A trash to treasure customized letter opener

When you think of letter openers do you think of those little square things a company gives out so you have their business info or do you think of those fabulous interesting ones that look like daggers and usually have interesting things on the tips of their handles?

Well this isn't either of those. Haha! ;)

I started with an old butterknife (old because they have MUCH longer blades than modern ones) I bought at Goodwill for something like twenty-nine cents. I know, I know, I'm the last of the big spenders.

Then I traced my knife into a sheet of scrapbook paper

and glued it on.

Two things: don't forget to trace around each side of the knife on the correct side of the paper or you'll end up with two pieces only one of which will fit correctly. Not that I know from experience or anything.

Secondly, I think a beautifully patterned paper napkin would work much better for a project like this because you need the paper as thin as possible. If you remove the back layers of a napkin you'll end up with just the top colored sheet.

I like my things to look well loved so I added some Distress Ink before I sealed it with a varnish.

The varnish is going to protect your paper and harden it so when you slice through envelopes it doesn't come tearing off with it!

It needed something else so I tore a small strip of muslin (tore rather than cut, to get the rough edges) and tied it on like a ribbon. You could also use just regular ribbon or seam binding and even string beads onto the ends.

Want to make a set for a gift? How about including some writing utensils? I spray painted these and glued little gems on the ends.

But it's actually faster and much easier to just cut a rectangle of paper, roll it up and pop it inside the pen.

Everyone gets mail so this would be a great gift for anyone and you could customize it with their favorite colors.

I just love the roses pattern on the handle.

Happy letter opening! :)

Linking to:

Creative Cats @ Poppies at Play

DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land

How I did it - Christmas decor tutorials

How did she do that? Here's how!

In my last post I showed some decorating I've done around (and outside) the house and since I didn't want to make your eyes cross with a post that had a billion photos I decided to put the how-to's in this one.

Door decor - pine cone swag.

This idea was inspired by:

I just fell in love with the beautiful simplicity!

Per their instructions you simply hot glue the ends of the ribbon to the cone then stagger them to make it look interesting, tie the knot, trim the ribbon ends and hang.

Ummm who wants ugly hot glue and ribbon ends on the first decor people see when they walk into their homes? No takers? So maybe I'm just a huge slob with my glue gun but I knew that's what mine would look like so I improvised a little.

I started with pine cones I cleaned up out of a friend's yard and some red ribbon; not as big as CL's version but proportionate enough to the cones to be fine.

Then I took a scrap of felt from a previous project and carefully measured and cut perfect circles - wow I almost typed that with a straight face! I have issues with circle cutting dating back to Kindergarten but that's a sob story for another time. Instead I just freehanded them making sure they were big enough for my purpose.

I folded each in half and sliced an opening in the middle with my scissors, then threaded each onto a ribbon like so.

This way when you add the hot glue (a dab will do ya so don't add too much) and stick the ribbon on you can cover your ugly end and glue blob with some felt that sorta kinda matches your cones. I think it helped make them look a bit more finished.

The end result one more time now!

Love! On to the next.

Merry Christmas garland.

Inspired by:

I have a ton of these metal edged tags but do you think I could find them? Now that would be just way too easy. So I gave up on it and just grabbed a sheet of cardstock that has that "old parchment" look to it and my papercrafting tools.

A scalloped circle punch, regular hole punch, black ink, alphabet stamps and distress ink in "vintage photo" (which I found at Goodwill!).

Punched out my circles, stamped my letters in black and punched a hole in the tops. That process is simple enough I really thought you didn't need to see each step in photo form.

Then I added distress ink to the edges. What a difference that makes! I just love the dimension it adds. I should have taken a before and after for you...now why didn't I think of that earlier?

Then I took my large jute string and my tiny jute string and attached my letters - loosely so they are adjustable.

It has the same effect as the inspiration and I love how it turned out.

The finished product one more time!

Festive rustic. On to the next:

Rescued mini trees under glass.

Not really a tutorial but more like a show-off. I literally rescued these guys from the garbage. Well I would have taken them out of the garbage had they not first blown away into the flower bed and sat there in the dirt. They were kinda (really) gross and I had to dry them out, pick out the icky bits and whatnot. I was really committed to this project, haha. ;)

Then I spray painted them white. Let me suggest that you don't try this with the cans that spray in a fan pattern - it seemed like it took a ridiculous amount of paint to cover these.

(See what's in the background of the "before" pic? That's a 75 year old Frigidaire which belonged to my great aunt and uncle...and which still purrs like a kitten! It's outside and keeps the pop nicely chilled)

Once they were ready for use I put them in this Goodwill purchased glass with some basket filler in the bottom. They look lovely next to the painting done by my great aunt Ellen (the same great aunt who owned the refrigerator I just mentioned).

