Christmas Card Wall Art by Silo Hill Farm

Today I have a special treat for all of my visitors!  Danni is sharing an awesome Christmas project with all of us!  Do you know Danni already?  If you don't, you're going to love her!  

Meet Danni:

Season's greetings to all of you Pondered Primed Perfected readers!  I'm Danni from Silo Hill Farm and it is my privilege  to be posting for my very good friend Sherry here today!  

 I'm delighted to share this cute, easy and inexpensive framed vintage photo project with you.

 The whole project came in at less than $2.00!  Gotta love that, right?
Here's how I did it.  The supplies are.........

Hinged double photo frame (Dollar Tree...guess how much? Yep $1!)  Photo mat (Dollar Tree....4/$1.00....that makes it 25 cents!)  Black and white photo from a Christmas card (free).  You can find a lot of very cool vintage Christmas photos for free at The Graphics Fairy though.
You can ignore the little package of gems, because in the end, I felt like I didn't need to use them.
Let me give you a close up of that Christmas card print because it's absolutely adorable, which is why I saved it for several years!

Seriously, do you not want to just hug that little girl??!!!  

I put the oval mat over the photo and slipped it into the large half of the frame.  

I wanted to put some cute saying or something in the small frame.  I made this on PicMonkey.  (I love PicMonkey!)  

It just seemed appropriate for the picture.  I printed it out, trimmed it to fit and put it in the small side of the frame.  It was at this point I decided not to add the little gems.  It somehow took away from the vintage feel of it.  

   It may be my favorite Christmas project this year.  Easy and inexpensive, yet simple and precious.  Come to think of it....that's just how I like my Christmas to be!  I hope yours is the way you want it to be as well!

Thanks for sharing this darling project Danni!  I love it!  That little girl with the Christmas tree is just a doll.  
Sherry

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Inspiration Cafe ~ Danni from Silo Hill Farm

Welcome friends and Happy Monday! 

Hope your weekend was fabulous. 

We had a great weekend here in the Pacific NW enjoying the mild, sunny weather before it slips away. 

Welcome back to Danni, from Silo Hill Farm!

Welcome Inspiration Cafe Patrons!  It's Danni from Silo Hill Farm today.  Fall is upon us here in the Midwest and with the change in the season comes some changes here at the cafe.  We are considering adding an occasional guest poster to our menu, so if you think you might like to give that a try, just contact any one of our wonderful Inspiration Cafe contributors and let them know!  
Today, I have two fun and easy projects for you, plus a few quick ways to spruce up some of your old fall decor.  Let's start with this:

Last year I had this half pumpkin and although I thought it was really cool in the store....when I brought it home and hung it on my wall....

 Blah!!

It just had zero pizazz and I was not lovin it.  This year I decided to cute it up a little and give it some presence.

I found these little leaves in the dollar bin at Michael's and thought they just might do the trick.

Now you don't have to have a half pumpkin to do this, it would be lovely on a regular foam pumpkin or, if you're ambitious and trust yourself with sharp instruments, you can cut a foam pumpkin in half.  Either way, just lay out your leaves the way you think they might look best.

I set my pumpkin in a colander to keep it stable while I worked.  Using white glue, adhere your leaves to the foam pumpkin and add whatever trimmings you like.  I used  some small bittersweet berries.  Easy as pumpkin pie!  Much better don't you think?

Now, because I was happy with this little makeover, I looked around and found a few other things that I thought I could spruce up a bit.

I had an oil candle that just had a ribbon tied around it.  Boring.  I added a few faux leaves from an old garland and a sparkly gem and voila....

Suddenly it has come to life with no money spent.  My favorite kind of project for sure!

Now I'm just looking for more easy, "use what I have" projects.  I'm not a huge fan of raffia, and I've had some for years that I've never used.  Cutting raffia can be a mess and it seems to go everywhere when I use it.  I just looped a bunch of it together and tied it together in the middle with some wire.

 Then I cut open each end of the loop on both sides and trimmed it down to a smaller size.  I wired a piece of bittersweet to hang down from the center and added a little ribbon bow to the center to hide the wire.  

It reminds me of mistletoe.  Autumn Mistletoe...not a bad idea!

If you are a regular follower, you might remember earlier this week I was lucky enough to receive some beautiful buckeyes from Mary at Sweet Little Bluebird.  I have been scattering them all over my fall decor because they are just so much fun!  I had a little mini-vase and I put some of the buckeyes in it and added small pieces of bittersweet.

 This is just a tiny little vase, sitting on an old ceramic insulator that I wrapped in a piece of garden twine.  I can think of several places in my home that have room for something tiny and fall-ish.  Sometimes when something is so simple and beautiful, it doesn't need to make a big statement.  

Pretty much the only money I spent on these four little makeovers was the leaves I got in the dollar bin at Michael's.  Not bad, huh?

