Homemade "flameless" candles - August Decor

Back in February, I really needed some pink or red candles for my fireplace mantle Valentine's day decor. However, I was too cheap to buy any and have a hard time spending $7-15 per candle each month I redecorate. Well, I was just running through my Fall items trying to decide what I'm going to use to fancy the place up this Fall and got an idea... Flame-less candles out of 12x12 scrapbook paper!

All I did was spend $1.24 on 4 pieces of scrapbook paper that looked like birch/rustic wood. I then wrapped it around the only real candle I own and marked the height and unrolled the paper. Then, I folded the paper in half where I'd made the mark and put a tight crease across the paper. Starting at the top of the smaller half of paper, I began cutting small triangles at the top-kind of like teeth. I took the paper and wrapped it back around the candle and glued it into a cylinder shape. Where the crease was with the triangles, I alternated folding them down and taped it down to give my candle a top. I need to run out and buy twine so I can run a small piece through the top to create the illusion of a wick.

Ta da!!! The look of candles for any occasion without the cost or fire hazard. Not to mention, these babies won't melt when I store them away!  Here they are displayed with my back to school August mantle decorations.

summer fun

And that bring me up to date and most of the mini projects I've been up to.  Of course, I change my mantels every month and that drives J nuts too.  Whatever.. it's pretty!  Here is my summer theme.

I whipped this little beauty up with some leftover pallet wood.  I'm out of mini starfish but there will be a 3x3 square after a quick trip to the store.  I like it because it doubles for Independence day kinda sorta.

I was bored today and hot.  I was looking for something fun to do out of my big pile of scraps and this is what I came up with out of junk I already had.  Good enough for now I think... we have been traveling all summer and I haven't had the motivation to decorate the house as much.  It broke my heart today when I was at the craft store and all the fall decor was set out.  Isn't it too soon yet?  I mean, it's just now summer and I am not excited about my favorite season at all yet!

sitting room and master bath

After the doors, I figured it was about time to get on the sitting room off my bedroom.  After all the painting we did last year, I had left this room and my bedroom untouched.  I couldn't lift another paintbrush to save my life!  But... I did it.  It took me two days of painting nonstop to do the trip and all the walls.  I just finished this room so I'm not sure what kind of theme I'm going to with here.  I just know it looks one million and ten times better than it did before.  It's one of my new favorite rooms because of the brightness, the breeze through the double windows and the balcony.  I have a swatch of fabric draped over my chair there.  I can't decide for sure if that's what I want to use to reupholster the chair or not.  You will have to check back to see what I do with this room!

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Our master bathroom is right off teh sitting room and our bedroom.  Months ago I took one of the many shade of gray I had samples of and decided to paint the cabinets on a whim.  Again, I did this while J was at work so he had no say in my mini makeover.  We also replaced the mirrors and changed the wall color to a nice neutral beige.  All paint colors are listed on my home page.

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switcheroo

The other project we tackled was removing the bathroom door from the family room and putting it in the guest room.  I still have no idea how I want to decorate the family room.  It's quite boring right now... sigh.

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I see a red door and I wanted it painted black!

I know I haven't posted anything in a very very very long time.  I do have a very very very good excuse though!  My excuse is that I have been spending time with my family and making decisions on what projects I want to tackle next on the house.  The things we have done are not major projects, but alas, here they are:

I got bitten by the black door bug.  I started when I realized how dirty the exterior garage door was.  I had to do something about it so naturally, I painted it the same color as I had the exterior doors; a dark blackish blue color called Cracked Pepper by Behr.

After I did that, I started noticing how ALL the exterior doors had finger prints on them and I wanted to break up all the white we had going on.  (My husband hates that I am constantly changing my mind FYI!)  I went and bought more black paint in a different shade of black for the doors and before J could stop me, the doors had paint all over them!  He did end up liking what I'd done though... he always does!

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Garage door (interior)

Front door

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Spring Teaser

I just posted Valentine's stuff but I've already cleared all that and pulled out my Spring and Easter decor.  Wishful thinking I guess....

Late Valentine's Day

I know my Valentine's Day posting are super late and no help to anyone looking to decorate now.  Hopefully this inspires you to do something for next year's special day of love!

I have been saving all my jars from cooking to come up with this sweet design.  I was actually playing around with some stuff for an up coming wedding but decided to use this as part of my Spring decor this year.

This maybe took me a whole hour to do.  I just cut a few triangles out of left over linen and  stamped three different color hearts on each triangle with a paint brush and acrylic paint.  I simply hot glued the triangles to yarn and hung this from my mantel.

I had some left over curtain fabric from the pillows I made at Christmas.  I traced a giant heart, sewed red fabric underneath in the heart shape and cut the tan fabric out just inside the stitching to reveal the hearts.  Easy Peasy Slipcovers!

Now this guy took me forever!!!  Although this project was simple, making all the crepe paper roses and burning myself on hot glue was hardly worth the effort!  I planned on making two more smaller ones but opted out and I'll save that for next year.  Instead of purchasing Styrofoam balls, I just rolled up newspaper and taped it in a ball shape with making tape to save money.  This cost me $140 minus 40% with a coupon from Hobby Lobby.

A close up of my quickly strewn together Vday decor

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I printed this Q out on some vintage sheet music I had.  DO you have any idea how hard it is to find anything with a Q on it???

For this beauty, I just collected a bunch of Q monograms from the internet and  pasted them all on a word document.  I put a sheet from an old book in the printer and TA-DA... art!!

I glued a Q I painted with black paint on an old frame I lined with  burlap

My mantel

I pulled an old swimming noodle out of the trash and bound torn strips of linen around the noodle.  My kids have three bow and arrow sets that drive me nuts so I stole an arrow for this project.  That's one less arrow I'm getting shot with...

My formal mantel