Art designed to Inspire

More Holiday Decor

The process: I started with a pre-made dogwood wreath (I bought this years ago and decorate it differently each Christmas) and added pine all around. Then I added sprigs of cedar and fir and finished with some (fake) berries and a gold bow.

From our farm to the front porch

A couple of weeks ago Mr. Pinoochi and I travelled to our farm to gather the "fixins" for our holiday decorating.

We gave some of it to our kids (so they can use it for their own decorating) and the rest I will use indoor and outdoor. This is my second year trying to decorate an urn.... I'm no floral designer (disclaimer) but I think I'm getting better. Here's my process......

I like a mixture of greens, so I bought fir and pine that we don't have at the farm and some magnolia leaves that definitely don't grow anywhere near where I live.

I stuffed the bottom of the empty urn with some newspaper then held the 3 birch branches upright while I cut and wedged green floral foam into the spaces surrounding them.

I poked fir branches into the foam at the back of the urn. Fir branches maintain their height and shape and are a good foundation for the design. Cedar boughs are placed all around the perimeter of the urn and they fall gracefully over the edge. I continued to fill up the spaces with cedar, pine and some fir before I added 3 sprays of magnolia leaves. Then I added the dogwood and some curly branches I found in my basement. I finished by placing a few "fakes" into the mix (again from the basement stash).

Voila! Mr. Pinoochi carried the finished urn to the front porch. Is it fair that I get to do the fun stuff and he has to carry the heavy load? Thanks Mr. P!

UPDATE: The latest Holiday planter (an antique Copper Boiler) and DIY with step-by-step photos can be found HERE

Up-Cycled Gift Bag

Using stamps from the same set that I featured in my last blog post, I stamped a gift tag and a big border with the same Santa image. Then I used the Scallop Diamond Edger Punch along one side, rubbed the edges with distressing ink and glued to the gift bag. This red bag was at my local dollar store (2 for $1).
I am working on an origami box right now and will post it when I finish. Stay tuned.

Stamping + Punching = FUN!

Because we're just a few weeks away from Christmas, I've been making cards and gifty things. I got out my punches and stamps, bought some new ink and started playing. Here are some pics of a cute card and some cupcake toppers. I have more that I'll post in a couple of days.

The punches I used are all from EK Success and the stamps are all Kelly Panacci stamps produced by Hampton Art and an oldie by Sandylion. You can see below that they are well-loved!