The moral of this post is shop local....real local...like your own home!  Sometimes a "fresh coat of paint on the old barn door" looks pretty cute!

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White Board to Chalk Board ~ Inspiration Cafe #11

Hope everyone had a terrific weekend.  Crazy, busy, fun weekend here for me and my family.  Time to sit and enjoy some creativity with Danni from Silo Hill Farm.  Danni, take it away!

Welcome to the

For those of you that follow my blog, you know that most of my projects are pretty quick, fairly versatile and very inexpensive. 
With summer winding down, and a busy fall season just around the corner, I decided to make a small white board I could put on my fridge to remind me of some upcoming events that I'm looking forward to, like.....

 I started out thinking I was going to cute up this little whiteboard that I got from our bank when they had a grand opening for their new building.

Unfortunately, the pen was not a whiteboard marker.  Don't know what that was about, but anyway, I needed a change of plan.  I had a chalk marker and a piece of adhesive chalkboard vinyl that a friend gave me, so I figured it was time for my first chalkboard project.
Now I love Freedom Bank, but their logo just doesn't match my decor, so I got out my scissors, cut off the logo, trimmed down the chalkboard vinyl to fit, removed the pen holder, then got out my washi tape and trimmed the edges out.

Now it's looking a little cuter and I haven't spent a dime on this project.  I used a strip of magnetic tape that I cut in half and fastened on the marker to make it stick to my fridge so it will always be handy.

 You can see that I have some fun things coming up on my schedule.  I've decided to use it for only the fun things.  That way when I'm feeling overwhelmed, all I have to do is look at it and I'll be cheered up!  
Thanks for stopping by the Inspiration Cafe today and don't forget to come by again next Monday to see what Sherry from Pondered Primed Perfected {P3} has been doing.  You can bet it will be something special.

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Meet Danni from Silo Hill Farm ~ Inspiration Cafe #5

Hey!  Thanks for stopping by Inspiration Cafe!  Today you will be meeting Danni from Silo Hill Farm.  Danni is a girl after my own heart, I tell ya.  She is a Crafter who has a hard time throwing things out because she might find a use for them...eventually!  Boy, have I heard myself saying that a time or two.  :)


Grab a cup, sit back and check out what Danni has been up to lately:


I'm Danni from Silo Hill Farm and this is my first post for the Inspiration Cafe!  I'm excited and a little nervous, because the ladies who posted prior to me have set the bar so high! 

I really do live on a farm.  We grow corn and pumpkins.  Lots of pumpkins!  Every fall we open our farm to the public for a Fall Festival, complete with Corn Mazes, Pick Your Own Pumpkins, Horse-drawn Hayrides and tons of activities for kids.  But when I'm not busy farming, I'm a crafter and that's what I'm here to do today!

This Wall Banner is a really quick and inexpensive project that can be made in under an hour and can be easily adjusted to suit any decor style. (This just happens to be mine...for now...in this room.)

One of the biggest problems I have with being a crafter is I tend to save things I don't really use anymore because I think I can make something out of them.  This project is just such an example.  I found a single placemat underneath my towels in my linen closet.  I hadn't used these placemats in years, and I didn't save the whole set...just this one.  (I guess I can show some restraint, since I didn't save them all!)  Although I don't remember even saving it, as soon as I "found" it, I knew what I wanted to do with it.  

Here's the story morning glory:

I grabbed some craft paint, some buttons, a small dowel rod, a foam stamp and a make-up wedge/sponge/thing, which is great for putting craft paint on a foam stamp.  I have no idea how it is for putting makeup on.

I laid everything out on the placemat the way I thought I might like it to look and then I stamped the center. 

I sewed the buttons on the sides.  (You could glue them on, but every now and then I think I should sew a little something so I don't lose that barely acquired skill.)

For the dowel rod in the back, I took the easy route, as I so often do. 

I just made 3 pairs of slits in just one layer of the fabric on the back side and slid the tiny dowel rod through.  Then I tied a ribbon on to both ends of it.

 Now you could skip the whole dowel rod thing and just sew or glue the ribbon on.  I just had it in my head that the mini dowel rod would help it lay flat and straight.  By the way, that mini dowel rod came from Hobby Lobby a long time ago, and isn't much bigger than one of those little bamboo skewers, which would also work.

 There ya go!  A cute little piece of wall art made out of something that might have been thrown away.......and still can be, when I'm tired of it.  (But, I'll take the buttons off first, in case I want to use them for something else, some other day.)

If you enjoyed this post, it's simplicity, renewability, and it's versatility, please check out some of my other posts on my blog, because most of them fall into these categories.

Thanks for coming to the Inspiration Cafe today!

Don't forget to come back next Monday and see who's bringing their fabulous talent to the Cafe next!

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