25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Series: Day 2

A Pot For The Poinsettia: Making A Nice Gift Special

Are you like me?  I never go to a holiday party empty handed.  Nope never.  I always like to take something...like a poinsettia. 

Poinsettias are nice hostess gifts...but are they special?  They can be, if you raise your game. Yep...Raise Your Game People!!! It's the holidays for gosh darn sakes!!  For very little money, you can turn your poinsettia gift from nice to special.  Here's how...

Take that darn, boring, and quite frankly tacky shiny thing off the bottom and replace it with a size appropriate clay pot!!  The ones I buy at Lowes are only about 4 bucks, and boy what an impact they can make.  You can keep it very simple and just put a big, gorgeous festive bow around the clay pot.  That alone is an improvement and the hostess will have a nice pot to use later.  But, If you have a little more time and the particular hostess is important to you, why not take it to the next level and decorate the pot?

The sky is the limit.  You can paint, decoupage paper or fabric, attach all sorts of embellishments onto the surface.  Here are a few things that I tried out....

Using hot glue, I attached a few 'chicklet' tiles in a funky Christmas Tree pattern. 

I got these tiles (discontinued) for free thanks to my friend Leigh, who is an interior designer!!  Thanks Leigh! 

I then took jute and randomly worked it around each tile. 

The addition of the jute gave the pot a rustic feel so I decided to trim the upper rim with burlap.  I cut out a piece that was twice the width of the rim, so I could fold it over.  Just eyeballing it, I could tell one strip would be too chintzy.  I gave the burlap a quick press and used a thin bead of hot glue to 'sew' the ends together. 



I attached this burlap strip to the rim of the pot with hot glue, making sure to neatly join and fold over the long end of the strip on the back of the pot. 

The tree needed a star, so washer did the trick for me and stood in for the tree topper. 



Here are the results.


It was time for a little something silver. Silver is captivating every magazine cover this season!

I started by spraying the pot with Valspar Brilliant Metal Silver spray paint.  I gathered up a few silvery pics, snowflakes, jingle bells and such that I have picked up at stores like AC Moore, The Dollar Tree and Joanns fabrics.


I started with a few glittery leaves ...

I then worked in a silver glitter snowflake and a jingle bell, finishing it off the motif with a wired ribbon bow.   Here is the finished product...

My camera doesn't pick up the super sparkles of this pot.   It really glistens. Almost blinding!

On the next pot, I decided to use a crocheted vintage Christmas doily that I picked up at an estate-style yard sale this past summer. Don't forget to use some of those special little treasures on these pots if you think the hostess would appreciate their significance.  I then chose a traditional poinsettia fabric for the rim.  While I was eyeballing the two together, I decided that I wanted to paint the pot, although it could have been left alone.

Out came the Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Old White.  I covered the pot with two coats.  While the paint was drying, I worked on the fabric accent on the rim.  I ripped a 3 1/2 inch strip of fabric, folded the edges with the wrong sides out and ran a seam of stitches 1/4 inches from the edge.  (Yes, I know...it's a sewing machine and many of you cringe at the mention.  If you don't want to use a machine, just rip the strips to fit.  I just wanted a more polished look.)


I lightly sanded the pot, allowing a little bit of the clay pot to show through.  Turning the poinsettia fabric tube right side out and giving it a quick press, I hot glued it seam side down on the pot rim.  I then hot glued the doily onto the front of the pot.  Here are the results...

This is a sweet little pot just as it stands.  However, you could ( and I might) add a few embellishments on the doily, like buttons and such just to give it a more finished look. 

I have a few more pots to make, but I simple ran out of time in the day to complete them. That's what happens when you have teenagers with afternoon activities! 

I have one that I will be covering with fabric scraps using Mod Podge and another with strips of decorative papers.  It is endless how to work this project.  I know many of my readers love the look of decor using house numbers.  I think that would look great too! 




I am hoping this gives you some inspiration to take in your own direction.  I mean, come on!!  If your going to give the gift of a poinsettia...why not up your game?!!  Make it special...make it a real gift.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for my

Day 3

of

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Ideas and Gifts Series!! 

-The End-
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25 Days Of Christmas and Holiday Series: Day 1

Welcome to the FIRST day of The Homeless Finch celebration of the season

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Simple Crafts And Tips! 

