Holiday Wreath

I have seen so many beautiful holiday wreaths floating around online.  All the inspiration was making me (and Mister G) pretty excited to make one!! 

I gave my wreath a lot of thought before getting started.  I wanted my wreath to be festive-- but also not too classic Christmas.  I was envisioning something "ocean-y" since it's our first Christmas living in a warm climate.  I also came up with the genius idea to incorporate Marquette colors into the wreath to get John excited about it!  (Pretty easy because Marquette baby blue is very ocean-y and also gold is very Christmas-y!)

I picked up a lot of holiday jazz at Micael's--by the way, now is a great time to get a deal on wreath fixins!  I chose golds, silvers, blues, and greens.  When I came home Mister G was nipping at the bag and trying to play with the picks.  

Remember when I made the homemade holiday ornanments?  While I was spray-painting my baby pine cones for the ornaments, I also painted a few big shells gold.    

The big shells needed special help to stay on the wreath.  I cut a piece of yarn and hot glued it to the back of the shell.  One big glob in the center and a line to each side to help the shells lay flat.

After the glue dried, I arranged the shells and tied the yarn tightly around the wreath.  Then I added the rest of my items.  It gets pretty windy at times here-- so I used a dab of hot glue on the bottoms of each pick before I stuck them into the wreath.

I love the sea urchin looking flowers next to the poinsettia!  If you take a close look you will see some baby pine cones too.  

I don't have a wreath hanger yet, so until I pick one up the wreath will be hanging under our house numbers.  See her to the left?

Have you made a wreath this year?  Plans to make one?  Share your pictures on Mister G's Facebook page or Twitter @MisterGandMe .  

Holiday Poinsettia Hurricane Vase

I made this candle vase today following Martha's tutorial for "Holiday Harvest Hurricanes" .  Martha's features autumn leaves and while Thanksgiving came and went-- I'm ready for Christmas!

This is such a beautiful project!  If you buy the stencil kit, you can make one for every season!

A few tips:
**Seriously-- splurge for the Martha products.  I cheaped out on the paint and tape and I was sorry.  I used regular acrylic paint and it was difficult to get a rich, even coat on the glass.  Also, my masking tape peeled up part of the spray painted surface.  I have a feeling the Martha stencil tape would have been a wise investment!
**If you live in a warm climate-- don't stencil in the sun!  The spray paint part got a bit sticky and blemished.

What Christmas crafts have you been working on?