The best way to decorate during the holiday season is to do it as cost friendly as possible. This one is a little messy, but worth it. Hey, it could be worse and involve lots of glitter. Glitter is great, but so much more messy and it spreads like crazy. The good thing about epsom salt is you can add more and if it ends up being too much, then it dissolves in water. When you sweep and then miss a few pieces of epsom salt, the mop will pick it right up. Clean floors once again. Okay, back on subject now. I was going to just leave the snowflakes plain and put them on the garland above my arch way to the kitchen from the living room, but realized I had nothing that says Noel. It just was too plain for me, so I jazzed it up.
Throwback share- When I was a teenager, I had dated this guy for many years and his mom was always doing really funny goofs here and there. She had this beautiful 4 piece white angel set that had the letters NOEL on it and she had arranged it NEOL on the fireplace mantel. So when something was said about it not being spelled right she swore it was right and she eventually saw things the right way and fixed it. It is always good to be able to laugh at yourself when you do something silly and she did just that.
We did an epsom salt and glitter ornament last year:
 |
| 19 more handmade ornaments on this post! |
Noel means Christmas in French! You probably already knew that, but I forgot and I had to Bing it. Sometimes I don't know what I would do without a search engine to answer my gazillion wonders in a day.
What you need:
Mod Podge- Glossy
Epsom salt
Plastic snowflakes
Paintbrush
Paper plates
Newspaper
Paper towels
Large glass gems/bead
Lettering or stencil of your choice
Permanent marker
White paper bag
Hot glue- glue gun
So as my kids watch the Scooby Doo Haunted Holidays, I worked on this project. This project was super easy. Most of the above items you can find at the Dollar Tree. I got the snowflakes a few years back, so I am not sure if they sell those anymore, but I am positive you can find a different type of snowflake there. The snowflakes as is was okay, but they were just so cheap looking. I wanted sparkle and a snowy feel and liked the effect epsom salt gave.
Lay out your snowflakes on newspaper. Put a snowflake at a time on a paper plate. Paint your snowflake with mod podge on the front and back, then sprinkle your your epsom on. You should have enough excess salt to slide and gently shake back in forth to coat the bottom, if not just sprinkle more. I did this over the sink to prevent epsom salt from going everywhere.
*You can only sprinkle epsom salt on AFTER you paint the mod podge on. If you try to paint over the epsom salt with the mod podge, it will melt and create a big watery mess and you will have to start your project over. I tried to make candle sticks with mod podge and epsom salt last previously and it just did not work out at all.
Hang it to let it dry completely. Once it is set and dried, you can get your stencil ready. If you have super neat or pretty handwriting, that is great too. I happen to not have the best penmanship, so I used a stencil. I think I got mine for a buck at a local store called Mighty Dollar...another everything is a dollar store. Fantastic by the way and huge. You can use any light paper of your choice, I used a white paper bag. Stencil your letters on and paint a little mod podge on the back of the glass gem and attach your letter to the back...the side you wrote on will go directly on the bottom of the gem/bead. I didn't wait. After I pressed my letter on, I squeezed a little dot of hot glue on the center of the snowflake and attached my monogrammed letter on. It dries pretty quickly, so that completed my project. I hung them up and they are a great addition to the rest of our decorations this year. Have a wonderful day.
*I will be adding lots maybe even multiple posts a day in the next week....the Christmas spirit has hit and my kids get out of school today for 2 weeks and I have a huge list of things to work on with them. See and you thought I was abandoning my craftastic posts. Have a great Friday!
Happy Holidays!