This project started out as a way to use some leftover Easter eggs from my wreath project (which I'll be posting later this week). However, it turned into my favorite Easter craft so far! I am in love with the glittery Easter eggs. Here is how I did it.

Materials and Supplies

• Styrofoam topiary
• Plastic Easter eggs (I got mine at the Dollar Tree)
• Mod Podge
• Glitter (I used clear, extra fine glitter)
• Hot glue gun
• Green grass (paper kind)
• Foam brush (not shown)

How to Make This

1. Cover the Easter egg in a fine layer of Mod Podge or other glue.

2. Roll the Easter egg in the glitter.

I had the best luck by putting the glitter in a disposable bowl. After the first pass, there were some unglittered spots from where my fingers were. Once the eggs dried, I spot-touched them to make the glitter more even.

Tip: Glittering the eggs can get messy! I bought a disposable casserole dish and a plastic tablecloth at the Dollar Tree. I put the bowls of Mod Podge and glitter inside the dish. When I was done with the project, I wrapped up the tablecloth and threw everything away.

3. Glue the Easter eggs to the styrofoam topiary.

I put a fairly large glob of glue on each egg, using a hot glue gun.

4. Press the plastic eggs to the topiary.

I held each egg in place for 20 to 30 seconds to make sure they would stay.

5. Continue applying eggs until you've filled the topiary.

I tried to space them out a bit, while not leaving large gaps.

6. Fill in the gaps at the top of the topiary and between the eggs with paper grass.

I used a hot glue gun on some of the larger gaps to help hold the grass in place. Most of the grass stayed in place, just by putting it between two eggs.

7. Trim any errant grass.

I kept mine fairly wild, but you could make yours neater, if you're going for that look.

Link Parties

Click here to see the link parties I visit each week.

My Pinterest wall has practically exploded with Valentine's Day decorations. One thing I've been kicking around is some conversation-heart inspired decorations. The Convo Hearts from The Peanut Paintshop was my main inspiration.

I've also been eyeing these projects:
Valentine Heart Candle from Crafty Journal
Candy Heart Topiary from Tiny Prints Blog
Conversation Heart Picture

Today's project is the quickest and easiest project I've done yet! I chose to make this using foam hearts I found at Michaels, but you could do this with heart-shaped papers or painted wooden hearts.



Materials and supplies
- Foam hearts
- Ribbon
- Letter stickers
- Hot glue gun or tape
- Scissors



How to make this
1. Add letters to make the name, word, or phrase you want for your heart.


2. Complete the remaining hearts with the name, phrase, or words.


3. Add the ribbon to the backs of the hearts. I cut one long length of ribbon and attached it to the backs of the hearts with a hot glue gun.


4. Create a bow or loop at the top of the ribbon to hang the project.


5. Hang and enjoy.


Link parties
A Little Knick Knack
Homemaker on a Dime
Raising Memories
I Heart Naptime
The Foley Fam 
C.R.A.F.T.
Create With Joy
Sew Can Do
Keeping it Simple Crafts 
The Blackberry Vine
Sassy Little Lady
PJH Design 
Romance on a Dime
The DIY Dreamer
Elizabeth & Co.
Ginger Snap Crafts
The NY Melrose Family
DIY By Design
Delightful Order
The Trendy Treehouse
DIY Craft Projects
I Gotta Create
Southern Lovely 
Create.Craft.Love. 
The Shabby Creek Cottage
Katherine's Corner
Craftionary 
Blissful and Domestic 
Twinkle in the Eye
Joyful Stamper

I'm continuing my "Mantel a Month" series with a February Valentine's Day mantel. This was a lot of fun to put together and it brings some nice pops of color into my otherwise neutral living room.

If you've been reading my blog this month, you've probably seen some of these projects (Valentine's Day Heart Art and Valentine's Day Tissue Paper Heart). I'm happy with how it all came together on my mantel.



What's on my mantel in February
Above the mantel: Valentine's Day Tissue Paper Heart. Click here for the tutorial.



Far left: Candle and candleholder, heart picture painted by my little guy, and red vase from last Valentine's Day.

Center: The little guy's first Valentine's Day picture and three small red vases that I painted using this technique.


Far right: Valentine's Day Heart art (click here for the tutorial). Candle and candleholder.


Each end of the mantel: Red heart Christmas ornaments.



Below the mantel: I used two rows of garland. The larger, open hearts are from Michaels. The smaller, red hearts are from the Dollar Tree.


What do you think about how it all came together? Feel free to link up any of your Valentine's Day mantels in the comments sections. I'd love to check out your mantels!

