DIY Upcycled Jewelry Holder

Happy Monday!! Can't believe February has already arrived...along with some snow. I took a moment this morning to walk outside our village and soak in the peaceful cool quiet of a new day. The snow so perfectly covered every rooftop and tree in a precise blanket of unblemished white. The perfect start to my day after dropping our youngest off at kinder and before I tackle our mound of ski laundry from the weekend...but not before I've had my coffee!

One of my latest DIY projects was to figure out where to put my jewelry since I sold my jewelry armoire before we moved. If you remember, I made a smaller version of a jewelry holder for a teen that lived next to us in VA, you can see that HERE.

I guess you can say I've gotten quite a bit of use out of the doors we removed from our laundry room, since that's what I used for this project. I needed something I could set up on my dresser and not hang on the walls since most of them are hard to hang anything on here in Germany. I also wanted a splash of color in our closet, since we are renting and can't paint the walls, so I looked through my chalk paint stash and chose this lovely lavender shade.

No prep work for me, just slapped two coats on and roughed up the edges a bit with a sanding block. I dug through my hubby's tool box and found a few white hooks and cup hooks I had left over from another project and attached them around the edges. 

I'm pretty excited with how it turned out and love that it adds color and charm to our closet room. I destashed a bunch of my unworn jewelry before we moved as well, always feels good to declutter!

Here's the jewelry holder in all it's glory sitting on top of my dresser. The lighting isn't the greatest but I wanted to share how I display the rest of my jewels. I have a few trinket boxes, the brown cedar one my Dad recently made for me. The two trees I used to have on our mantle won't fit anywhere in this house, so I have them adding a bit of greenery to my jewelry set up and they double as clip holders too! How do you display your jewelry? I'd love to see, share a link in the comments or let me know your favorite part of this DIY project.

I've linked up to the following Linky bits of fun:

Dagmar's Home: Thrifty and Vintage Finds
Home Stories A to Z: Tutorials & Tips
I Should be Mopping the Floor: Inspiration Monday
Julie's Lifestyle : Cooking & Crafting with J & J
Little Miss Dexterous : Meet Up Monday
Lou Lou Girls: Fabulous Party
Mad in Crafts: Mad Skills

Skip to My Lou: Made by You Monday
SNAP Creativity: Show and Tell

Stone Cottage Adventures: Tuesdays with a Twist
DIY by Design: Winter Blues Wednesday

The DIY Dreamer: FDTR

Ducks in a Row: Wonderful Wednesdays
Gingersnap Crafts: Wow Me Wednesday
Handy Man, Crafty Woman: Wicked Awesome Wednesday

My Girlish Whims: Your Whims Wednesday
Savvy Southern Style: Wow Us Wednesdays
The Life of Jennifer Dawn: A Little Bird Told Me

Crafts A La Mode: What to Do Weekends

Sincerely Paula: No Rules Blog Party

DIY Silver Tinsel Wreaths

I'll be playing "catch up" for a bit since my computer was down 

over the holidays and I was unable to post my holiday crafty ideas...

Here are two simple and easy silver wreaths I made for our guest room. 

They hang just above each headboard and add some beautiful 

silver holiday pizzaz to the room.

I used two silver tinsel garlands ($1 each) one on each circular form. 

The cardboard circles I upcycled instead of recycling them. They were

in between the lids of the large glass jars I purchased from WalMart 

earlier this year. A bit of hot glue to start and then a few times wrapping

the garland around till I got to the end of the garland. I pulled the silver

out of the way to place more hot glue onto my cardboard then attached

the end of the garland, tied a bit of bakers twine, then hung above

the beds.

Another simple and inexpensive way to add a bit of 

festive to your home during the holiday season!

DIY Holiday Money Banks

Mr. Banks doesn't have anything on these fun upcycled 

Holiday Money Banks. I made these for my kiddos 

since they were asking how they could earn money 

for Christmas gifts (and of course they needed 

something cute to put their money in) The best part, 

the banks double as Christmas decor!

I started by cutting out the patterns with felt and

laid the pieces on top of the empty scotch 

containers until I was happy with the 'look'.

Then the FUN part, gluing it all down...

since the hot glue hardens quickly, I found that

running a strip of glue along one side of the felt

and then rolling the container on top, to start,

worked best. Next I ran a strip along the top

and bottom, a bit in the middle (if you are quick)

and then I rolled the container on top using the 

weight of the container and my hands to flatten out

any bubbles. I left the end flap to glue down last

and then added another small strip, since the felt

didn't reach the entire way around my container.

Next the white trim pieces, first one, then

the other...

and finally the belt and holly. I attached the belt

the same as the larger red felt piece and then picked 

up the unglued end to wrap it in place. 

Next Mrs. Claus, isn't she sweet?

I learned new tricks with each container
 and found that gluing the layers on before attaching 

them to the money banks worked best. For instance,

the felt buttons and pockets on the apron.

and it wouldn't be Christmas without a Grinch in the

house, I know we have a couple here!

I looked up a picture of the Grinch online and then 

free-hand cut out one eyebrow, laid it on top

of another piece of felt and mirrored the image  

and did the same with the eyes and eyeballs.

I was out of black felt but grey worked just fine.

Everything used for these projects I had on hand

so no last minute trips to the store...and if you don't

happen to have any scotch containers, you can 

always use a jar or can as well.

The pom pom was a fun 3-D touch and the black

glitter glue was leftover from Halloween.

My hubby cut slits in the tops of the containers 

with a tin snips and then filed down the sharp 

edges so no tiny fingers would be harmed. 

One of the ends of the scotch containers
opens up, so you could always use that to put
your money in as well, happy felting!

DIY $2 Tree Topper

Yes, you read that right...a tree topper for only $2.00!!

I needed a topper for our red and gold tree in the sunroom/mudroom

but didn't want to pay out the nose for something that I might change up

the color scheme next year soooo, off to the Dollar Tree. 

I was actually looking for items for a different project but 

when I saw these stars, I knew exactly what I was going to

do with them. Pick up two identical stars. Mine are 3-D

and glittered to the max.

Make sure your glue gun is plugged in and hot and then

quickly run a strip of glue on each of the flat sides, then

stick your two stars together. Mine didn't want to stay

together at the corners, so I just worked with them one 

at a time and squeezed a bit of hot glue inside the little

ducks beak and then pinched them together. Worked

like a charm!

I was going to leave one side unglued but didn't

want my stars popping apart when I tried stuffing

the topper on top of the tree. Instead, I tied the star 

to the top with a piece of fishing line.