Okio B Designs: November 2013

I survived Thanksgiving! Hope you did too! Our Xmas decorations are in full swing now given that according to my 6 year old, there are 26 more days til Xmas.

This was a Pinspiration. I found something similar on Pinterest but now I can't for the life of me find the pin to show you. I believe the pinner used metal letters to create their banner. Mine are wood (from A.C. Moore) but I painted them a metallic silver for more of a metal look.

I hot glued beer tabs (yes, beer tabs!) to the backs of each letter so I could string them along a piece of twine. This is is tied to our faux wrought iron bed.

A sweet little holiday touch for the bedroom.

Jeanine

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Image courtesy The36thAvenue.com

Wishing everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Jeanine

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Brrrrrr...it's been bitterly cold here and we're waiting to hear if we're going to be hit by this crazy storm that is headed towards the East Coast. Since the theme of the day seems to be snow, I thought I'd share some of my wintery snow globes and Christmas cloches.

I have these all about the house this year. This one is housing a glittery church ornament I picked up at Walmart. No, that is not dust on top of the glass. See that chalkboard behind it? My 6 year old was blowing chalk right before I snapped this picture. Yes, blowing chalk. Nice, eh?

Some new snow globes I made last week using glass jars from our local church thrift store. My faux snow is Epsom salt.

Mason jar snow globes from last year. Above and below.

This cloche is hard to make out but it's holding a bottle brush tree from Home Goods and one of the altered Santa tins I did a few weeks ago.

I do this scene every year in our kitchen. I love the play on whites and you'll notice yet another cloche holding a bird.

I'm hoping anyone in the path of the storm stays safe and warm!

Jeanine

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I love dressing up this vintage school desk we have in our diningroom. Of course, 'tis the season for some Christmas touches.

I did a Pottery Barn knock-off with the noel letters. I've been wanting to do it for literally two years. I finally remembered to pick up the letters during my last trip to A.C. Moore.

The snowman and reindeer are from Home Goods. I made the framed holiday sheet music using a graphic from The Graphics Fairy and Dafont for the lettering: Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.

I also added some handmade Joyeux Noel clothes pins and ornaments I picked up from Kohl's last year. The bird candleholder is from the Dollar store and the little embellished book is tucked there year-round.

I'm definitely getting into the holiday spirit!

Jeanine

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We have this itty bitty piece of wall in our livingroom. It's hard to dress up because it is just so, well, small. It is, however, the perfect size for these JOY picture frames.

I picked up the frames at our local Dollar store. Never mind that candleholder sticking out. It's on the opposite wall and I just couldn't get a good camera angle with it there. You can see it below too - doh! And my spacing is a little off but I refused to put another nail in the wall.

I used DaFont.com to create each letter and then printed them onto white cardstock. Cut them down to size, stick them in the frames and done!

Quick, easy and a super cheap Xmas decoration.

Jeanine

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I always have a bunch of Dollar store prayer candles lying around. Each year, I try to do a new style for Xmas.

This year, I started by wrapping each candle in vintage sheet music. I picked up the glitter stars from Michael's. They are self-sticking so I added one to the front of each candle.

I added some rhinestone bling above the stars. If you remember, I picked up a French dictionary over the summer. I flipped through the pages and took out the ones that had joyeux and noel.

I photocopied the pages, cut them down and glued them to the front of each star. Just the right Frenchy touch for the season!

Jeanine

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I was able to hit a couple of garage sales this weekend. The season seems to be winding down here so it was slim pickings.

I did find a bunch of holiday items. A white ceramic Xmas tree, another wreath, gingerbread prims and some vintage glass ornaments.

I really love this tree. You probably can't tell but it's a little sparkly. Not sure if I'm going to leave it as is or dress it up.

I also picked up a few glass jars for mini snow globes. The glass candleholders are already holding candles under some rusty springs I picked up a few weeks ago.

I spent $7 on everything. Kind of sad the garage sale season is over but I'm sure I'll be busy decorating for Xmas over the next couple of weekends.

Jeanine

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I popped into our local Dollar store earlier this week. They had these adorable reindeer ornaments. I scooped up two and gave them a quick Xmas makeover.

You've probably seen similar reindeer on Pinterest. I know, I myself, pinned a few different glitter versions.

For mine, I snipped off the cord that you would hang them with. Then, I printed off the words wish and believe using my favorite carnival font from DaFont.com onto plain white paper.

I cut the words down so they'd fit around the reindeers' necks, and stuck them on using Glue Dots.

Not bad for $2!

Jeanine

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I never realized how late Thanksgiving was this year. Quite funny that our holiday decorations will be going up before turkey day. I don't think that's ever happened before. Anywho, I was tinkering with some skeleton keys over the weekend and decided to make some into Christmas ornaments.

I chose some festive ribbon to start. Then one by one, I started adding little embellishments to each one.

I hand-stamped the Joyeux Noel onto plain white paper and distressed it a bit. You can see some Scrabble tile "plaques" I also have in the works at the top of this photo.

