being creative

Welcome to Anna K. Originals! So glad that you took the time to click over and stop by for a visit. I’m linking up with the Christmas Mantle Link Party hosted by the ever-creative Beth at Home Stories A-Z. Thanks for hosting this fun link up, Beth!

Having said that, I'm sure some of you may be wondering why it says "Christmas Fantle" in my title instead of Christmas Mantle. Well, I don't have a fireplace, but I did manage to rescue a solid wood mantle piece from the side of the road some time ago and now we have a fake mantle ('fantle'). We had it hung in our dining area during a recent remodel. Now on to the pictures!

Did anyone else go into Pinterest overload with Christmas decorating ideas? Yeah, me too. It is a total treasure trove of ideas, projects, and inspiration...but, eventually, I had to pull myself away and take a look at what I already had on hand. And I'm digging what I came up with! I still look at it and see 16 different things I'd like to add or try, however, I have a family that likes to eat occasionally and other things that need our money more.

My oldest son said it looks like a cool forest. That made me smile because that's kinda what I was aiming for - a take on the Christmas scenes/villages that everyone loves so much, just with a mixed-media twist. Here is a quick run down of what went into the making of our Christmas Fantle~

Star (purchased a few years ago)
Cone Trees (Styrofoam/Paper covered in felt, old book pages, yarn, or paint)
Little bird houses ($1 at Michael's)
Yarn-wrapped foam balls (left over from our Christmas Tree)
Wooden "NOEL" ornament (purchased a few years ago)
White scarf ($5 from Big Lots)
Old books and other items to lift objects up (hidden under scarf)

The tree on the left (above) is covered with vintage dictionary pages and a sparkly, bright green ribbon. I like the way the shiny ribbon and aged paper contrasts against one another. The yarn-wrapped tree on the right was originally a Styrofoam cone that I cut into three sections, wrapped with green yarn, and stuck through with a bamboo skewer. It's resting on a glass votive that I filled with neutral colored felt to give it the feeling of a pot. I originally had the white scarf on a table in the living room, but the snow-like effect was soo cool that it was moved to the fantle.

Ribbon and felt leaf shapes cover the two cones in the background and are flanked by more yarn ornaments and another simple birdhouse. I thought it was important to bring in simple elements to balance the colors and textures going on in the rest of the fantle. The bluish-green tree that you see is one of my mixed-media creations. I used layers of tissue and paint, with strips of sheet music for garland and a white gel pen for this unique tree. One of those paper mache cone forms from Michael's is the base.