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Christmas Decoration Copy Cat Challenge

December 9, 2012 · by Organizedisland · 16 Comments

If you are like me, you are in the midst of the holiday entertaining season. I just love this time of year because I enjoy decorating the house. I love to peruse all of the catalogues of beautiful decorating and entertaining ideas for inspiration. This year, one of the things that caught my eye was this serving dish from the Crate and Barrel catalogue.

I decided to try to recreate it myself, so I headed to the store to find a plain white plate. I found a couple at Big Lots for $3.00 and $3.50. It would have been cheaper if I had waited for a coupon, but I decided to just pay the current price. I did not have time to come back after work when the coupon sale started. Anyhow, here is the plate before:

I made two plates but did not photocopy the round one before (oops!). I purchased some painter markers from the craft store in gold and silver. These markers are non-toxic.

Then, I started drawing on the plate. I chose to draw freehanded, because I wanted I like the look of hand painted.

Here is how the square plate looked when finished.

I decided to do trees and snowflakes on the round plate.

And here are both of them:

I have washed it a couple of times by hand and the paint has remained on the plate. If I decide to give it to someone, I would recommend hand washing only. To see my other frugal decorating ideas, check out my recent posts:

I am sharing this at Debbiedoo’s Holiday Knock Off Decoration party.

Would you try this?

Filed Under: Crafts, DIY, Entertaining, Frugal Fun, Gift Ideas, Winter · Tagged: cheap decorations, cheap entertaining ideas, copycat decorating, DIY, DIY Christmas decorations, DIY decoration, DIY holiday gifts, frugal decorating, holiday decorations

My Dollar Store Table

December 6, 2012 · by Organizedisland · 30 Comments

So if you have been following my blog for a while, you saw my post on dollar store crafts for my buffet table, and my dollar store mantle. Now I made a few things for my Christmas dining room table.

First I wrapped the candy canes together and attached a cute little bow (both from the dollar store). I am using it to place onto the napkins at our dinner table.

Then I took the pine cone ornaments and surrounded a candle with them. I did not glue them to the glass, so that I can use then again differently next year.

Finally, then I attached the little tree ornaments to the wine glasses. You can decorate each little tree to differentiate the “wine charms”, so that people do not lose their drink.

So this is the last of the dollar tree holiday crafts for this year. It has been fun and I will be sharing more dollar store goodness in the coming year. Hope you will join me!

Filed Under: Dining, DIY, Entertaining, Frugal Fun, Winter · Tagged: cheap decorations, decorating my holiday table, dollar store, dollar store crafts, holiday crafts, holiday tablescape, simple crafts

My Dollar Store Mantle

November 30, 2012 · by Organizedisland · 38 Comments

It is hard to believe that it is almost December. In order to start to get my house decorated for the holidays, I made some decorations from items from the dollar store. These are three simple crafts that took less than an hour to make (combined). I visit my mother every week and sometimes we work on crafts. I cherish our time together, and lately we have been working on creating inexpensive holiday decor.

Today I wanted to share how I made some decorations for my fireplace mantle. By the way if you are wondering, I looked it up and mantle can be spelled either mantle or mantel, who knew? Ok, back to my topic. Here is how I put the items together. These are some of the supplies I purchased.

So for the first project, we took the berries and glued then to the dollar store candlesticks with hot glue.

Then we attached two bows to each one and put the dollar candles in the holder. This is the end result:

Next I took a glass container and a string of bells and attached the bottom string to a cardboard base I glued on the base (outside of the holder). Then I wrapped the bells around the holder in a spiral.

I tied a bow around the top, and attached the other end of the string of bells with hot glue. It is ready for a candle to go inside.

Then I made my little Christmas tree decoration. I put the ornament into a foam base (both from the dollar store),

then covered the sides with ribbon, the top with paper and put the little gift boxes around the base.

I put everything together on my mantle and this is how it looks.

Can I just say that I just love the dollar store? Be sure to check out my previous post on dollar store crafts for my buffet table. I am going to do something with the candy canes in a future post. What is your favorite type of craft?

I am sharing this project at Sand and Sisal, I Love My Disorganized life

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Filed Under: Crafts, DIY, Entertaining & Celebrations, Winter · Tagged: cheap decorations, christmas decorations, craft ideas, crafts, crafts for teens, dollar crafts, dollar store crafts, simple crafts

Easy Paint Chip Art

August 22, 2012 · by Organizedisland · 17 Comments

Well it is finally cooling down here in California which means fall is on its way. I made a simple and frugal craft decoration out of paint chips and it is so simple that the photos tell the story. Kind of like a Wordless Wednesday.