Please also click the "Join this site" button in the left-hand panel to make sure you don't miss any of my other mantel projects.



Link parties:
Make the Scene Monday
Homemaker on a Dime
Sunday Funday at Foley Fam
I Heart Nap Time
Flamingo Toes
Cupcakes and Crinoline
Petite Hermine
Inspire Me Monday
Project Inspire
Lamb Around
Life on Lakeshore Drive
Or So She Says
Pint Sized Baker
I Should be Mopping the Floor
Romance on a Dime
Crafty Confessions
The DIY Dreamer
The Blackberry Vine
Elizabeth and Co.
Ginger Snap Crafts
The Melrose Family
DIY Craft Projects
DIY by Design
PJH Designs
Kathe With an E
The Trendy Treehouse
Southern Lovely
Sew Much Ado
Create Craft Love
Delightful Order
The Shabby Creek Cottage
Katherines Corner
Craftionary
Twinkle in the Eye Blog
Simply Designing
Joyful Stamper
A Little Knick Knack
Raising Memories
The Foley Fam
C.R.A.F.T.
Create With Joy
Sew Can Do
The Blackberry Vine
Sassy Little Lady
DIY Show Off 
PJH Design

I have one last Christmas dessert tutorial for all of you who have holiday parties extending into January. We had our last holiday party this weekend. The drink of the day was spiked hot chocolate. This was so simple to make and it tasted delicious!

Ingredients:
- Milk or water (I used milk)
- Hot chocolate mix*
- Whipped cream or cool whip
- Whipped cream vodka or Baileys Irish Cream
- Marshmallows
- Peppermint candy
- Sprinkles

* I went with a hot chocolate mix instead of making this from scratch. I've never made hot chocolate from scratch and wasn't really up for taking it on while hosting a party. I decided to put my efforts into "dressing up" the hot chocolate.

How to do this:
1. Prepare marshmallow snowmen before the party. Skewer three large marshmallows. Draw faces using a toothpick and black decorating gel.


These are the finished marshmallows. I kept my snowmen pretty simple, but I've seen some fancier ones online. I particularly like the ones on Dukes and Duchesses.



2. Prepare the peppermint candy garnish. Unwrap the candies and place in a quart-size Ziploc bag. Use a mallet to crush the candy into small pieces.

3. Heat milk in sauce pan, whisking it regularly to prevent scorching. Don't let the milk boil.

4. Mix the hot cocoa mix with the milk.

5. Add some whipped cream vodka or Baileys Irish cream, if you want to spike your hot chocolate. We made alcohol-free hot chocolate for the kids and they were still a big hit!

6. Add a dollop of whipped cream. Then garnish with the peppermint candy and some sprinkles. Enjoy!

We just finished up with our last holiday party this weekend. We hosted the Christmas party, so I had the chance to try out some of the ideas I've been swooning over on Pinterest. I ran across the JPEG of these, but I couldn't find an actual tutorial for doing them, so I thought I'd write my own.

Ingredients and supplies:
- Strawberries
- Cool whip
- Chocolate jimmies
- Knife and cutting board
- Strainer
- Wilton cake decorator

 How to make these:

1. Cut off the tops of the strawberries. Cut them straight across so the strawberries can rest on that surface.

2. Wash strawberries.


3. Cut off the bottom 1/3-1/4 of the strawberries. Keep the bottom and main parts together so you'll be able to match them up.

4. Using one of the round tips in the cake decorator, add about 1/2-1 inch of cool whip to each strawberry.

5. Replace the bottom of the strawberry to make a hat.


6. Add a dab of cool whip to the top of the hat and to the main body of the strawberry.

7. Add chocolate jimmies to the cool whip "face" to make eyes.

8. Enjoy!

I love a decorated front porch nearly as much as I love decorating my mantel. I decided to up my front-porch game this year and to go further than the standard wreath.

Here's the finished product. What do you think?


This was pretty easy to put together--much faster than my Autumn front porch. And it didn't even require power tools!

Here are some of the inspirations for this year's front porch:

Centsational Girl -  I love the hanging ornaments and the large planters on either side of the front door.
Better Homes and Gardens - Love the fancy, yet rustic garland around the door.
Tumblr pic (no attribution found - Delightful symmetry.
Heart-2-Home - My inspiration for the joy wreath (see below for how I did it).



Joy wreath
This "JOY" decoration really spoke to me from Heart-2-Home. I'm not big into hanging seasonal decorations on the wall, so I thought a wreath would be the perfect solution. I also thought it would be fun to put the letters vertically, instead of horizontally.

