How To Make Snowball Christmas Ornaments

I am a big fan of using what you have and tweaking it to come up with the look you are going for.

As I was going through the Christmas boxes I found this old silvery white garland.

I bought it years and years ago and was only a fan the one season.

I had these round styrofoam balls that were a failed project for Leo’s birthday party.

I used my glue gun and glued a tack with ribbon attached to it into the top of the styrofoam ball.

Glued the garland all the way around the ball and snipping when I had adequate coverage.

Two garlands made eight snowball ornaments.

Right now they are on my mantle as it is partially decorated.

We plan on getting a small table top tree tomorrow since we have Leo toddling around destroying everything and will be out of town on Christmas anyway.

They may end up on the little tree or may stay on the mantle.

DIYing your own Christmas Ornaments is easy! Use what you have people.

This project was free or me because I had everything on hand.

“Free is in my budget!” – Mimi

Sneak peek of the mantle.

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DIY – Wood Growth Chart

I have been seeing wood growth charts all over Etsy.

My mom and sister offered to purchase one for my Christmas present.

I had gotten down to either this one

(Source)

Or this one

(Source)

Prices were $50-$70.

Then I was all dude hold the phone! It will cost me about $10 to make one of these.

I attempted to do this on the real cheap by picking up some free stain. Our local hazardous drop off location has a little “store” where you can collect paint, stain, primer etc. for free. As you know free is in my budget!

The only stain they had that I liked was an antique walnut color with poly built in.

This was my first time working with stain and I figured that poly built in would be awesome.

As it turns out built in poly was akin to shampoo/conditioner in one.

Gross, right?!

The result using the antique walnut was a little orange for me, back to square one. I ran to home depot and scooped up some miniwax jacobean stain sans the built in poly.

Here was the result:

The one on the right photographed way better than it looks in person. The one on the left I beat the hell out of with a hammer and some screws.

I love the finish and plan on using it, when I eventually get around to making Joey and I a bed.

I also used a wider board the second time around and am loving how it looks so much more substantial.

I put two coats of stain and it ended up too dark to use black for the lines and numbers.

Silver leaf pen to the rescue!

Here is the finished product:

We are off to one of Leo’s friends first birthday party and are bringing this as a gift.

I plan on making at least two more; one for me and one for a friend.

Will post when I do.

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Using wood stain is awesome!

In my makeshift workshop and I am SO happy!

Projects are coming along swimmingly!

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Garage Sale Find – Toy Shelf

We had originally been using a rolling beverage cart (garage sale find) as toy storage in Leo’s nursery.

I didn’t like the amount of floor space it was taking up in addition to it being the wrong color.

I didn’t want to paint it because I love the original color.

It had to be replaced.

Goals for new toy storage:

– Small footprint
– Easy accessibility
– Large capacity
– Fit the style of his room

A couple of weeks ago my mom, Leo and I were heading home from shopping and saw a yard sale.

I spotted this bad boy and hurriedly sent this picture to Joey.

Score at $20 (Thanks Gigi!) seeing as I found this one on EBay for $95.

AND it fits all four of my goals!

Woot woot!

A can of spray paint and it now matches the rest of the furniture.

I want to spray paint the red buckets and make them orange to fit in with the color scheme. Joey has given that idea the thumbs down but I’m still considering it.

Did not “style” the shelf as Leo is a destroyer and toys are cute without assistance.

I love a quick and easy project!

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