The Snow and Crystal Tree and Tendril Snowflakes

20 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in allsparkledup, Christmas, crafts, DIY, home decor, projects, sparkling

Tags

Christmas, Christmas decorating, DIY, home decor, nature crafts, snowflakes, tree, tutorial

I put away all the Christmas decorations except for one – the Snow and Crystal Tree. The corner will be too empty if I put it away and I love the wintery look of it. The snowflakes remind me of scribbles. Scribble Snowflakes!

Snow and Crystal Tree, with vintage chandelier crystals and snowflakes made from dried vine tendrils.

The tree is a dried branch cut from a tree in the woods behind our house. I stuck it firmly into Styrofoam in an urn and laid moss around the base.
The crystals are from the old chandelier that used to hang in my parents’ dining room when I was a child. I loved that chandelier so I’m thrilled to have some of the crystals from it.
The snowflakes are made of natural tendrils and curls that I collected from the vines in the backyard in the fall. My granddaughter helped me look for the curly tendrils and we really enjoyed our time together outdoors.

Dried vine snowflakes, little 1″ glass ball ornaments and vintage chandelier crystals.

To make the snowflakes, I broke off the dry twigs and slid the curly tendrils off. Here is a photo I posted on instagram of the twig bits with the tendrils removed.

The tendrils were gently twisted and pulled off the broken twigs.

Each snowflake needed six similar pieces so I grouped the tendrils by size.

Once I had six similar tendrils, I trimmed the ends so they were the same length.

For each snowflake, I made a contoured mat out of foil for gluing. A small bead was glued temporarily on the back of the foil so it would create a small mound on the right side.

The foil is gently pressed down around the bead to create a little mound.

On the right side of the foil, on top of the tiny mound, I glued a small bead for the center of the snowflake. All the tendrils will then be glued to this bead using hot glue.

The tendrils were arranged around the center bead in a pleasing manner.

The two straightest tendrils were glued on first, opposite each other, to create the line of symmetry.

The other tendrils were glued on the sides and the hot glue was allowed to harden.

To remove the delicate snowflake, the foil was folded and pinched together under the snowflake. Then the snowflake was gently popped off the foil. One of the snowflakes stuck too much so I used tweezers to pull the foil off and reglue the tendrils that had loosened.

The snowflakes were hung with thin hooks I made from jewelry wire.

The vintage crystals look lovely on the tree.

Vintage hand-cut crystals adorn the tree.

At the base of the urn is a gilded tea cup filled with little glass ball ornaments.

The beautiful earthy and neutral color ornaments were from Terrain. The tea cup is from Anthropologie.

Snow and Crystal Tree, with vintage chandelier crystals, glass balls in neutral shades and snowflakes made from dried vine tendrils.

The little fox ornament I got several years ago finally found a home… at the base of the Snow and Crystal tree.

A furry, little red fox ornament sits at the base of the Snow and Crystal Tree.

I don’t know what to put in the corner when this tree comes down.. probably a lamp. But then again, perhaps I’ll make a Snowy Valentine tree…

Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary

13 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in allsparkledup, Christmas, crafts, DIY, home decor, New Years, On my Worktable, projects, tutorial

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bottle brush tree, Christmas, Christmas decoration, crafts, home decor, pearls

I’ve made a decision!

Last year I was committed to posting timely topics on my blog. Well that didn’t happen! sigh. I don’t know how other bloggers do it all. They must decorate for Christmas months before December, the same way magazines work on their seasonal material many months before the issue hits the press.

Though I really tried last year, if I couldn’t finish a post during the season, I ended up never posting at all. That is going to change. This year, I am posting anything I want, any time I want. I have quite a bit of material to post! I know that breaks blogger rules, the rule that says readers won’t be interested in seeing Christmas crafts in August. But life is too short and much too busy so I hope you all forgive me for diving right in to this new year.

You will be getting more posts from me but it’s fairly certain they won’t be all calendar-tidy. Nope. Not at all. I can sorta-kinda-maybe get some posts matched with seasons but I won’t stress about missing. And I’ll do my best to not apologize when I post Christmas in May and Valentines in September. Because… it’s highly likely I will actually be working on Christmas projects in May and making Valentines in September!

So here’s a project I just finished yesterday, January 12, 2016. It’s a Christmas decoration. Happy New Year to you!

