DIY: Table Centerpiece - Decor For The Holidays

During the holiday season, I love to add a little something special to our dining room table. This season I wanted to add a D.I.Y. centerpiece. My inspiration for this project was my son's obsession with sticks. Yes, I said STICKS! He has been collecting sticks for awhile now and a few pine cones a long the way. He insists on bring every stick he finds home and we have compiled quite a collection. So, I asked him if I could use some of his sticks for a project I wanted create. He said, "YES". Hooray, now I could finally put those sticks we've been collecting to good use! Off I went to create something special for our table. What do you think? Cute, right...

Here is how I created the centerpiece. 

D.I.Y. TABLE DECOR CENTERPIECE

Supplies you will need for this centerpiece craft project: 
Pine cones
Sticks
Glitter spray paint
Clear Sealer spray
Glue gun
twine
Empty paper towel roll
Wrapping paper
Double sided tape
Scissors

GATHER YOUR SUPPLIES FOR THIS PROJECT.

SPRAY PAINT STICKS AND PINE CONES WITH GLITTER SPRAY PAINT. AFTER DRYING, SPRAY CLEAR SEALER TO PROTECT THE PINE CONES AND STICKS.

WHILE THE STICKS AND PINE CONES ARE DRYING - CUT PAPER ROLL DOWN THE CENTER.

WRAP THE ROLL IN PRETTY PAPER. I USED A BLACK AND WHITE DAMASK PATTERN WARPING PAPER. TAPE THE PAPER ON THE INSIDE OF THE ROLL.

ASSEMBLE THE STICKS BY HOT GLUING TOGETHER AND WRAPPING THE TWINE AROUND THE STICKS AT THE  INTERSECTING POINTS.

ASSEMBLE THE PINE CONES TO THE WRAPPED PAPER TOWEL ROLL BY HOT GLUING IN PLACE. THREAD THE RIBBON AROUND THE ROLL AND TIE A BOW.

VOILA! A HAND CRAFTED CENTERPIECE FOR YOUR DINING ROOM TABLE.

Thank you all for a great FIRST year! It has been amazing so far. I am looking forward to next year and I know it will be even better!  

Happy Holidays and have a great NEW YEAR!!

Dressing Up Your Table For The Holidays

Well, we are in the thick of the holiday season and I know that everyone is busy with all the merry and spirit of the season! It's the perfect time to start decorating those dinning room tables.

As I began to write this post, my youngest son is building another fort in our living room and he has enlisted me for help in building it, so I hope that I am able to share my thoughts with you before becoming his assistant builder. Back to my post...

I wanted to share some quick, simple and inexpensive tips for dressing up your dining room table for the holidays. I think when decorating for the holiday it should reflect your families sensibilities. My motto is: fun, simple, and cost effective is the way to go when dressing up your table!  Since I have young children, a no fuss decor is best for our home. A relaxed modern whimsical table scape is our style for this year.  

I am so proud of my boys and their art and craft projects they bring home. I will proudly display them every chance I get. I knew that their craft projects would have to be worked into the table design this year. A great rule of thumb to follow when setting a holiday table is to find items around your home you can use first before buying something new. For example, why not re-purpose a scrap piece of linen and some ribbon. Or in my case my son's craft work!

To dress up my dining room table for our Thanksgiving feast I looked around my home for things I could reuse. I found and old red and orange table cloth, tweed fabric and red ribbon.  Since the tweed fabric had frayed edges I did not want to show I used the red ribbon to cover them up and give a nice modern look to the newly designed table cloth. 

I  wanted to give the table some whimsy so I decorated the base of a cake stand and the napkins with tissue pom poms in shades of orange and used the boys Thanksgiving crafts around the table.  

I think we all want to impress our guest with a perfectly designed table, however, don't forget to have fun and put your own special touch on your table. Above all don't stress out about what other people think. Just remember, there is always next year.  

BACK TO THE FORT BUILDING! 

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 

Let's Build A Gingerbread House Together...

The craft bug flew into our house this week with a big gingerbread smile! I have always wanted to build and decorate a gingerbread house but left to my own devises, it would have to look and be decorated just right. The boys love to build things and so what better way to get in the holiday spirit than to build a gingerbread house. Fortunately for the boys, I took myself out of the equation and let them build and decorate it for themselves, as you will soon see!  It was so easy to assemble because of course we used a kit, the ones you buy at the grocery store.  So with very little help from me the boys made their very own gingerbread house that they are so proud to show off to anyone that comes to visit!

Getting ready for the project, all you need is a Gingerbread House making Kit you can buy at your local grocery store.

My little one eager to start build the house frame before his brother came home from school.

 Big brother gets in to the act and starts decorating. Sharing the duties as they go along. Amazingly peaceful project and they worked together to complete it to the best of there ability at the time. 

So there you have it! A boys craft project that delighted them for an afternoon. I hope you enjoyed this fun holiday craft and it inspired you to do something crafty with your family. 

Happy Holidays!