drapery panels from Ballard Design

Instead of b00-hooing about the fact that I could never afford these curtains, I decided to try my hand at hand-stamping my own curtains. I had two pairs of white sheer panels that I had purchased at our local dollar store (total for two pairs: $20). I would have preferred a heavier fabric but since I already had these curtains I decided to use them.  I had some black fabric paint on hand, so all I needed to do was design a stamp.

I first looked at several medallion patterns online and made a few sketches. Since the homemade stamp was going to require a lot of fine cut work I decided to use the simplest design.

I traced my design onto some craft foam, cut it out using an X-acto knife…

…glued the cut out design to a wood block…and presto! A homemade stamp was born.

I spread one curtain over my dining room table and went to work stamping. I quickly learned that the panels shifted easily, causing the paint to smear, so I placed a white sheet of paper under each area that was to be stamped and heat-set the design with a blower dryer before moving on to another area.

In about two hours (phew!) I had new curtains that cost a fraction of what I would have spent on designer panels!

In the future I will be looking for heavier weight panels (probably a cotton/twill blend) as these sheers are great for summer, but I would prefer something sturdier for the winter months.

Although the days of sticky dough and messy glue are gone (well, maybe a bit of messy glue is still necessary!), I still enjoy making my own Christmas ornaments and decorations.

I usually try to use whatever I have on hand – pipe cleaners, felt, glue, spray paint, glitter, or paper. From paper snowflakes to sewn felt ornaments – I think homemade is the best!

This year I had a bunch of left over craft felt so I got busy cutting, sewing and stuffing and came up with these…

…super cute, and super easy. All you need is felt, rick-rack, ribbon, a sewing machine and a bit of stuffing to give the ornament dimension.

Another favorite, and super simple ornament – pipe cleaner snowflakes:

You simply cut lengths of pipe cleaner (use old scissors or wire cutters) and twist them together to form snowflakes.

This year I snagged a ton of glass ornaments on clearance and decided to decorate them with glue and glitter:

These are a bit messy and time consuming but they are really cute. Since I had the glitter out and had a bunch of dried beechnuts, I decided to glitter them as well…

I tied ribbon to them and hung them on my branch display. I love these, and so does the cat! We find them on the floor almost every morning. I knew I wanted to decorate with white branches this Christmas so in the fall I collected and spray- painted branches white and then used them for display…

And also made them into a wreath that I then wrapped with a garland I purchased at Ikea.

So…go root through your drawers and see what great things you can find to make your own homemade ornaments. Have a safe and happy holiday!