Pearl Bottle Brush Tree Topiary, made by cutting bristles out of a bottle brush tree and gluing on pearls.

The photos are a bit off in tone because I started this Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary Tree before Thanksgiving 2015 and photographed the steps under various lighting conditions as I did them, weeks apart. That’s how I get so much done. Projects are broken down into phases, kept in bins and boxes like a kit, ready for me to work on here and there.

For the bottle brush topiary, I picked a nice bottle brush tree to work with. The brush had to be full and evenly distributed all the way around and the bristles had to be tight. I found these 9″ trees at Michaels.

The first step was establishing the spiral by sticking masking tape around the tree. I started at the base and wound it around the tree all the way to the top.

The masking tape is wound around the tree, starting at the bottom and spiraling around the tree to the top. The tape will mark all the places that the bristles will NOT be cut.

I first started cutting out the bristles right in the center of the taped areas as shown here. The first cutting was in the center between the tape, all the way from the base to the top of the tree.

Here you can see what the tree looks like after the first cutting.

To make the second cutting, I cut at an angle from the tape in to meet the deep first cut in the center of the tree.

Cutting at an angle from the tape to the center. The tree was turned upside down to make cuts under the spiral as you can see here.

After the second cutting.

I continued cutting away bristles until there was a nice, neat spiral shape, all between the tape-covered bristles.

The cutting is all finished here.

The masking tape is gently pulled away.

I was so happy with how easy it was to make the spiral shape!

Here is the cut tree next to an identically-taped bottle brush tree. The tape makes it easy to cut an even spiral.

The last step was gluing on the pearly glass and plastic beads. I watched Downton Abbey while doing this and it was a pleasant task. Oh so elegant! I used Fast Grab Tacky Glue and tweezers to place each pearl. No other glue would have been as easy to use because I needed a glue that grabbed fast and didn’t drip. I used two kinds of large pearl beads and a couple different kinds of smaller pearls and pearly beads.

Pearls are glued to the tips of bristles on this Bottle Brush Topiary Tree.

I’m looking forward to displaying this pretty tree next Christmas, tucked amongst the plants in the corner of the dining room.

Pearl Bottle Brush Topiary Tree

By the way, did you see the beautiful red Poinsettia peeking over in the first photo? When I lifted the poinsettia plant out of the van in early December, three branches broke off. So I stuck them in a glass of water. They are still beautiful, over a month later. =)

Angel Curtain Treatment

12 Friday Dec 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, Christmas, DIY, holiday, home decor, lighting, sunlight, tutorial, Uncategorized

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angel, Angel Window Treatment, Christmas, Christmas window, curtain treatment, curtains, DIY, home decor, tutorial, window treatment

All I wanted was a little more light in the dining room so I gathered up the curtain in one hand and pulled it up and discovered … an Angel Curtain Treatment!

Angel Curtain Treatment

[Please excuse my unwashed window. We’ve pared back on a lot of things since my surgery. ;) ]

Normally, the sheer curtain just hangs over a tension rod stuck in the window frame. I don’t hang the curtain full length as normal, using the rod through the curtain sleeve, but rather just drape the floor-length panel over the tension rod so the pretty embroidered bottom edge hangs about halfway up the window as seen in this fall photo.
I also like the double thickness of the sheer when I hang the curtain like that.

To make the angel curtain treatment, all you need are two S hooks with lengths of ribbon tied on and whatever decoration you want to use for the top of the “angel head.” That’s it! One end of the ribbon is shorter than the other when tied, as you can see here.

I made two S hooks from an old hanger, making sure they would fit over the tension curtain rod. I like using the inner stiffening layer from men’s ties as ribbon. (You can see what else I used the tie pieces for here.) In this tutorial, I will call the wool tie interlining pieces “ribbons” for clarity.

The curtain is very light and airy and you can see how long it is here. I’m not sure this treatment would work as easily with a heavier curtain. Also, the top of the curtain will actually be the bottom of the angel’s dress. So the back of the curtain’s hemmed sleeve must look good.

To begin making the angel, the S hooks with ribbons were hung near the center of the rod.

The two shorter ends of the ribbons were tied loosely across the middle, wrapped several times to make the ends hang at the sides of the “angel head.” I didn’t have to tie any knots because the rough tie fabric held position easily when wrapped around several times. But if your ribbon is slick, like satin, you will have to pin it together to make it stay.

