Fireplace mantle fully decorated for xmas. Under $5.

I decorated my fireplace mantle for xmas in about 15 minutes for under $5.
First I cut some Juniper bush branches with berries on them from my yard. If you don't have any in your yard you can easily drive just outside of town and find some on the side of the road.
Then I cooked chili for my family for dinner and kept the cans. I peeled the labels off of the cans and washed them out. I drilled holes into the sides and put tealight candles in them to make pretty candle holders basically for free.
I had been collecting wine corks for a while so I filled a cute vase with them and put some on the mantle around the vase.
I found the Dear Santa: Define Good sign in a home and garden magazine so I cut it out and taped it to the wall behind an old wreath I had.
I then randomly placed a couple of other Christmas decorations I purchased at a second hand store for $2.99 among the greenery.
There you have it. Mantle fully decorated for under $5 in about 15 min.

Wine Bottle Message Gift

I stole this idea from pinterest but it is what I am making to give away for Christmas gifts.  The best part is that it is cheap, easy, and even though you make a batch of them, each one can be customized for the person you are giving it to!

How to make:

1) Drink wine so you can get the empty bottles (yeah, I know this is the best part).

2) Purchase:

• Medium width twine of any color that you want.  I used a natural weave like the picture but a festive ribbon would also work really well.
• Paint that will adhere to glass
• Chalk board paint
• Hot glue gun if you don't have one
• Chalk

3) Peel off any labels and make sure the bottles are clean.

4) Paint entire bottle whatever color you want and let dry.

5) Paint a rectangular section on one side of the bottle with the chalk board paint and let dry.

6) Wrap bottom and top section with twine/ribbon and hot glue in place.

7) Write thoughtful and personalized messages or favorite quotes on each bottle in chalk.

8) Put a piece of chalk inside the bottle, wrap in a pretty cellophane with a decorative ribbon and it is ready to gift!

Empty wine bottle (free because you would have bought the wine anyway)

2 rolls of twine @ $2.99/ea

3 bottles of paint @ $4.99/ea

1 qt of chalkboard paint @ $5.00

1 box of 24 white chalk @ $1.99

Total cost for about a dozen gifts =  $24.95

Halloween Jack O Lantern Fireplace Decor

I, for one, absolutely love fires in the fireplace.  I had a fireplace in the second house I ever bought and it has been a requirement for every house I have bought since.  Halloween is typically still too warm to light the fireplace but this was a fun simple way to bring a little fun to the halloween decor and bring some warmth to the fireplace without the fire. 

Here is what I did:

1) If you have doors on the fireplace, it typically works better if you take the doors off for the time being.  I thought mine would be hard to take off but it was actually very simple.  **What better excuse to give them a fresh coat of paint anyway!?!**

2)  Cut the top off of your pumpkins and hollow them out like you would any other jack-o-lantern.  Cut flame looking designs around at least 2/3 of each of the pumpkins. 

3)  Find something to sit one or some of the pumpkins on so that they are at different levels. 

4)  Dress the design up with things you find in your yard such as colorful fall leaves, branches, or fireplace logs (like shown in the picture). 

5)  If wanted, dress it up with a festive or just colorful rug.  The one shown in the picutre was purchased at TJ Maxx for $7.00. 

4 pumpkins @ $2.90/ea
1 bag small pumpkins @ 3.00
1 fireplace log (free)
1 festive rug @ $7.00
Total cost for this festive creation:  $28.00