Mini Wreaths

Today, we are talking Mini Wreaths that can be used as ornaments, embellishments, gifts or simply hung somewhere sweet.  The base of the wreaths are made using a simple 3 or 4 inch curtain ring.  I happen to have an unused bag of these leftover from a project from years ago.  You could also use shower curtain rings.  I have even seen it done with small round cross stitch framing rings.  I decorated them 5 different ways to show you that this project can be adjusted for whatever holiday look you prefer. 

Your basic supply list includes the rings, hot glue gun, scissors, wire, assorted beads and pearls, jingle bells, holiday greens, shells and stones, ribbons, fabric scraps, jute, raffia and buttons.  You customize it.  After looking at the examples, you might want to add craft or spray paint to your supplies.

Here is the first one.

Leaving a couple of inches at each end for the bow, I took three strands of raffia and wrapped the ring in a counterclockwise direction.  I then tied off the end together at the top and formed a bow.  I was looking for a beachy holiday feel, so I dug through my bowls of sea shells.  Some of the shells I have collected and some are store bought.  The three I used on this wreath were store bought.  I simply hot glued three onto the top just under the bow.  I then added a few clear beads on a silver wire to the top, using the extra wire at the loop holder.

 I was done at this point and you could be too.  But then I decided to add a few Scrabble letters with a little message.  Here is the finished product. 

Next, I set my sights on something a little more elegant.  I am seeing a ton of SILVER being used this year.  Instead of wrapping the ring, I decided to give it a base color with silver spray paint.

I took some silvery pearls that I picked up at AC Moore on sale and hot glue them to the base, placing the pearls down in a clock pattern.  I then took semi-sheer, wired silver ribbon and wrapped between each bead.  I folded the edges of the ribbon as I went so that the ribbon 'puffed' up between the beads creating a nice sense of movement.

I then simply tied off the ends of the ribbon into a bow at the top. Done. Simple. Elegant.  Make sure you use good quality pearl beads.  It matters.  Here are the results.

Next, I set out to stick with a more traditional Christmas theme using fabric strips.  I searched through my stash of old fabrics.  I keep even the most cut up pieces for this reason.  I then started ripping strips from the fabric for the wrap.  If you have never ripped strips, you will be surprised how it is super easy.  Fabric when torn vertically or horizontally will tear straight along the weave.  Just snip a little into the fabric about an inch inside the edge.  Grab both side and rip!!  It's fun!
 Using these strips, I wrapped the ring in a similar fashion like the raffia.  Remember to always leave a tail on each end for tying off at the top! 

I took a Dollar Tree ornament apart for it's red beads and found a few green beads at the bottom of my bead bucket and threaded them over three pieces of silver wire. 

I then worked the beads into the top of the wreath and tied the ends of the wire off for a loop.  Here are the results.

At this point, I wanted to try something a little more traditional using 1 1/2 inch plaid ribbon.  Just like the others, I wrapped the ribbon remembering to leave enough on both ends for tying off.  I then took a piece of holiday green off a 50 cent floral pic and pared it with a rusty jingle bell that came out of a package from Joann's. 

 

Finished it off with a bow...

 So for the final example, I wanted to do something in my style...vintage and funky.  I used a piece of scalloped edge white cotton lace trim.  As I wrapped the lace, I made sure the scalloped edge was not covered and the holes were spread out revealing the wood on the ring.  Searching through a few bowls of vintage buttons and leftover drawer hardware, I started playing with the different elements.

In the end, I settled on a different sheet of buttons.  I added a little sea shell and a pebble with some jute for the top bow.  I finished it off by adding a neat little paper butterfly that I cut out of a leftover piece of decorative paper.  Here is what I came up with.

 Certainly not very holiday-ish, but it might make a nice gift for someone like me! Who knows?!

So here you have all of them together...

You could take this idea and do so much with the stuff you already have sitting around in your supplies.  There are so many different materials you can use to wrap the ring.  The sky is the limit.

Hope you found inspiration today with my Mini Wreath project! It is a simple and neat. Its a versatile way to make a little something special for the top of a package, an ornament for someone special or maybe even a teacher gift.  You decide. 

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for my

Day 2

of

25 Days of Christmas and Holiday Ideas and Gifts Series!! 

-The End-
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