Here I’m lightly gathering the curtain in one hand, a little above the embroidered edge. I adjusted the curtain length over the rod and made sure the embroidered edge was arranged with pretty folds as I gathered it together.

Once the curtain was gathered together in my hand, I raised it up.

Again, I adjusted the folds to adjust the bottom of the curtain.

Once the curtain was held up, I looped the long left ribbon under and around the bundle of gathered curtain.

The two long long lengths of ribbon tie were tied together under the gathered bundle.

I fine tuned the embroidered curtain edge, pulling it down a bit to make it longer.

Here you can see the curtain sleeve from the top of the curtain now hanging at the bottom of the angel’s dress.

To finish the angel, I simply tucked a small halo of gold star holiday wire and a Christmas package decoration on top of the ribbon tie.

The finished Angel Curtain Treatment

An angel spreads her wings of sheer batiste. She disappears at night when I let the curtain down and the window sill lights shimmer through like stars.

To make this window treatment took less than 5 minutes. Seriously, it took longer to rummage through my old ribbon box to find the package decoration! To take it down, simply untie the ribbon from behind the curtain and remove the S hooks. Super simple.

And Thank You, Brenda, for your husband’s ties. This project finished up the linings I had from the first batch of ties. Your bag of ties will be plenty for new projects!

Table centerpiece using four mugs and a vintage cake pedestal

03 Wednesday Sep 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in flowers, home decor, party, tea time

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centerpiece, dessert tea, floral arrangement, flowers, Inc, mugs, pedestal, Rosanna, table, table setting, tablescape

That was a long subject. Ha! I had a dessert tea a couple months ago and this was the centerpiece. I used four beautiful mugs from Rosanna, Inc and placed them on a vintage dessert pedestal that was my mom’s. It was so easy to arrange the flowers in the mugs! I’ll be doing this again. After the event, I put away the pedestal but kept the flowers on the table a while. They were so pretty with the elegant gold china designs.

Rosanna’s Luxe Moderne Mugs make the perfect “vase” for the flower arrangement.

Shelle Hill’s bird

16 Monday Jun 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in art, community, crafts, Etsy, home decor

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bird, crafts, decor, Etsy, home decorating, little bird, Shelle Hill

The eggs got put away and I had a little nest with no bird. Then I saw my friend Michelle’s sweet little birdie, all bedecked with a beaded crown. I can almost hear bird song from the tree now!

An adorable little bird from Shelle Hill on Etsy.

The bird was going to perch on one of the library shelves in a different room. So I will have to visit Shelle Hill on Etsy again and get another bird for the library. A bird with words is the perfect bookshelf visitor.

Thank you, Michelle.

Spring in the window

15 Thursday May 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, crafts, Easter, home decor

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Easter, egg tree, miniature hanging plants

The tiny crystal beads on the egg tree catch light in the new window.

I’ve decided to keep the egg tree with little hanging plants in the window a bit longer. This is the first spring with the new window and I enjoy the sunshine streaming through the crystal beads on the tiny plants.

On my worktable – artificial flowers

21 Friday Mar 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, crafts, family, flowers, home, home decor, Inspirational, On my Worktable, Uncategorized

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artificial flowers, crafts, family, flower arranging, flowers, home decor, On my worktable, spring arrangements

Today my worktable was full of flowers for the spring arrangements. The bins have been in the living room for over a week but I finally had time today. It’s always a pleasure to arrange the flowers, even though they are the same ones I’ve used for years. At the end of a season, I pull all the flowers out of the vases and sort them by color in bins, then they go to the attic. It’s good to start fresh each year so I mix and match the flowers to suit the season and mood.

The arrangement for the foyer. I’ll probably add a little more at the base. It looks a bit too tight but I’m crazy over the color.

The bare brances were in the corner through winter, strung with lights and crystal snowflakes just to add brightness to the room.

The same bare branches now share the space with artificial dogwood and greens. The lights were taken off the branches and placed in the vase for ambience.

I love the new arrangements! They make me happy. =)

Not in the photos: son’s twin size mattress on the floor in the living room because we have to tear out the downstairs bathroom and completely redo it due to a major leak.
Not in the photos: the flat screen tv right in front of the large dogwood arrangement in the corner.
Not in the photos: tears shed because another one of our children moved out last week and we’re all missing him and wishing him well and cheering for him in his new job in another state.