For the other two keys, I used a random scrapbook paper number 3 that my Mom gave me a couple of weeks ago. The 25 is a wood piece from the calendar I picked up over the weekend from a local church fair. The December is also from that calendar stash.

I used Glue Dots to adhere each embellishment, so they can be pulled off down the road and the keys can be used for another project.

Jeanine

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I have to thank my sister Kathy for pinning this great technical drawing of a Lego onto Pinterest. My boys are both Lego fanatics and I knew they would love something like this for their rooms.

The one that was pinned, I believe was from Gilt.com and was $65. Ouch! My version cost about $4. I picked up the frame from our local church thrift store for $1. I spray painted it black and cleaned up the glass.

Over the weekend I picked up the frame mat from Michael's. It was $2.99 with 25 percent off. I printed off the image (found on the internet) onto cardstock and it fit beautifully.

This one is in the 8 year old's room. The 6 year old is anxiously awaiting his. Hoping to find another cheap frame Friday at the thrift store. Fingers crossed!

Jeanine

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One of our local churches - literally steps away from our house - had its annual country fair yesterday. I popped in and scored some great goodies!

I scooped up some vintage books, some ornate wine stoppers, a Santa ornament and a bag of vintage calendar pieces. And...

A Frenchy jug (originally held chocolate malted balls) and a vintage mini muffin cutter (I'm guessing that's what it is - see it with the wood handle?). And...

Some small picture frames. Hands down my favorite piece is...

This vintage juggling pin. I've already given it a makeover:

It was a bit mild here yesterday so I was able to paint it black and give it a white stripe.

I spent $6 on everything. Yes, you read that correctly!

Jeanine

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For some reason, I'm wild about reindeer this year. I've never used them in my holiday decorating before but there is so much cuteness out there that I can't resist.

I made this super easy reindeer print using a vintage image from The Graphics Fairy. I printed it onto some craft paper I picked up at Michael's for 29 cents. The frame is from the Dollar Store.

Using the same image, I made some tags for my Etsy shop. I printed them out onto a French script background and added some tea-stained seam binding.

Even more cuteness at H&M. I bought these festive pillow covers from their website. They were $9.95 each (but I had an online coupon code) and fit a 20x20 pillow - which I already have.

I have my eye on some faux antlers from Pottery Barn too. My husband just scratches his head because I used to be grossed out by his real deer antlers. Go figure!

Jeanine

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Although I'm definitely not ready for snow, found this little cutie in the $1 aisle at Target yesterday. They have some really adorable stuff this year. Check it out next time you're at Target!

Jeanine

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Away went the Halloween decorations and out came the Xmas decorations this weekend. No, just kidding! Although I did hear Xmas music on the radio already, which was perfect for my trio of upcycled Santas.

Well, the Santas themselves aren't quite upcycled. The pieces I used to make them are: a Pringles canister, an old Hershey's tin and a random tin we had floating around the house.

I really love how this guy turned out. First I printed out the image onto sheet music. Then I glued it around my Hershey's tin. Once that was dry, I added some pink, yes pink, tea-stained seam binding around the lid. I used some to tie a bow to add my rusty jingle bells. I like using non-traditional holiday colors these days. Red and green just don't seem to cut it for me anymore.

This tin is actually from a Spongebob card game my 6 year old. I was shocked when he said I could have it. Before he changed his mind, I quickly gave it a few coats of white spray paint to start. I glued in some vintage book paper. The Santa and reindeer are from The Graphics Fairy. Not sure if you can see, but I finished it up with German glass glitter in random spots and lace around the edges.

And here we have my second ever Pringles makeover. The first one I did had a Frenchy touch. This one includes another great Santa image from The Graphics Fairy. I covered the canister with sheet music and then added my Santa image. This one has blue and white tea-stained seam binding.

And Xmas spelled out with Scrabble letters. The letters are actually glued onto the seam binding. I'm shocked they're staying on so well! I finished this one up with some German glass glitter as well. I can't wait to put these guys out later this month.

Linking to The Graphics Fairy: Brag Monday and Between Naps on the Porch: Met Monday.

Jeanine

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Hope everyone survived the madness of Halloween. If I never see another piece of candy again, I would be quite happy! I'm still getting over a nasty sinus infection so I didn't have much time to craft this week. I did, however, finish up this wood tray that I started painting last week.

I had picked up the tray at our local church thrift store. It was an ugly brown so first thing was to give it a few coats of white spray paint. Then I was stuck. I wanted to keep it simple and wasn't in the mood to Mod Podge.

With the French stencil I received from Etsy last week, the seller included a little Fleur de Lis stencil. Voila! Problem solved. I broke out a Sharpie, yes a Sharpie, and stenciled it on the middle part of the tray.

I sanded parts of the tray and a bit of the Fleur de Lis to give it a more aged look. I'm loving it's clean, simple look and am looking forward to using it during the holidays.

Jeanine