Christmas Mantle Crafts

Oh yes, it is finally that time of year (my favorite time of year) where it's acceptable to decorate for Christmas! If it were up to me I might leave them up year round, but the comings and goings of the Christmas decor do make it more fun to decorate each holiday season. So here is what I did for my Christmas mantle this year and how you can do it too!

 The first thing I did was get some old wood I had leftover from making a headboard and nail it together. Very simple! It's about 2ft x 3ft. Then I grabbed a wreath I had made for the spring and tied a ribbon around it and just snugly stuck this converted Joy Christmas ornament between a couple branches. Finally (here's the trick), I put a 3M hook on the back of the wood UPSIDE DOWN so I could loop the ribbon around it and keep the wreath stationary. 

Step 2: Create trees. I did these in kind of a hurry so I forgot to take pictures but they are super easy! All you do is take an old cereal box (or any food box, really) and roll it up into a tree shape. TIP: Make sure you roll it up with the colored side on the INSIDE of the tree, it will give you a blank canvas to work with.

For this one I just bought a holiday pack of twine (red and green) at Joann's and wrapped it around (hot gluing as I went).

This is a strand of pearls that was also in the holiday section (I guess to use as garland?). Don't look at it too close, it's kind of ugly, but from faraway it's super cute!

This little guy was made up of white pipe cleaners that I wrapped around the tree then spray painted gold (which sank in as more of a brown). When it dried I sprayed it with spray adhesive and put glitter on it (which ended up looking like snow and I like that).

The lace ones are my favorite! Super easy, too. I got $1 scrap lace from Joann's and just wound it around the tree until it was covered. 

This little guy is bubble wrapped and spray painted gold.

This is the most unusual tree. I hot glued those little craft puffs (the ones that look like cotton balls) all over and then spray painted gold. Then I did the same spray adhesive and glitter process as before.

Lastly, I bought a holiday potpourri bag at Hobby Lobby and hot glued leftover Joann's lace to the pinecones. Then I tied 3-4 together and made the lace into a pretty knot before hanging them on tiny command hooks on the mantle (get the clear ones!).

Put your stockings on their own command hooks and voila! Christmas mantle.

Let me know if you try this or something similar! I'd love to hear how it turned out.