Two of my sons. Noah on the left moved south last weekend. We miss him! Very glad for the job opportunity though.

We all have a choice on what to focus on. I choose to focus on what’s good and bright and beautiful and sparkling in life. You can have brightness if you choose. Sometimes it takes a lot of work, like clearing a garden of weeds. You have to yank out bad thoughts and deliberately hack at unwanted vines. But it’s possible and totally worth it.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. Ph 4:8

The arrangement for the living room table. The velvet-petal roses are showing their age but they are still beautiful.

Bowl Roses

19 Wednesday Feb 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in flowers, home decor

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bowl roses, cut flowers, flowers, gardening, roses

That is what the roses become when they wilt too much for a bouquet.
This rose is too far gone to revive.

The rose is wilting.

All the roses in this photo are from the same bouquet. The wilted roses in the vase on the right are the original length.
The roses on the left had the stems trimmed once and fresh water. The roses in the bowl were cut off the stems right under the calyx just as they started to bend over but before they wilted. Overnight in the bowl of water, they perked up. Amazing how all these roses were from the same bouquet.

All the roses are from the same bouquet but they received different treatment.

This photo was taken several years ago.

The roses are cut just under the calyx and placed in water in a bowl. The bottom of the short stem touches the bottom of the bowl and the roses are resting in the water.

Here are my Valentine roses from this year. They were grocery store roses and weren’t fresh to begin with. But yesterday they started to droop so I cut them short and placed them in water. Today several have revived and I removed the brown outer petals from the roses that never opened.

The brown petals were plucked from the roses and they were placed in a bowl full of water. They still look lovely days later.

Bowl Roses. They still look nice days later.

These roses are exquisite, shaded in delicate shell and baby pink. I was surprised he remembered my favorite colors! So sweet. The Bowl Roses look beautiful on the work table.

The dining room forest

11 Saturday Jan 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in Christmas, home decor

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bottle brush trees, Christmas decor, Christmas decorations, Christmas trees, the dining room table

After they graced the tops of cabinets, and before they got put in a large box in the attic, the tall alpine trees became a forest on the dining room table.

I usually do a better job on the lights but I’m a little shaky standing on a chair this year. Even so, the trees looked lovely against the new cream colored walls.

I adore trees, real and not real. If I didn’t need this table so much, I wouldn’t mind leaving the trees there all year. I know my granddaughter would have loved playing with little dolls in the forest. Next year, I will get the trees out a week before we decorate, just so the dolls can play hide & seek in the dining room forest.

Repurposed Men’s Tie Wool Interlining Rose Wreath

14 Saturday Dec 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in Christmas, crafts, fabric, home decor, Uncategorized, wreath

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Christmas, crafts, home decor, men's ties, recycled men's ties, wreath

That’s quite the wordy title for it! But that’s exactly what the flowers and hanging ribbons are made of – the rough wool interlinings of men’s ties. The hanging pieces are just as they were when I pulled them out of the re-purposed ties, complete with pointy ends, some crumpled and narrower.

The flowers are made using the wool interlinings of men’s ties.

It needs a couple more roses, “sushi buds” and pearl branches though which I hope to get made next week. I might forget to take another photo of the wreath so that’s why I’m posting this now. The pearl sprays were from Gilded Life monthly Stash Society boxes. If I have time, I’m going to make more of the pearl branches. They really make a big difference in the wreath.

I have officially changed the name of the ruffle buds to Sushi Buds because my guys say they look like sushi. Sweet. I’m hoping to have time to make a tutorial of the sushi buds. They are fun to make but do take some dexterity.

This big wreath is displayed on the living room wall every Christmas but it always had large, red velvet poinsettias. I love the new look of the soft creamy wool. I’ve wanted ivory flowers on this wreath for a long time but never had the budget for new flowers when I pulled it out of the attic each December. How peachy to come up with the perfect color flowers for free!

Well, there was a cost – I ransacked the guys’ stash of ties. Ha! They were very generous to give up so many they were no longer using. One tie makes one rose or two sushi buds. So that’s a lot of ties. These could be made using wool fabric but it’s important to cut a tie shape on diagonal grain. The tapered tie shape allows for larger petals as the rose is formed and the diagonal cut creates the perfect fuzzy fringe edge. So the wool interlinings from men’s ties worked perfect!