6th of December: Christmas Inspiration

I gathered here some of my favourite Christmas inspiration photos! Enjoy!

And Happy Independence Day Finland!

Biancas Wohnlust

Sea of Girasoles

Sea of Girasoles

Justin Love With Berni

Elisabeth Heier

Seventynine Ideas

The Pretty Blog

House Doctor dk

Style Frizz

Style Frizz

Style Frizz

Stylizimo

5th of December: Print Your Own Gift Wrapping Paper

I've always loved the brown packing paper for gift wrapping purposes. Last year I used it with some pictures from old dictionaries and other cute things. Here you can see gift wrapping ideas from last year: Christmas Preparations.

This year I wanted to experiment with block printing. As an inspiration I used autumn leaves. I really love my new wrapping paper! 

4th of December: Decoupage tables

I haven't done any decoupage projects for a while, but now it's time for an other one. We had these sofa tables at our home a few years ago, and because I never want to throw anything away, I saved them and moved them with us to the Netherlands. We didn't really treat them well and the surface of the tables became scratchy and quite awful. I sand papered them already earlier in Finland, and now I just had to decide what kind of style would suit them.

One of my favourite materials for decoupage projects is old book pages. This was the first time that I decided to use only text parts of the pages and leave all the pictures for later use. The book I used is about Finnish authors, and I think it's wonderful to have handwriting of some of the most famous authors in Finland, on these tables.

This time I didn't have decoupage lacquer, and didn't really feel like buying some. I decided to experiment with normal glue and water. It was a bit tricky to get the right amount of glue and the right amount of water. I got a few air bubbles under the pages, but I won't let them bother me. I recommend using decoupage lacquer instead of mixing your own from glue and water, especially if you don't have a lot of experience in decoupage works.

After the pages are attached to the table surface, it's time to let them dry. And when the pages are dry, it's time to use furniture varnish. For these tables I applied three layers, but I'm not sure if it's enough. On normal wooden surfaces three layers would be plenty, but on decoupage objects, you might have to add even more layers.

More inspiration for decoupage projects, you can find on my earlier posts:
A New Life, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Decoupage.

Have a great Wednesday!

3rd of December: Blueberry Twig Wreath

My friend Janette has a blog called Cardemumman elämää ja unelmaa, in English it would be something like this: The Life and the Dreams of Cardemumma! It's a bit hard to translate. Her style is mainly country and romantic, and I love her posts! The blog is in Finnish (some of her posts can be also in English), and now I'm showing you one of the latest things she's done. Maybe Janette will share more of her cute ideas with us also later on. I love the fact that her style is so different from mine!

Janette made this beautiful Christmas wreath out of blueberry twigs. As a base she used a round shaped steel wire frame, and attached the blueberry twigs with steel wire. Then she added a little bit of snow spray and a few cute amanita decorations, and the wreath is ready to be hanged on the door! By choosing different decorations for the wreath, you can come up with very different end results. And don't worry, i f you don't have snow spray. Just leave the blueberry twigs green, I'm sure they'd look awesome also with the natural green colour!

Thank you for sharing with us Janette!

2nd of December: Origami Birds

I made these origami birds already two years ago, but haven't really found a good place for them, since now. Viiru helped me to pick up some branches from the ground, I placed them in an old wine bottle and hanged a few origami birds on the branches. Again, simple and affordable. The end result is very Japanese and modern, I love it!

Here you can find the instructions for the origami bird: Origami crane instructions. For my birds, I used book pages from an old dictionary, but you can choose the paper, which suits your home and style the best!

1st of December

It's December and time to start the countdown to Christmas! This year I'm having my own advent calendar on my blog, so there's gonna be something nice for each day before Christmas. It's time to start the Christmas preparations!

Today I'm giving you an easy tip to customize empty glass jars! I have a habit of collecting eveything possible, from glass jars to rocks and leaves. It's a habit that isn't really appreciated by my fiancé, but comes handy every time I get the inspiration to create something new for our home.

All you need for these simple and modern glass jars, is:

- a roll of sticky-backed plastic 

- scissors

- glass jars

Decorate the jars with the pattern you like. I used stripes, because they are easy to cut and the end result is modern. You can use these jars for example as candle holders or storage for pens, crochet hooks, etc. 

Have a wonderful day!

Stencil Art on Plywood

I wanted to create some art for our home. I bought two plywood boards from IKEA's bargain corner. They cost only 1 euro each! And the best part is that the boards are excess material which is used for packing products on wooden pallets. My nearest IKEA store, IKEA Duiven, has come up with the idea of selling these boards to customers to very low prices.

I only had to buy these two boards for my art project. All the other equipment and materials I already had. The picture is
my own design, and I have used it in other projects as well!