Trees, Scissors, Paper.

I've had so much fun looking at some of the blog parties:

mantels,

vignettes,

recipes.

Inspiration seems to abound all over the place at Christmas time!

Christmas dinner will be at my house this year:

Usually, we go to my parent's house,

but since the porch is enclosed now,

we have a nice place to feast.

It will be fun to relax and play games in the early evening

and not have to hurry home to feed the cows

the way we usually have to.

Of course, I'm just a little bit excited about the idea of

decorating the porch for our Christmas dinner.

Not wanting to spend a lot of money,

I started with some ideas I'd seen on blogs,

as well as some beautiful images from The Graphics Fairy.

 I love what I've seen with canning jars this season:

waterless snow-globes with little Christmas trees.

I adapted this idea for some flying birds.

In my editting program,

I cut and pasted and reversed some of the images of the bird I found,

cut them out,

pasted thread between two opposing birds,

then glue-gunned the other end of the string to the top part of the jar.

 

I also glued a bit of blue glass glitter on the birds.

 

 Along with the jars of birds,

I printed out a few of the vintage images I liked,

glued them to some pretty scrap-booking paper,

and then put them into some contact paper

to keep them from getting dirty or wet.

I put a different image on the front and back...

 to make it a little more interesting.

Using things that I already had,

 along with a few inexpensive ornaments I found

made the table look festive and ready for Christmas.

The idea of putting epsom salts in the base to look like snow

was one that I read on somebody else's blog.

 I found these fun clear glass pieces at the Salvation Army,

along with the red glass votive holders

for a small cost.

 They made a different alternative to the snow-globe look,

but I was so happy to have them as I thought too many canning jars on the table

might look too predictable.

For the centerpiece,

I found another glass dish stand at the Salvation Army

and paired it what a tall glass container I found.

It has a lid that screws on,

so I put the bulbs and a golden bead garland I found in it,

screwed on the lid and put it upside down

on the other glass stand.

It feels pretty secure,...

so I added some epsom salts 

to  hide the lid.

The tall glass jar ads some nice height,

and I'll use it to store my spaghetti

when it's festive days are over.

 Of course,

the colorful sparkling trees are my favorite part.

To a few plain green bottle brush trees that I had and didn't like,

I changed out the bases to old wooden spools,

cut them into different sizes, layering the branches

and added white paint and glitter.

To the red trees,

I just added some glitter to their bases to liven them up.

 I love the variety of the trees!

I am so thankful for other blogs,

for women who share their creativity and fun, 

inexpensive ways

to make the four walls of our houses...

 into fun, festive homes!

To view a huge assortment of creative ideas for Christmas table tops

click  >HERE<.

The Lettered Cottage has this fun link party going on.

Linking up to:

The Graphics Fairy: Brag Monday
The Inspired Room
Raising Homemakers
alamode
Savvy Southern Style
A Diamond in the Stuff
Not Just a Housewife
A Bowl Full of Lemons  
Centsational Girl: DIY-ornaments-holiday-craft-link-party
Between Naps on the Porch
The Artsy Girl Connection
A Stroll Thru Life: Table-top-Tuesday

*Show and Tell Friday - My Romantic Home
The Friday Flair - Whipper Berry 
 Feathered Nest Friday - French Country Cottage

A Little Knick Knack 

Stuff-and-nonsense: Fridays Unfolded  
Funky Junk Interiors