Merry Christmas Sign without using vinyl

I love signs! and have a few in our home that I have made.  But, I didn’t have one for Christmas so decided today that I would have a go and try a different way of doing it.  In the past I have cut out a stencil with my cricut and stenciled the words onto a piece of wood.

This time I decided to use a technique involving sewers tracing paper, which I discovered is a lot like carbon paper, only a lot cheaper.

I printed out my words on the printer, making sure to only print the outline of the letters (this saves ink, and we are all about saving right?)placed a piece of sewers tracing paper onto my already painted wood and placed the printed words over the top and then  basically traced round each letter with a pen, once your done with tracing the letters, you have a very easy to see outline of the letters.  I then  painted the letters by hand, I am not the best free hand painter but I am sure if I had had a painting pen it would have been much easier than using a paint brush.  I then took some sandpaper and lightly sanded the words to give them a more rustic look.

For all you crafters out there without a machine for cutting vinyl, this may be an option for you.  Let me know what you think.  Thanks for looking

 

Christmas Garland on a Budget

This year it will be the 5th Christmas we have lived in this house and I have never decorated my staircase. Can you believe it, one of the things that sold me on this house was the flowing staircase! yet I have never decorated it. This is probably due to the fact that since living here, Christmas has been a time where there have been a number of not so good events going on in our lives and I just did not have the time to do it, or even think about it!

Well, I decided this year, especially seeing as this will probably be our last Christmas in this house that I would decorate it. Now, I am a bit of a tight wad when it comes to decorating, I am one of those people who waits until the sales, I love Hobby Lobbys 90% off sale! and last year I scored a very large wreath that was originally $79.99 for only $7.99 and some stocking hangers for only $6.99, originally $69.99. However, I did not think to get some Christmas garland for the stairs, so I had to resort to doing it on the cheap. Off I went to Michaels, where the garlands were on sale at 60% off their original price but even then they would be about $15 a garland and I have 3 bannisters I needed to decorate. So looking around the shop I found the ideal basic garland and this is what I came up with:

• 3 X basic garlands $2.49 Michaels = $7.47
• Daily special Poinsettia flowers @ $0.99 x 5 (3 colours, white, red and a plum colour)Michaels these are normally $2.99, and have about 5-6 flowers on them = $5
• A bag of pinecones $2.49 Michaels, which I strung on wire
  Bird Picks 2 for $1 Dollar Store I bought 3 of these =$3
• Gold Baubles $1 from Dollar store I bought one tube that contains 15 balls and I already had a few left over from my ball wreath. I strung these together in sets of 3.

TOTAL SPENT $18.96, so each garland cost just over $6.00 to make.

I am feeling pleased with myself, can you tell?

Here are some photos of the finished garland, I can definitely see myself adding to this garland over the years, especially when I hit those sales, I already found a few berry picks and added them, but for now it will do.

Please excuse the photos, they were taken at night and for one reason or another I had a difficult time trying to get decent photos.

Father Christmas

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