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St Patrick’s Day Tablescape

St. Patrick’s Day Art Tutorial

St. Patrick’s Day Mantel

     Hello everybody!  For today’s That’s Crafty Thursday, I am sharing some St. Patrick’s Day decorations from the last couple of years.  If you’d like more info on any of the photos above, just click on the picture to be taken to the original post.  Thanks for joining me.  Have a wonderful day!

This is a vase I made out of a piece of pipe and a flange.  Here is what you will need if you would like to make one too.

All I had to do to make it water tight is cut a circle of sheet metal with some tin snips to fit the bottom of the flange. 

I used a little epoxy putty to hold the sheet metal in place and form a water tight barrier. 

After the epoxy was dry, I put a little Teflon tape around the threads on the bottom end of the pipe. 

 Then I just screwed the pipe into the flange.

I then spray painted the vase with a hammered finish spray paint. 

Note:  this post has been edited from the original post.  When I did the original post, I lost all the step-by-step pictures I had taken.  Today I found my long-lost pictures so I have included them and added a couple of steps.  I hope this will help.  Thanks for joining me for this That’s Crafty Thursday! 

This little copper Christmas tree was a joint project of my husband’s and mine.  It is a simple and inexpensive project.  We bought 30 feet of copper wire for this project.  We had a scrap piece of copper pipe and a scrap piece of pine wood at home already. 

My husband beveled the scrap piece of wood and cut a hole in the center for the copper pipe.  I sanded it and stained it (Minwax Special Walnut).  He drilled holes in the copper pipe for me.  I threaded the wire through the drilled holes and wrapped the wire around the pipe.  I bent the wire as I went giving the hint of tree boughs.  Make sure that as you go up to make the boughs a little bit smaller each row.  The wire is easy to bend and work with.  It is forgiving too.  You can start over again if you don’t like the way your tree is looking (just don’t put too sharp a bend in the wire). 

The star was made by my husband.  He cut a small section of the pipe.  He then split it open with a hacksaw.  He pounded it flat and then cut the star shape with some aviation snips.  He used one of his chisels to add the detailing.  He attached it to the top of the tree with a little epoxy. 

Please stop by my husband’s blog to get his take on our project.  This is the last project of the season for me.  My next post will be a tour of our Christmas decorating to see how all of these projects have come together.  Thanks for stopping by.  Happy Holidays!

 Last year I found a cute little cowboy boot cookie cutter.  I didn’t find it in time to make Christmas cookies last year, so, I have been waiting and waiting to use it.  I finally got my chance last weekend.  I usually make quite a few batches of homemade gingerbread cookies each Christmas but I thought I’d make things easy for myself and buy ready-made gingerbread cookie dough to make my Christmas tree ornaments.

All I had to do for these Christmas tree ornaments was roll the dough out, cut the shapes, and bake them.  I baked them at 200 degrees for 20 minutes.  When I pulled them out of the oven, I used the tip of a chop stick to poke a hole in the top for the ribbon hanger.  (I tried making the holes before baking and they came out looking all wonky.  I forgot to poke holes in a batch before baking and hurried and did it before they cooled.  Perfect.)  I let them dry overnight and then sprayed them with a couple of coats of polyurethane.  When they were dry, I tied a bit of ribbon for hanging.  I bought a roll of green checked ribbon and a role of red checked ribbon to hang ornaments from the tree this year.  I wanted a way to hang my homemade ornaments and a way to tie in my old ornaments for our rustic, country Christmas.  Merry Christmas Everyone!

Welcome to our Rustic Country Christmas.  I have really been into the rustic, industrial look this year and created quite a few piece for my home.

DIY Barbed Wire Wreath

DIY Industrial Candle Holders

DIY Homemade Wood Stain

 I gathered some of my favorite things from around the house like the bucket full of pussy willows (above) and my sweet little angel (below).

I usually make a few new things just for each new Christmas theme.  This year I made a bunch of  ornaments (some I have shared already and some I will share soon).  I also made this Noel  sign.

This was super easy to make and a lot of fun too .  I bought  the wooden squares at Hobby Lobby.  I had Handy Hubby drill some holes in the upper corners for me.  I stained them with a light stain.  I used a few grapevines from my backyard to make the letters.  I used a little dark wood stain on the vines to make them easier to read before I hot glued them to the squares.  I strung the sign up with a little twine. 

 Since I do a new Christmas theme each year I only buy one or two new things each year.  The nativity scene (above) is one of the things I bought. I placed it in a wicker picnic basket I had around the house and filled it with raffia.   I will show you the other thing I bought very soon.

Thank you for stopping in to share my Rustic County Christmas mantel.  I hope your season is merry and bright so far.  Happy Holidays everyone!