Simple Red Burlap Bubble Christmas Wreath

I just love that simple and natural look of burlap wreaths, and I saw some on Easy that have tight, packed bubbles instead of full swooping loops.   I knew a tight, red burlap wreath would look perfect for Christmas on our stone fireplace.  So I studied up on several tutorials, and gave it a try.  Here is what I came up with:

This took a little longer then the other wreaths that I have made, but so far it is my favorite one.  I used a styrofoam wreath for the base and about 2 yards of red burlap that I cut into 5"x5" squares.  In order to make it look nice a full I really packed the burlap bubbles onto the wreath.  I wanted to keep it simple so I added just a white burlap bow.

Here are a couple of the tutorials that I used to learn how to make this style of wreath:

• Burlap Poinsettia Wreath from See Vanessa Craft
• Burlap Bubble Wreath Tutorial from The DIY Playbook
• Burlap Bubble Wreath Tutorial from A Glimpse Inside

It really was not hard at all to make, it just took patience to cut the squares of burlap.  And then each square of burlap had to be folded into burlap and pinned in place.

Jingle All the Way Shadow Box -- Take 2

A few years ago I made these inexpensive and awesome gifts for my boys' daycare teachers.  Remember these?  (Click here to see the original post with instructions).

Well I needed to make a few more as teacher gifts again this year, but when I meant to Michael's they were out of the black shadow boxes but I came across some awesome white ones.  This time I used multiple sizes of bells, and added an extra sparkly red bow with silver trim.

Red Ribbon Christmas Tree

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is time to finally focus on Christmas -- my favorite time of year.  And most importantly -- decorating my Christmas tree.

I decided to try something new for me this year, and instead of using metallic garland beads, I decided to give ribbon a try.  I had some glittery shear ribbon and some shiny red ribbon that I had bought several years ago and never used.  So I layered the silver ribbon on top of the red ribbon and laid it onto the tree.  It did not quite look complete, so we added a bow to the star to top the tree off.

And in our house it is just not quiet Christmas until you get the Christmas Mickeys and the Christmas Snoopy's in front of the fire place.

And the view gets even more magical at night.  I so love the ambiance of a lit Christmas tree in the quite of the night!

Still got lots of work to do -- outdoor decorations are not up yet, the entry way is not decorated, and I haven't even started on our kitchen and basement.