I'm a wife, stay-at-home mom, crafter, and blogger living in rural New England. As seen in Martha Stewart Living, Food Network Magazine, and more! | Tutorials, DIY, crafts, parenting tips, recipes, money saving tips, product reviews, local product features, New England living, intentional living, and more! |
Maybe I'm cheap, but it always hurts buying Christmas wreaths every year. It's so easy to drop $40-50 just to buy two wreaths for the front and back doors, only to throw them out not long after New Year's. Starting last year I got tired of throwing that money away and decided to make my own super-simple swag for our doors.
We're lucky enough to have a lot of hemlock trees behind our house, so I took some clippers and headed out to trim back some branches that needed to be cut anyways. Our dog followed me out to "help" - and by help I mean run around with a branch I cut. If you don't have suitable trees in your yard you may be able to get away with using the trimmings off your Christmas tree or you can buy bundles of hemlock or fir tree at the grocery or craft store for pretty cheap.
I made some smaller cuttings and started fanning them out, making a rough diamond shape.
Once it was getting close to what I wanted, I used some hand clippers to trim long pieces back into shape. If you have holly or other greenery you want to add, now would be when to do it.
Once I was pretty happy with it, I used some craft wire to bundle it together. You want to make it pretty tight so none of your branches slide out over time as you open and close the door. Use some extra wire to make a loop at the back for hanging.
Now add your bow. I had our bows made at the local garden center a few years ago. They had spools and spools of different fabric ribbon available, I picked the pattern I wanted and they made me up a couple of matching bows. I think they cost me $7 each, but I reuse them every year so it was definitely worth it! These bows have some wire in the back to attach it to the swag. After you add the bow, do any final trimming of the greenery.
This finished swag cost me nothing this year since I already had all the materials, and that's just fine by me ;)
To celebrate Plaid Friday and Small Business Saturday we're offering 20% off everything in the shop today and tomorrow!
Quantities are very limited at this time as my priority is getting all my current orders out ASAP but I am hoping to add some new ornaments by tomorrow. So shop early and shop often!
Since a little picture of our Hand-Etched Maple Snowflake Ornaments was featured as the Instagram Favorite in this month's Martha Stewart Living, we've definitely been getting a lot of love! I can't thank you all enough for the attention and orders you've given my little Etsy shop - thank you, thank you, thank you!
Since then I've been a busy little bee working on all these awesome orders. We had a little setback at first as the maples I cut took an eternity to dry for some reason - very frustrating when orders are piling up and you feel like you're just sitting there watching paint dry! Thankfully we seem to be past that and our orders are getting turned around well within their estimated ship time.
After the Christmas rush is done I have ideas for more wood products for the shop, including iPhone stands, wooden buttons, and wedding decorations - my favorite! Can't wait to bring in lots more products in the New Year!
Honored, thrilled, and amazed to be able to say that a photo of our hand-etched maple snowflakes is featured in the December issue of Martha Stewart Living Magazine! You can find us right on page 8.
To celebrate, I'm offering 20% off everything in my Etsy shop through Nov. 24th, just use the coupon code MARTHA at checkout. Please visit our shop and help us celebrate!
Coupon code expires 11/24/14.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll just be over here framing this magazine..
Have you stopped in the Etsy shop to see what's new yet? I've added some more jewelry, a nursery print, and more options for our super-popular Hand-Etched Maple Snowflake Ornament.
Our set of three ornaments is doing really well and I've been busy thinking of more ideas for ornaments for you all!
Today I've put a few more items up in my Etsy shop and will be adding some more. Please check them out and let me know what you think! I've also added a coupon code to get 10% off orders over $25, just use this code: 10PERCENTOFF25
A few weeks ago my mom picked up this Longaberger silverware caddy for me from a yard sale for $1. I couldn't find the exact item on their website, but a different style of silverware caddy is listed on there for $65. Gotta love yard sales.
I didn't really see myself using it as a silverware caddy though so I decided to ditch the fabric insert and use it as an art caddy on my little craft desk and I absolutely love it. It's great for corralling brushes, markers, pens, and scissors - not to mention it looks really nice against the yellow walls. I have to say, I'm pretty happy with this re-purpose!
File this one under "things I wish I started sooner..."
So our little one is almost 11 months old, and though I'd seen the Pampers Rewards numbers on her packages of diapers and wipes I never bothered to look into it ("Ain't nobody got time for that!").
But the other week my sister-in-law was saying how she's been doing Pampers Rewards for awhile now and has been getting rewarded with photobooks and toys for free... that got my attention. So I checked it out and signed up, it's pretty straightforward - make an account and enter the codes printed on packages of diapers and wipes. Once you have some points you can redeem them for all sorts of things - everything from contributions to charity, to free credits at Shutterfly, to free toys. And to make it easier there's even an app where you can enter codes on the fly from your phone (though I wish you could just scan the code instead of entering it.. now that would be easy!). Consistency pays off too - if you enter codes every month without skipping a beat you get rewarded every three months with little gifts.
Now if only I had started this when she was first born, then I'd be able to order all our Christmas cards for free!
Tip: Make sure to like Pampers on Facebook too - they periodically post free codes to help you boost your points!
UPDATE (May, 2015): Pampers updated their app so now you can scan codes with the camera on your phone rather than typing them in (hooray!). As of right now this feature is a little glitchy, but hopefully they'll work out these bugs soon.
Want to see what we've gotten from Pampers Rewards? Check out my other posts:
