Valentine's Day Mantle

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I love the way the red and pink and cream and all shades of Look like in my home.  Here's a pic of my current Mantle for Valentine's Day!

Let's take a look around...

 Remember these apothecary jars I made last year?!  They are still going strong and I use them for just about every holiday!  Here I just stuffed them with tissue paper in the coordinating colors.

 Here's a better look at this side.

 In the center I used the same window I used for my Winter Mantle and cut out some cute "I Love U" letters and then taped them to the window panes.  I left my family pictures up from the Winter Mantle.  This was a really easy turn over.

 Again, the same candle holders from my Winter Mantle and just grouped them to the same side.  I changed out the candles with some red and silver sparkly ones and voila...Valentine's Day! :)

 This ADORABLE garland was made with my silhouette, but it is really easy to do so without the aide of my fancy machine.  You can find out how on My Craft Evolution!

 I love the way this garland turned out!

 I used curling ribbon to thread it together.

There you have it...my Valentine's Day Mantle.  Simple, yet festive! What do you think?!

Candy Corn Inspiration

Happy October!

Halloween is getting closer, so I figured it would be a good time to put up my Halloween mantle!  As I mentioned in another post, we do celebrate Halloween, but not the scary part of it.  For our family, Halloween is a fun time to dress up in fun costumes and get candy.  We participate in a soup night, all the trunk or treats that we can fit into our schedule and eat a lot of candy.  My boys love Halloween because everyone plays dress up.  Even P and I dress up! It's just fun!

So anyway, I want to be festive and decorate for the holiday, but wasn't really sure what I should do.  Along came Pinterest and craft-a-poluza again! :)  Most of these are not my original ideas.  I've just pieced a few things together that I found from other blogs!  I've posted the links to their tutorials if you want to find out how to make all these really cute things.  If you have any questions, I'd be glad to answer them.  Just leave a comment and tell me what you think!!

So here's my Halloween mantle!!

After I decided on a candy corn inspiration, I really wanted to concentrate only on the colors orange, white, yellow and black.  I changed our family pictures out for only black and white ones.  I chose decorations that only fit this theme, and bought some fun edible ones as well. :)

So let's break it down!

First, I started with some good 'ol Polyfill from the fabric store to line the mantle with to create a "smoky" or "cobweb" type look. Again, I have my candle sticks with my pumpkins.  I found these pumpkins at the Dollar Tree.  They are carveable, if I ever decided to to that with them. :)

Next, I came across this adorable subway art at eighteen25.  She has a whole year's worth of subway art downloadables!!  Usually our subway art goes on a table between our kitchen and family room, but it was too perfect not to make it to the mantle this time. :)

In the center of the mantle, I have what started this whole mantle theme...Candy corn bottles.  I saw this done on Ashbee Design, but she took the step by step instructions from The Swell Life.  It's really easy to do and a great idea to recycle all of our empty wine and iced tea bottles!  I was really excited to see we had an old Snapple bottle! I figured that I'd play up the "S" since I LOVE monograms and it is ours. :)

Moving on...I also saw these apothecary jars on Pinterest from The Autocrat.  She again, got her step by step instructions from Shanty 2 Chic. I did look at both of these blogs and decided to come up with a version of my own!

I actually used pickle jars (again something from our recycle bin), old dresser drawer knobs, and some candle sticks that I found at our local Salvation Army Thrift Store.  I painted it with some left over spray paint from my dining room chairs!  The whole project cost me only $3!!!  Well, if you count the candy corn, closer to $6. :)

Before:

After:

Super cute don't you think?! I can't wait to transform these into the different seasons too!

As I was browsing Pinterest for pictures of Halloween Mantles, I noticed that candelabras are very popular for this season, so I picked this one up at Salvation Army as well for $0.75.  The letters I got at Hobby Lobby and painted to match the theme.  They were originally going to go in the apothecary jars, but I liked them here instead. :)

Remember these branches from my fall mantle?! I told you they would be back!  Just add some candy corn and some Polyfill and voila! Season to season change.  They might be back for my Christmas mantle also. :)

And finally, I saw this cute "Got Candy?" bunting at Polka Dot Chair.  Mine of course is a little different because I didn't have any themed scrapbook paper, but I did have word art and some black cardstock!  She has a really good tutorial on her site.  Check it out. 

Add some flameless votive and tea light candles from the Dollar Tree and there you have it!  My Candy Corn inspired mantle!  Festive, yet not scary.  Fun, but not too childish.  Now I just have to keep the candy away from my mouth!!

 

I also got carried away when spray painting the bottles that I had a few left over.  Those with a couple new fall scented candles look great as a centerpiece on my table! :)

Let me know what you think! I'd love to hear your comments on my candy corn mantle!! Please leave some below. :)  Happy Halloween!!