Christmas in all Colors

Welcome to my home for a multicolored Christmas tour! Last weeks I have been crafting, making and thrifting. I have put an alternative decoration for Christmas tree that doesn´t take too much space from the living room and I have crafted a lovely door hanging (tutorial at the end of the post!!). Plus I found a new pink working chair and storage bench for living room from a thrift shop. Have a happy Advent season! Hope you find these pictures inspiring.

Who could resist pink Christmas curtains? This one has seen atleast 10 Christmases :)

 No need to water :) A few bigger branches from the ground, artificial snow spray and retro Christmas baubles from thrift shop.

You will find the tutorial for this fun December DIY project at the end of the post :)

New working chair is Finnish quality and the color is perfect. It is a bit worn out at the sitting part but I will repair it. Cost? Only 2,50€ at the local thrift shop! 

This storage bench is so clever! It hides all my magazines :) Good as new 38€ at the thrift shop.

Retro baubles from 60´s to 2015.

Knitting is a part of the winter season isn´t it? Yesterday I finished the first sock for this season.

Welcome December DIY -project

To celebrate December I share this fun DIY Christmas ornament project. 

You will need: a wooden door plate, 3 Styron drops, fabric scraps, ribbon, primer, acrylic color in neon pink, orange, violet ad gold, antiquing wax, pins, glue, pom poms, beads, felted balls, strong cotton yarn and neon garden twine.

Plus: Scissors, knife, cutting knife, brush, 2 small brushes for the details, needle and cotton cloth.

Step 1. Make 0,5 cm deep cuts to the Styron drop to divide it to 4 sectors. Take a piece of fabric and stuff the edges inside the cuts. Cut off the extra fabric. Go through all the sectors like this. Glue a ribbon to cover the seams.

Step 2. Sew pom poms to the drops and thread some beads, felted balls and pom poms to decorate the yarn.

Door plate before, someone had already decorated it with her/his own style. I bought this from a thrift shop but craft shops sell these in various shapes. I just washed off the old decor and put white primer and sanded a little. Then I painted 4-5 layers with neon pink. After the paint was dry I applied the wax with cotton cloth and painted the decor with a smaller brush. Last step was to attach the hanging decorations with pins and put a neon garden twine to hang the decoration.

Tomorrow it is already December! I don´t have an advent calendar this year but I am going to watch some calendars from the internet, TV and DVD. Hope you don´t have any Christmas stress with decor, presents, food or cleaning. I know there is a lot of pressure to have all things perfect. I have been sharing some messy Christmas organizing pictures on Instagram to relieve the stress :) Everything is still in process. When I get some corner done the next one is a mess. But preparing is the best part of Christmas. 

Happy December!

Sannu

Project of the week: Pom pom chandelier

This project took several days because felting balls and making pom poms is quite time consuming. I have noticed that when I have a strong vision on something I find myself able to do monotonic work for days just to see the result. This was one of those projects. I also needed the color therapy this felting/pom pom workout offered. It was just plain lovely to be surrounded by all this amount of color! And wool as a material is so soft and warm. During the hours of work I watched DVD boxes and listened to radio. Penny Dreadful is one of those series I would not be watching at dark, but when felting bright colored pom poms in a daylight it was not too scary. It is a brilliant series but almost too scary to get through. Now that I got hooked I can´t wait for another season to come. Maybe then I will make more pom poms :)

The chandelier makes me smile. I am enjoying so much this combination of different colors and materials with soft light. 

Do you have similar need for color this time of the year? Does your color palette change according to the seasons? 

This week I will share more ideas for spring and coming Easter. Keep in touch!

Sannu

DIY idea: Needle felted garland

This needle felted garland is a fun project because it includes different techniques and lots of color and some glitter.

***

You will need:

styrofoam hearts

wool rowing (in wanted colors)

felting needle

Marseilles-soap

and

warm water for felting the beads between the hearts

plus

golden crocheting yarn

and

1,75 mm hook > for crocheting wanted letters to the hearts

small nails

golden/ glittery beads

very thin crocheting yarn (to which you can string hearts and beads) and long thin needle.

1. Needle felt the styrofoam hearts. Add a thin layer of felt to the heart and stab the heart with the needle to attach the felt. Add felt little by little to get an even surface.

2. Make felted balls with soap and warm water. Take a little amount of felt and make it a tight bundle. Dip the bundle to warm water and add some soap. Start rolling the wool between your hands (like you´d make a bun). Don´t press too hard in the beginning.

3. Crochet letters of your choice. This could make a beautiful Happy Birthday garland too with more hearts. Crocheting the letters is not difficult because they don´t have to be so precise. Just chain some loops and shape the letter with second round using single crochets and slip stitches. You can also cut the letters from golden cardboard. Attach the letters by small nails (craft shops sell very small nails).

4. Then it is time to string the hearts and beads with thin crocheting yarn. I didn´t go through the hearts as I haven´t got a needle that long. I just sew first in from the other side of the heart and came out from the middle (at the wrong side) and then in and out from the other side.

5. Hang the garland with the yarn coming from both ends of the garland.

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As I made this garland to my kitchen it inspired me to make rearrangements in the whole kitchen :) 

 The text is from Star Trek :) Every day is a kind of final frontier where no one has been before. So lets be bold with tomorrow.

Sannu