Spring Mantle!

Yesterday, I decided to add a little Springy-ness to my house. The first place? My mantle. Now, my mantle is pretty small; it is walled in by two columns on either side. I cannot wait until I have a long, free standing mantle in my next house! So, I did what I could with what I could. I was feeling the grassy greens and pale yellows, so I tried to incorporate those into the mantle.

After all of the Chr*stmas decorations were put away, I left these sticks that I had cut off of the Bradford pear tree in the front yard. Very neutral, and very winter. I just left them in a white pitcher on top of the bar area in the kitchen.

I liked how they looked so much that I wanted to keep them around. So, I bought some yellow tissue paper, folded over about six times, and then cut this shape into it:

I ended up with dozens of these little fellas. (And yes, I was crafting on the carpet. We're pulling it up soon, and I figure that the more I spill on it, the quicker Husband will be willing to do so).

I then took three petals at a time and hot-glued them to look like this:

I then broke out the mini terra cotta pots that I had bought at Hobby Lobby on clearance (.25 cents for 6!) and brushed a light coat of white paint on them.

Here is my workstation. On the carpet.

After the white dried, I lightly brushed a coat of gray over top, and this was the finish that I got.

I think coated the insides with gray paint as well.

I talked about my love for the "As-Is" section in Ikea in this post, and I had recently picked up this wooden shelf for .49 cents. It was solid wood, had no holes in it, and I knew I would use it for something, someday.

So, I sanded it down and dry-brushed a coat of white paint onto it. I then printed out these letters on my computer and cut them out to make an old-fashioned stencil.

After that dried, I started piling things on the mantel!

I shamelessly copied Layla's idea for the bird in the frame. I bought this frame on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $1.60, and I put a piece of burlap as a background with a white mat. I found the bird clip art online, and cut it out for a stencil on yellow card stock. The greenery came from the dollar store, and the pitcher is available in my Etsy shop!

Here are my newly-painted terra cotta pots with some mossy greenery that I also purchased at the dollar store.

A close up of my tissue paper flowers....I just simply hot-glued them to the branches, and I'm in LOVE! I think I'm going to do this for every season.

The sign turned out pretty awesome...After the black lettering dried, I gave the entire thing a quick sanding for an aged look.

I can just paint back over it when the season changes!

The robin's eggs and nest that I purchased at this store.

I made the topiaries in the back awhile ago with styrofoam balls (the dollar store) and cut branches from a mini Chr*stmas tree. I just left them on the mantle because they matched!

The pitcher with the tissue paper blooms.

And there ya have it! Spring has finally sprung at my house!

Linking up to these oh-so-fab blogs!

Tweet Pin It Now!