A Little Christmas Jingle

I decided it was time to give the mantle in the den a little Christmas/Winter cheer.  It just looked so bare and sad with all of the autumn decor removed.  I kind of started on Monday when my new "free to me" chalk pen came in the mail.  I was soooo excited to have this, thinking it would look great on the chalkboards I have painted around the house.  The label and advertisement say that it works well on non-porous surfaces and is easy to wipe off.  It does work really well on the chalkboards and looks great.  However, it is not easy to remove.  I did a test spot before scribbling all over the board on the mantle, and I'm pretty sure I will need to repaint it after the Christmas season is over.

Notice how my "test spot" is more of a long, squiggly line in the middle of the word HIGHEST?  Yeah, I need to work on my test spot skills.

I didn't really think that the sign was going to be quite enough clutter on the mantle, so I set forth to create...something.  After much thought-mulling and wandering around the house with my hands behind my back, I had it!  A jingle bell tree!  Not only would this spruce up my mantle (pun ever-so-slightly intended), it would use up some of the 45,000 jingle bells left over from our wedding.

I promise, this is just a small fraction of them.

I spent a few minutes pulling them off of the wedding ribbon and lined them up in the shape of a tree.  My plan was to stitch them on and then find a suitable hanger.

After about 10 minutes, I realized I wasn't going to get the look I wanted with the needle and thread, so I went back to my old stand-by, HG2 (hot glue gun).  I seriously don't know why I even bother putting this wonder away.  I'm usually dragging it back out about thirty minutes after I do.

To give the burlap more structure with the heavy bells, I added a "frame" of craft sticks to the back.

I led myself to believe that it needed a little color, so I added this red ribbon (with a crazy amount of glue) to use as a hanger.

Annnnnd we're getting there!  The burlap is very similar in color to the board where I hung it up, so I may go back and add a little something more.

I have also begun to play that favorite game of Mary Poppins, "Let's Tidy up the Nursery."  Except that this is not a nursery, and with no Mary Poppins here, I'm sadly unable to accomplish my task by merely snapping my fingers.

Looking better, no?