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New Year's DIY Clock Face Plates

Do you serve a traditional New Year's dish to bring prosperity and good luck?  Here in the South, one traditional dish is black eyed peas. To make them a little more fun and appealing, I made glitzy New Year's clock face plates on which to serve them.




Supplies used:

Clear glass plates
Clock face graphic
Mod Podge or white glue

Before we get started, I must give credit for the amazing clock face graphic to The Graphics Fairy.  Karen has a seemingly endless variety of graphics available free for your personal use and the one I used, along with two additional options, are found HERE.  You'll also find many shared project ideas for the free graphics she graciously provides.  Please check out her site - you will be impressed!


To create the clock face plate, I measured the diameter of the inside center of the clear plate.  These are salad plates, but dinner plates can easily be used by printing a larger clock face to fit the center area.  

This is the graphic I selected:

The Graphics Fairy


After printing the clock face on my color printer, I cut it out and applied Mod Podge to the front (clock face side) of the image.  Then, carefully placed it on the back side of the clear plate and used an old gift card to smooth out any air bubbles.  Let dry.  

The glue dries clear and only the gorgeous clock face image will be seen from the front side of the plate.  I'm loving the combination of black, cream and metallic gold tones.

Paired with gold chargers, the clock face really "pops" against the gold.  For texture ... a table centerpiece comprised of everything gold (repurposed from Christmas).  Will later add napkins, silverware and glasses to complete the tablescape.



This is a very quick project and adds a nice touch of glitz to New Year's.  The clock face images are certainly not permanent and can be removed quite easily by soaking in warm soapy water. 

For those with limited storage space, this can be a great alternative to buying occasion-specific dinnerware  - just use the same set of clear plates and change out the design with each holiday or occasion.  It really takes little time at all!

Wishing you a fun-filled and Happy New Year!!!


Many thanks to Karen at The Graphics Fairy and
Christine at Must Love Home for featuring this project!!!



Christmas in Our Home - Part Two

Continuing Christmas in our home .... I'll try not to clutter the Spirit of the Holiday with too much narration.  :)












This festive Christmas countdown (above) is a free printable from Sarah at Life{Sweet}Life.  It's available in a green and/or red background.  Just frame it behind glass and use a dry erase marker to change the number of days each morning.  Click HERE to get your own free printable. 


The adorable free printable above is available from Lucy at Craftberry Bush.  I made a quick mat from striped design paper - just used scissors. Click HERE to download the free printable.  And, thanks to Lisa at Texas Decor for sharing!








Above are Christmas morning treats for the pups.  To make them, we use empty paper towel rolls, cut to small lengths.  Stuff them with pup treats (Pup-peroni work great) wrapped in white tissue paper, and wrap the stuffed rolls with brown Kraft paper.  (I wrap the brown paper around the roll twice, to avoid having to use tape.)  Twist the ends closed.  The pups go crazy ripping the paper off and pulling the tissue paper out, to reach their treats - such fun to watch them!


 Just a touch of silver and white in the guest bathroom!


Thanks for stopping by!  
Hope your holiday prep is going smoothly
and that you're taking time to enjoy!

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Christmas in Our Home .. Part One

Had so much fun decorating our home this Christmas! 

Rustic Guest Room Tree



This is a 5 foot prelit tree with red, gold and handmade wooden ornaments.

The wooden ornaments started out as paint stir sticks and each have a holiday saying or message on them.  This is a really neat idea from Janet at Today's Fabulous Finds.  Janet is so gracious and she even provides the free template download!  

My version was to paint the stir sticks a greyish green, attach the printed sayings with Mod Podge, and cover with a layer of gold glitter paint.  Janet used wire for her hangers but I improvised with jute string.  I really like the rustic look!

The tree stand is a plant container - we removed the original plastic tree stand and placed the metal tree "trunk" in the plant container, weighted and secured by bricks.  Tucked raffia in the top of the container to conceal  the bricks.


Sentimental Master Bedroom Tree


This tree is also a 5 foot prelit.  The tree "skirt" is actually a lampshade that I spray painted gold.  To set it up, I slipped the tree trunk (bottom tree section only) through the top of the lampshade, attached the tree stand, flipped it right side up and assembled the remaining tree sections.

The ball ornaments are an annual tradition for hubby and I - we've ordered them each of the 20 years we've been married.  They're handmade salt glazed pottery from Eldreth Pottery and each one is dated with the year.  These beautiful ornaments are HEAVY!  Am still amazed the tree hasn't collapsed from the weight of them.



To add a little sparkle, I draped the tree with gold (spray painted, of course!) raffia.  The knotted gold raffia at the top serves as a topper.

A quick and easy way to spray paint raffia is to place a big bunch of the raffia in a cardboard box, and spray with one hand while turning the raffia with the other hand to cover all sides (wearing gloves saves your manicure).


Family Tradition Living Room Tree

 
Our living room tree is a 7 foot prelit slim style that we placed in an old galvanized tub.  We placed heavy pieces of 4"x4" boards in the bottom of the tub and then positioned the tree stand on the boards.  I tucked in burlap to conceal the tree stand and boards.  

Along with the tree's slim profile, I love that the base container takes up less space than a traditional tree skirt and I don't have to repeatedly readjust it as I would with a fabric skirt.  

The ornaments for this tree consist of a wide variety of sentimental family ornaments, many are handmade and most have been on our tree for decades.  All well worn and loved.  The topper is a multi-colored star and this year I added gold glitter sprays to the top.  This year I didn't use tree garland or ribbon - am really enjoying having the ornaments take center stage.


Family Photos and Handmade Ornaments Counter Trees



Our kitchen and dining room are divided by a counter and at each end of the counter is a 4 foot prelit tree in an urn.  These are devoted to family photos.

To frame the photos, I used dollar store metal 2" x 3" frames and spray painted them all gold (see a pattern here?!?) and hot glued gold brads to embellish.



The toppers are large gold glitter ornaments that I also found at the dollar store.  To convert the ornaments to toppers, I used a handsaw to cut off the top closed tip of each ornament, which created a hollow opening.  The hollow opening slipped easily over the top branch of the tree.



Additional ornaments on these two trees are the red and gold shiny and glitter balls, and the star shaped scented cinnamon dough ornaments.  

For the scented cinnamon ornament dough recipe, click HERE.

As a finishing touch for the cinnamon dough ornaments, I hot glued mirrored buttons to the centers for a little bling.


Clothespin Snowflake Ornaments Home Office Tree




After setting up all the other trees, I wanted hubby to also have a little Christmas cheer in his home office.  His is a 4 foot prelit tree in an urn and it is decorated with snowflakes made from wooden clothespins.  

There are many tutorials online for making them and they are quick and easy to do.  I painted them with white spray paint, added metallic gold painted washers (the kind you can buy at any home improvement store) and clear mirrored buttons to the centers.  

I didn't even attach ornament hangers to them - just tucked them in the branches of the tree.  The pop of white and shiny mirrored centers against the dark green tree is really pretty - how's that for a minimalist approach to tree decorating?  :)

Stay tuned for part two!  Have a great day and best wishes for fun and creative holiday decorating!