Alternative Christmas Tree DIY

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This weekend, I helped my manfriend, Justin, give his Wicker Park apartment a makeover (get ready for that post tomorrow; I'm still drooling over it).

In the midst of the apartment makeover, my lovely mother began inquiring about Christmas decor. Were we going to decorate? Did we want a miniature Christmas tree? Did we want a box of Christmas lights?

Fearing that any traditional Christmas decor wouldn't quite jive with the modern feel of the apartment, I began to... you guessed it... brainstorm.

This was initially just an idea for good old Christmas-time, wintery decor... I envisioned a variety of metallic-looking branches coming out of a large hurricane glass vase. After finding a few gorgeous colored glass vases for between $0.49 and $0.99 cents at Goodwill, the project took off in a bit of a different direction. 

As it turns out, the addition of a few red mini-ornaments helps this legitimately pass as an "Alternative Christmas Tree."  That said, post-Christmas, I think it'll pass for legitimate non-Christmas decor (minus the ornaments, of course).

And so, without further ado, here's your fabulously easy tutorial!

You need:

• Sticks (check your back yard, silly)
• Chrome (or metallic) spraypaint
• Vases (I used colored glass bottles from Goodwill, but a hurricane vase would also work, as would a few Perrier or Pellegrino bottles)
• Mini-ornaments
• Optional: White spraypaint, weights (I used glass stones but washers, stones or pebbles, and coins would also work)

Gift Re-Packaging

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Newsflash. I'm obsessed with personality tests. In fact, just about any "quiz" that purports to examine your mental, emotional, relational, or aesthetic preferences will perk up this girl's ears. Anyways, taking the Five Love Languages test (take it here and let me know what you got! So fun to read about everyone else's preferences) confirmed what I already knew. I'm a gifter. I love giving gifts. It's how I show love. No, that doesn't mean that you should be my new best friend so that you'll receive a new Tiffany's necklace or Hermes ring (wouldn't that be nice, though?!). I tend to make gifts. So we're talking crafts and baking. I also tend to keep my eyes peeled for ways to take something small and make it special.

Enter the purpose of this post.



I snagged this horseshoe necklace from a store I shall not name... but it was a mind bogglingly good deal, I'll leave it at that. Only problem: It came on a flimsy piece of crap necklace holder that totally cheapened the look and feel of the gift. Something had to be done about this, people!

You know how they say "It's the thought that counts?" Well, here's my new theory: It's the packaging that counts! 

Re-Package On Your Own:

Thanks be to my sister for keeping a stash of "W" Magazine on the floor of her closet. Yes, I've gone through your closet. No, I'm not stealing your clothes (well... mostly...). Yes, I am stealing your magazines.

Anyway, I found a few abstract or colorful pages to rip out and use for packaging.

 

I cut a small heart out... but it seemed too small (and flimsy). So then I glued it down and cut another heart around that... and then I did it again...

Until I had what looked like this:

I cut 1" long slits on the top "hump" of each side of the heart in order to hold the necklace chain in place.

 

Then grabbed this little cellophane bag and tied it off with a silver ribbon.

 

Voila! Gifted.

[Sexy] Fall Decor

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Half of you will hate me for this: I can't stomach most fall decor.  It's just not very 'cute' to me! It makes me feel old... and feeling old will just not do (this is particularly true when one of your life 'mottos' is You're as old as you feel).

But I do like leaves. The concept of them, at least. And I do like making things. Tracing and cutting and pinning. There's something therapeutic about those actions. 

I think creating things should be sexy. Not in an inappropriate-why-did-you-post-that-on-your-family-friendly-blog sort of way (5 points if you're laughing at my use of "family-friendly")... but in a clean, cool, creative sort of way. Instead of making you feel old, it should feel exciting. Glamorous. It should feel creatively new, yet also evoke, in some way, your memory of something old, something you've seen before.

So here we are. 

Fall has... fallen. 

Leaves have, too. 

I've got my leaves... 

how 'bout you?

Thanks to my sister for never throwing out a huge stack of old "W" magazines. They're coming in mighty handy. Using a leaf brought in from a run last week (and pressed for easy tracing), I stenciled the shape of a leaf onto various magazine pages.

Not wanting them to all be exactly alike, I actually chose to layer a few sheets at a time while cutting. I know, it seems like this would make them exactly alike... but in reality, when you layer multiple sheets of magazine paper, they end up slipping and sliding and moving in very subtle ways so that you end up with leaves that are similar enough to emulate the "real" shape of leaves but different enough to value those subtle differences nature gives us.

I found some twine left over from a graduation party this summer that had miniature clothes pins still attached to it. Score. A few pieces of tape and some quarter weights later (I taped the ripe to quarters, which I taped to the top of the furniture. This may have been entirely unnecessary... but it happened), we had this:

And with a few miniature clothes pins and my freshly-cut leaves, we had this:

A totally random piece of scrap paper looked freakishly like a butterfly to me. Yes, I know butterflies aren't particularly prevalent this time of year. But the bent wings worked so perfectly with the clothes pin that it felt like a welcome, if not necessary, addition. So it stays.

Anybody else have some out-of-the-box fall beauty brewing?