I love having a mantle. Especially at Christmas. And last year it turned out okay, but I wanted to do something else this year to really take advantage of our mantle-having status. So I went shopping.
And then I remembered that, technically speaking, it wasn't really our mantle. Because we are just renters. So that's when I decided to just make something instead.
First up, I needed a garland. So I went pine-cone-hunting, having seen this picture and wanting to sort of copy it. Once you have a good bag of pinecones (+ spiders), you tie little knots around the tops (or bottoms) of them. It's actually not hard at all.
The next item of business was to make some trees. I saw a nice idea here, but mine turned out way different and way less cool. Oh well.
I found bags of really inexpensive bay leaves in the 'ethnic cooking aisle' at our local grocery store, and bought four bags (the cashier thought I was a chef). I took them home and used my glue gun to attach them to foam cones. I was going to take step-by-step photos, but then I remembered that you guys aren't stupid. So my instructions for this one: glue bay leaves to foam cones. *sidenote, I am pretty sure I will never eat something with a bay leaf in it ever again. Ruined me.
Ta-da! I have since added some candles to the mantle and am on the hunt for tiny wreaths to hang on either side of the painting. Or maybe I'll just make those too :)
Hooray for mantles!
Hooray for mantles!
