Showing posts with label Christmas in July. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas in July. Show all posts

Christmas in July - Cedar Christmas Tree

Our little local hardware store does this wonderful night of Girls Night Out with a craft project twice a year.  Well for my final Christmas in July craft that I would like to share, I wanted to show you the Christmas tree I made this past year.  Other than the paints and supplies to paint that I usually have on hand, the total cost of the project is 89 cents.  Or usually about $2 at the big box hardwares.  This adorable tree is made out of a cedar picket fence board. 
 
 
Cut 8-10 inches off of the bottom.  Set aside (we'll get to it later).  Now take your remaining fence post and cut the curved top off - about 5 inches.  Set aside.  Now that you have the remaining section of the board take a pencil and draw some branches for your tree.  As you can see they do not have to be perfect, just a wonky, leaning, tall triangle.  Take your saw and cut these out.  While you are cutting, go ahead and cut a star out of the top of the board that we cut out.  Also, if you want your tree to lean a little like mine did, just angle the top alittle.  When all your cuts are done, rough sand the whole lot.  Once again perfectly smooth is not your goal, death by splinters is!  Paint as desired .  Nail the first cut board at 90 degrees to the bottom of your tree (see the tree next to mine from the side).  This could be done before painting to allow your tree to stand while you are painting, giving you access to both sides. 
 
Another cool thing about this night is they do a door prize raffle.  Look at what I won!  It reads Twas the Night before Christmas!  My five year old daughter is absolutely loves it!
 
 
 
Well that's it for Christmas in July!
 
Merry Christmas in July
 
 

 

Christmas in July -A Dollar Store Wreath Project

I will start by saying this is frugal, but time consuming!  It is a great project to do while burning through some movies from Redbox or watching a marathon of your favorite show, but the results are stunning for minimal cost!




If you have not seen this tip from Pinterest.  It is a great cost saver for making wreaths!  I used a pipe foam insulator like these from Home Depot.  

As you can see we are now working on one for my daughters room.  That's the beauty of the foam packs there are six of them, so plan for lots of new wreaths!  Think back to school, fall, Halloween , a welcome gift for a teacher...there's so many cool things coming up!

Just wrap it in a circle and secure with duct tape!  Then I cut a plastic table cloth from the dollar tree into 12-14 inch strips.  It took 1 1/2 tablecloths to make the white wreath above.  


Take one of the strips and lay it under the foam as pictured above.  As you can see, cuts do not have to be perfect!





Then pull the loose ends through the top!  Tug tight!



Then slide it aside and keep going!  


This is a nice full one, but that's about half a tablecloth of each color for less than a quarter of the wreath.  But back to the Christmas wreath, you can see how I left it loose so I could lay it flat around the outside of the form.  Then I took some cool, glittery, blue snowflakes and some silver poinsettias (removed from the stem) and glued them right onto the tied part of the wreath.  Put a hanger on the back and you are all set!  After a few months in the wind and snow I had only lost one flake so I will glue it back on to be ready for next year!  




One of the things I love about this wreath is I can use it all winter long since it is not Christmas specific.  


Merry Christmas ( in July)