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The Frugal Homemaker

Your guide to turning your house into a home... one DIY project and yard sale find at a time

Christmas projects + December recap

December 31, 2012

I have enjoyed doing monthly recap posts the last few months so thought it would be good to recap just December and give everyone a post to reference to view all of the Christmas projects/posts of this year.

2012 Christmas projects

I had a lot of fun doing a totally new color scheme/theme for Christmas this year with the neutrals/burlap/metallics and more.  And I enjoyed doing many more homemade projects than I have ever done before for Christmas.  You can see a quick view of them above.

But let’s recap the month.

First we started with our “A Homemade Christmas” 3 week series with three of my blogging friends.   There were TONS of great projects shared over our four blogs during that series.  Go to this post to see pictures and links to them all.

A Homemade Christmas

My first project in the homemade Christmas series was my DIY mercury glass ornaments.  Clear glass ornaments and spray paint created these vintage looking ornaments.

DIY Mercury Glass Ornaments

Then I showed you how to create an easy faux evergreen wreath embellished with natural elements and plaid ribbon.  You can customize this wreath in any color or theme that you wanted.

Faux Evergreen Wreath

I had been wanting to make this music page wreath for months!  And finally got it done so it could be the center of my Christmas mantel.

Vintage Music Page Wreath

I showed you how I decorated my Christmas mantel and hearth with things pulled from all over the house, yard sale finds, and natural elements.

Christmas mantel

And I made burlap stockings! So fun! I will definitely be making stockings again if I change up my color scheme for other years.

DIY Burlap   Lace Stockings

I was excited to do some fun campaigns this year too.  I got to share the Christmas joy with a shelter with the help of Cost Plus World Market

Sharing the Joy with World Market

I whipped up a quick pillow made from a placemat!  Many of you also said you did the same thing and even gave some as gifts this year.

Placemat pillow

I got to give back again by sharing my Better Homes and Gardens blanket from Wal-mart with you and helping to get some blankets donated to children’s hospitals.

BHG blanket

I finally revealed my neutral Christmas tree this year.  It was a fun change from the traditional reds of Christmas.

Neutral Christmas tree

We ended our homemade Christmas series with a linky party and many of you came and linked up your homemade projects.  You can go here to check out all those projects.

A Homemade Christmas linky party button

I have always loved the ruffled tree skirts I see on Pinterest and I finally got to create my own burlap and lace ruffled tree skirt.  It took a little bit of time but it wasn’t hard.  And the end result was totally worth it!

DIY Burlap and Lace Christmas Tree Skirt

I showed you how I decorated our Christmas front porch.  I LOVED this porch this year – the hanging candle lanterns are my favorite part.  I might have to keep them up for winter Smile

Christmas Front Porch

I shared our Christmas card with you and wished you a Merry Christmas!

Christmas card

And then recapped the year a bit last week with the top projects of 2012.

Top projects of 2012

And I shared all my mantels of the whole year in one post.  I can’t pick a favorite – I love them all!  Now can I come up with all different ideas for this year?  Going to be a challenge!

2012 year of mantels

I know I say this a lot, but thanks for reading The Frugal Homemaker!  2012 was my first full year of blogging here and it was a tremendous year.  I am looking forward to sharing many new things with you in 2013, learning and growing in blogging + DIY projects, continuing to find my style, decorating better (but still on a budget!), and getting to know you better too.

We are having friends over tonight to play games, eat lots of yummy food, and ring in the New Year!  Hope you have a wonderful New Year as well.  See you in 2013!

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Comments

  1. Debbie says

    December 31, 2012 at 3:17 PM

    Beautiful photos, your home is so lovely. And yes, keep those lanterns up all winter, heck, all year! They’ll go with whatever decor you do on your porch, they are fabulous!
    Happy New Year! Have fun entertaining tonight.
    Debbie 🙂

    Reply

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  1. Red and JOYful Christmas mantel with natural elements - The Frugal Homemaker says:
    December 23, 2013 at 2:42 PM

    […] fact this same angle/view of last years Christmas décor has been my phone background and front screen this […]

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Hi!  My name is Christina . . .

I love doing simple, frugal things to make our house feel like HOME! Come learn along with me how to have a beautiful home on a budget.

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