This little vignette is so ME. The great outdoors, tea and classic literature - that is what I'm all about!

Are you finished with your decorating yet? I don't think I'll ever be done! I should have started in July.

Linking to:

Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

Old-Fashioned Christmas

I was dreaming of a pink and silver Christmas...but that was going to require the purchasing of a ton of new stuff. Instead the more rustic, old-fashioned Christmas was FREE so that is what I went with - a theme I'm quite fond of.

Then we got blasted with freezing rain on Saturday but that just meant I had a really good reason to stay home and get some Christmas decorating done - finally!

We had fog in the evenings...

And fog in the mornings...

The perfect weather to make a breakfast of eggnog cake

and sweet, fragrant tea (by Republic of Tea - unfortunately it was limited edition. I will just cry when it's all gone!)

I decorated the hutch with excess greenery cut from the Christmas tree (I topped the hutch with cedar I cut from a tree in my yard but that was obviously after the photo.)

I also made my "Merry Christmas" banner as inspired by the December issue of Country Living. (Details to come tomorow)

There are two of these hooks on either side of the entry into the living room. I wrapped a faux berry sprig around the base and filled the bucket with more greenery from the tree.

Atop the piano I made a vignette of an old silver tea/coffee pot that is filled with "cheer," more greenery from the yard and a jar filled with rescued bottle brush trees (details to come tomorrow).

Have a cup of cheer!

Christmas cheer and tea isn't complete without a little Dickens.

The kitchen is being a bit neglected but I did manage to gather these Goodwill candy jars and fill them up - oh I see I'm almost out of mints! My grandmother would be apalled at the lack of Starlight mints! ;)

I house-sat this summer for some people with a pine tree and I cleaned up their yard and brought it home with me! :) I made this door decor which was inspired by something I saw in the November issue of Country Living. (details to come tomorrow)


I house-sat for some other people just last month and survived quite the wind storm which blew half their neighbor's fir trees into their yard. So I cleaned up their yard and brought it home with me too. The snowman was made from scrap lumber. And that silly dog insisted on being in the photo. I kept making her move and then she'd go back and stand just like that - the dog who never holds still was posing!
Those branches at the bottom of the steps are hiding the vent that is full of stuffing/insulation for the winter. Love greenery!

I've still got a few decorating projects to finish and still some gifts to make - yikes! I'd better get to work...and no sleeping until after Christmas! ;)

And the winners are...

I think Miss Elena Eous' comment summed up my current feeling quite nicely - I have been bitten by the generous bug. I love giving gifts! Now if only I were rich so I could be as generous as I want...

THANK YOU for the puns! I loved them and laughed and laughed and laughed and told them to many other people who roll their eyes at me because they think I'm silly. ;)

Without further ado, the winner of the Winter Berry earrings is

and the winner of the Regal Lady earrings is

And the other winners of fabulous (and mysterious) assorted other prizes:

Just e-mail your addresses to mollythepirate@yahoo.com and I will get those packages mailed out quick as a wink (how quick is a wink anyway?).

Oh and I got so many things accomplished in the last couple days *pats self on head.* I'll actually have some crafty things to post about again. Being home surrounded by my craft supplies is so nice. :)

Both joy and glee

Have you entered my giveaway? Click here to read more and enter.

...this Christmas tree.

And a little bit of horror (like how it's now held in place by guy wires because it fell over once).

It's a good thing the family room has vaulted ceilings because this year's tree is 12 feet tall...

It didn't look that big in the field, is that any consolation?

I don't know about where the rest of you live but we are surrounded by Christmas tree farms and they are quite cheap and easy to come by. Hmmm I'm not positive but I don't think our tree would appreciate being called cheap and easy. ;)

Sadly it is only decorated with about a dozen ornaments at the moment. I'm 5'2" and afraid of heights and ladders so I really haven't been involved in the decorating of this one.

Oh and that's a 4 foot tall present to the left of that photo - we're doing things big this year. :)

I bought this trio of mini lit trees half off at Joann's a few years back. Love them. And since the family room is decorated in things like vintage snowshoes and sleds they get to stay out year round. The trees are next to our stockings hung with care by the railing...next to the pinball machine...traditional what?

I have to say this year is more like the Christmas that came up and bit us in the rear while we weren't looking. Too much running around. It may give you comfort to know I'm taking more care with my decorating in other areas of the house - those photos will come later.

For now go visit Thrifty Decor Chick and her Christmas Tree Party and find something to actually be inspired by!