Nutcracker Knockoff

I heard the first Christmas song on the radio this morning.  It reminded me that I needed to share these awesome nutcrackers with you today!

I saw these awesome Nutcrackers online at one of my favorite window shopping stores, West Elm.  But with the small one starting at $29 there's just no way I can justify that!  Not to mention, there's not the widest variety of colors to choose from.  (do you see where this is going?)

Then I came across this knockoff at House of Hepworths and I liked where Allison was going with her idea.  (she has a great tutorial too).

So, I took both ideas (and knowing that I definitely wanted some color) and ran with them.

Let me also say - if you make these yourself get some double stick foam tape (3M makes some) and double stick the bottom of the nutcrackers to the lid of a spray paint can (or something similar).  It will serve two purposes A) it will give you somewhere to hold while you paint them {everyone paints things while holding them, right?  I found it was the only way to really get them coated well} and while you glitter them, and  B) it will make it easier when sitting them down to dry so they don't topple over.  Ask me how I know this.

Left: glittered white Center: textured metal paint (black with copper flecks)  Right: glittered apple green

I used just about every color spray paint I have :)  and I added my favorite accessory:  Glitter!!

Left: plain red with glittered axe Center: plain blue with glittered drumsticks and drum Right: glittered orange

Left: glittered aqua  Center: glittered red  Right: hammered metal paint in gray

Some of them are solid glitter, some solid paint, and a couple of the tall ones I added just a touch of glitter.

Left: glittered apple green Center: glittered lilac  Right: hammered metal paint in gray

And here they are all lined up outside.  My little nutcracker terracotta army.  And no, I'm not completely nuts (you did notice I had to say not COMPLETELY nuts, right?), I only have one of these in my house (the little fat red one) the others are going to the shop today!

 

Are you getting in the holiday spirit yet?

Boa-tiful Christmas Mantle

I have a fun, easy, beautiful Christmas garland to share with you:

None other than a white feather boa!! :)  I thought it would be mostly gaudy and tacky, with a side of fun and 'ok' but I was so not giving my idea not enough credit.  The boa is fabulous (yes, a little gaudy still) but fabulous none the less!

I just strung two boas across my mantle with a string of white lights and voila!  Instant awesomeness.

Do you recognize these trees?

 

Last week I told you about them in this post.

Now they're on my mantle and I put lights in one and the other I stacked on top of an old pot (painted teal) to make it taller.

And these candlesticks?  Also from last week's post?

Now they add the a little silver to my thrifted glasses which are the perfect touch of color.

One was a teal glass that I painted the inside of with looking glass spray paint.  The other one was a clear drinking glass I painted with krylon's glitter blast spray paint (sparkling waters).  I haven't used this before and I have to say even though it coated wonderfully I was rather irritated when after using the can ONCE (to paint this glass) the nozzle stuck in the OPEN position and I could not.  get.  it.  stopped.  The entire can sprayed out in my trash can (outside).  Needless to say, tomorrow I will be getting a new one.  Hopefully they'll trade it out - we'll see how that goes.

Anyways, here they are side by side - one sparkly with glitter, the other shiny and sophisticated, but surprisingly very similar in color (that part was all luck - I bought the paint for a different project and had no intention of painting this glass - maybe that's why it sprayed all out ;) ?

And here's a nice dark picture of my mantle.  Tomorrow when it's light I'll photograph it in the daylight.  I was too excited to share and didn't want to wait for pictures. UPDATED: with daytime photos :)

Enjoy!

ps.  remind me to tell you the story about half the stuff off my mantle coming crashing down around 11pm last night...