I also thought it would look nice to contrast the glitz of the jingle wreath with burlap fabric. It took less than an hour to make.

Material and supplies:
- Two wreath forms
- Letters "J" and "Y"
- Ribbon
- Burlap
- Christmas floral wreath
- "Jingle" wreath
- Puh pins
- Hot glue
- Eye hooks (I used three)
- Nail or wreath holder

How to make this:
1. Cut burlap fabric in approximately 3-inch strips. I used some leftover burlap fabric from my burlap mat project.
2. Wrap the burlap around the wreath. Use push pins to hold the burlap in place.
3. Attach eye hooks to the back of each letter to attach the ribbon.
4. Tie the ribbon to the wreath and use a dab of hot glue to align the letters.
5. Use ribbon to attach the wreaths together. I started with the top wreath (J) and added extra ribbon at the bottom to tie it to the jingle wreath. Then I did the same to the next wreath, tying the jingle wreath to the "Y" wreath.
6. Add some Christmas floral pics to make the project look more finished and to hide some of the areas where you've attached the wreaths.




I wanted to hang Christmas lights on the porch this year, but that didn't happen. Instead, I decided to hang snowflakes. I bought a package of foam snowflakes from AC Moore in a few different sizes and bought some snowflake ornaments. I cut long strings of ribbon and hot glued the snowflakes to the ribbon. I hung them from the roof of our porch with 3M mini hooks. The roof of our porch is vinyl or plastic, so we can't nail anything into it.

I liked the look of these snowflakes. Unfortunately, the hooks didn't hold up against the elements. Within two rainy/snowy days, many of the hooks fell down. I'm still looking for a better solution that can handle the outdoors because I really liked the look of the hanging snowflakes.

What do you think? Have you found any solutions to hanging snowflakes, lights, or even planters from your porch, if you don't have a traditional wood roof? I'd love to hear any suggestions!

I fell in love--with a picture. It wasn't the first time, either. This picture from Better Homes and Gardens had me obsessed.

I followed the tutorial from this page: Felt Medallion Window Garland on BHG.com. It took me about three hour total, between folding the paper, hot gluing the paper, and hanging it in the window.

Materials and supplies (for each medallion): 
hree 8x10 pieces of paper, decorative paper, hot glue gun, scissors, circle cutting tools (I used a 2-inch paper punch and a 4-inch paper cutter. I also used a small piece of garland for the center of each medallion.


Here are the steps I followed:

1. Accordion fold an 8 x 10 piece of card stock in about 1/2 inch folds.
2. Fold the paper in half lengthwise, to make a fan. Hot glue the middle folds together.
3. Hot glue three fans together to make one large medallion.
4. Cut out a 4" circle. I used this Martha Stewart circle cutter. Cut slits around the edge of the circle, to add some texture.
5. Cut a 2" circle. I used a 2" hole punch for this.
6. Glue the circles together, then glue a pinch of garland on top of it.
7. Make as many medallions as you need to fill your space.
8. Punch a small hole in one of the top folds of the medallion and string the medallion onto a ribbon.
9. Cut out some extra 4" circles. Glue two circles together between the ribbon.
10. Tie onto the curtain rod.


I'm actually not thrilled with how it came out. It's a little more "Carnival" than I was going for and I wish I had made the medallions a little smaller. At least it's festive though!

I went all out with my front porch decorating this year--some might say (e.g., my husband), that I went a little over the top. Well, maybe I did! I love how it came out though.

What do you think?



For the doorway, I used a wreath that I bought several years ago from AC Moore. I also put three strings of leaf garland around the door and another string around each railing going down. I bought the flowers and the ribbon at the bottom of the railings from a local nursery.

The most labor-intensive projects were the pumpkin topiaries. Here's how I did it:

Supplies:
2 planters
Pumpkins--I used craft pumpkins so I could drill through them
2 Wooden dowels
2 Foam cake forms
Spray paint (if desired)
Drill

Steps:
1. If desired, spray paint your pumpkins. For my porch, I sprayed the two small pumpkins silver. I also sprayed a light coat of white paint on the top of the second pumpkins down because I though the orange was a little bright.

2. Drill a hole through the bottom and top of all of the pumpkins except the highest ones (only drill a hole in the bottom of those).

3. Put the wooden dowel through each of the pumpkins, stacking them.

4. Put the bottom of the dowels into the cake forms for stability (otherwise mine kept tipping over).

Inspirations:
Love the look and feel of this porch from decorchick.com
Another great porch from BHG.com