on following entries.

Ruffled Tree Skirt

I have never had a tree skirt I like. I've always wanted to make one and never took the time. I get very impatient with my crafts, and sewing one just seemed like it would take sooooo looonnnggg! That is until I found this idea from HGTV. And, it is a NO SEW project. Appealing even though I can sew. I pretty much followed the instructions however, I used scrap linen I had for the first ruffle and used muslin for the rest (much cheaper!). I had curtain lining fabric and I used it for the backing! So pleased with the results! Here's the HGTV link: http://www.hgtv.com/handmade/how-to-make-a-no-sew-ruffled-christmas-tree-skirt/index.html

Branching Out.

Love, Love, Love what I did today and it was free and soooooo easy. I simply got Christmas tree branches from a local store that trims the bottoms off for customers. They are FREE! I put them in a glass cookie jar I have. I was going to tie a burlap bow around it and be done. Then, I had another idea. I used scrap burlap I had and hot glued a burlap message around it instead. I created my own stencil for the lettering. You can see how to do that here: http://picadillyandcompany.blogspot.com/2011/10/welcoming-in-fall-harvest.html I stenciled the word 'tree'. I do find it difficult to stencil this way with small letters and therefore decided to make a tag. I simply made from the computer saying "Oh Christmas". I REALLY like the simplicity and impact of it. And since we don't have 'real' trees, the branches add an evergreen scent in our home.

Clustering

To help make plain ornaments look fancy, cluster them together. I did this on our mantle to help brighten it up a bit. We have a black mantle with our television, so I have a challenge every year on how to make an impact. To do this I simply wired them together.

I also clustered 3 ornaments together with ribbon and added them to our Christmas tree.

Hydrangeas Are Everywhere!

As I have mentioned, I love bringing the outside in. I have done this by drying and saving my hydrangeas. I thought I would share with you all the places I have used them.: In my garland going up the bannister and over the top of my door:

In both my Christmas trees:

And my favorite in this little arrangement I made with curly willow from our backyard.

I also added the curly willow branches above our dinner table. Topped off with berry stems (which aren't so real).

Simple Message

I am busy decking out everything for Christmas. So today's craft is a simple way to share a message. I simply used tags tied around my Picadilly candle holders spelling the word 'joy'. I used stickers for the letters, aged the tags with a brown rubberstamp ink pad and topped them with ribbon. A sweet little reminder to help me stay focused on the attitude I should have this season.

Homemade Stocking

You know how you get a vision for something, and then it just seems like it goes a totally different direction. Well, that is how this project started from the beginning. Originally I wantd to make a stocking that was all red mattress ticking and some burlap possibly. Well, long story short, due to pricing I ended up using osnaburg fabric with red mattress ticking as the accent. I like the osnaburg, because it has a natural look along the lines as muslin and linen type look, but it is much cheaper. My plan was to make this for our front door with an floral arrangement coming out. Supplies needed to make stocking: 1/2 yard osnaburg fabric 1/4 yard red mattress ticking thread plastic ring to hang stocking with or make one from fabric. I printed a stocking template from the Martha Stewart website and increased the size 300%. You can find that here: http://www.marthastewart.com/275308/christmas-templates/@center/307034/christmas-workshop Cut the stocking out of the osnaburg fabric and use the ticking as cuff of the stocking, for toe and heal patches. The cuff, cut two rectangles 8" x 6".

Place the patches in place on the front of the stocking and machine basted it in place just where the stitching will be visible. The other places the patches will be actually in the seam. The top of each cuff do a double 1/4" hem, this will eventually be the bottom of the cuff. Attach the cuffs to the top of the stocking and put the wrong side of the stocking to the right side of the cuff. I made one small mistake here, I should have sewed the cuffs together, right sides together first, then attached them to the stocking. I didn't, and had a raw edge in the end on my cuff seams showing. Once the cuffs were in place, I sewed the front and back of stocking together, with right sides facing each other.

Once front and back are sewn together, turn them right side out and fold cuff over. This is where my cuff shows raw edges. However, for this look, it didn't bother me so much and I just kept it that way. I chose to fray the raw edges of the patches a bit too.

Attach a hang loop either to the corner or back of the stocking. You can make one from the fabric. I chose to use a plastic ring. When attaching rings, a fast process is to put your stitch length I '0' and use a zig zag stitch over the top of the ring several times.

Once I finished the stocking I hung it on my bulletin board trying to do a floral arrangement inside it. I used styrofoam for the flowers and filled the stocking with plastic bags. Getting frustrated, I pinned the stocking in place on the board and realized, that it looked pretty good there. So, I covered the board with burlap and hung the stocking there instead of my front door.