A Joyful Christmas | A Joyful Riot

DIY Mini Bottle Brush Tree Garland

December 2, 2017

I’m not going to write one of those posts apologizing for my lack of content creation lately. I’m not. Ok…I guess I am. Machelle has been single-handedly keeping this blog alive while in school with two kids. She is amazing. I on the other hand have no kids and am not in school. But I have a job. That is not a great excuse now that I am typing it out though.

So sorry for my lack of project creation lately. I thought I would ease back into it with a 5 minute project for you all. And I thought that this was so simple it must have been done a hundred times already but I searched and couldn’t find it. So if any of you have already seen one done go easy on me ok!

Bottle brush trees are my favorite Christmas decoration and have been for years. They’re timeless that way. I have included them in my holiday decor for at least the past five years. Last year I got a great deal on a bunch of these mini trees and used them as ornaments on my tree which I loved. This year, however, I got rid of my white Christmas tree (RIP) and opted for a green one. This left my mini trees discarded to the side and I had to use them for something!

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DIY Color Blocked Wood Christmas Forest

December 17, 2015

I used to dream about having a fireplace with a mantel so that I could decorate it for holidays. Now that I have one it has proven to be quite difficult for me to actually come up with decor ideas. Some people are really good at styling mantels, I am not one of those. Please teach me your ways people! This year all I wanted was a bunch of bottle-brush trees and I did try to make my own yarn ones but they were too time consuming to be realistic (says the woman who spent 6 hours making that pom-pom garland ha). So after that attempt I brought out my trusty balsa wood and fashioned a whole forest of colored trees and it took maybe an hour and was much cheaper than buying 15 trees!

See all the fun angles and colors you can use? I was limited in width by the size of the balsa board I had so I also just went ahead and made a few trees from multiple triangles that you can see above.

You probably don’t need directions on these little trees, but click through for the super simple how-to just in case!

Mini Yarn Wall Hanging Ornaments | #swapthatdiy

December 14, 2015

We are beyond thrilled to participate in another awesome DIY blogger swap! Remember last time we got the most amazing desk caddy from Christina Williams? Wait until you see what ridiculously creative ornament we got this time around! You will die.

First though I guess I should show you what we sent to our lovely swap partner, The Sweetest Occasion! You know those wonderful yarn wall hangings that have been all the rage lately? Well, Machelle and I were discussing making mini versions of them for a necklace (which would still be amazing to do wink, wink) but once we got this ornament blogger swap going I thought that the idea would also translate nicely into ornaments. I also had less traditional yarn colors available so if you want them to be extra festive feel free to grab the perfect shade or red and some gorgeous greens for these mini hangings!

Click through to see the how to for this yarn ornament and all the rest of the amazing bloggers involved but first check out the AHMAZING ornaments we got from our girls at J.Sorelle Blog!

It’s a geronimo balloon! Are you kidding me?!! I’m so absolutely in love with these, I definitely think we won the swap! What a cute idea! To see how to make some of your own, head right here!

DIY Printed Faux Fireplace | Free Printable

December 12, 2015

So I don’t have a fireplace.

This is sad to me for a number a reasons, all the charming decor you can do around them, the instant warmth they seem to add to a room even if there’s no fire crackling within. But mostly, I don’t think about it much until Christmas rolls around. Then I feel like my home is missing a necessary appendage. I mean, where will we hang the stockings and more importantly how on earth will Santa get in to leave us our gifts?!

Because I need me some gifts and also because I love hung stockings for the weeks leading up to Christmas, I decided to take care of this problem with some hand DIYing this year.

I’ve seen some really fabulous chalkboard fireplaces, cardboard fireplaces and even flat out fake-but-look-just-like-the-real-thing wood built fireplaces but I wanted something even less permanent and especially less work than all of those options. So I made one to print out instead!

DIY Peony Ornaments

December 7, 2015

Here in the U.S. peony season is over :( I am beyond obsessed with these large, petal-filled flowers so when I stop seeing beautiful ones at the farmer’s market it’s really a loss. But these fake ones aren’t half bad so I nabbed a few at the store the other day.

I’m in full on Christmas mode though so these couldn’t just be displayed, oh no! I needed to make them festive! The perfect solution was these simple ornaments. They fill out my tiny side table tree perfectly but a large tree filled with them would be to die for too! If you’re looking for an easy way to decorate your tree with big impact that won’t cost you a fortune, this is the answer!

We decked ours out a little with glitter and beads but you can even skip that step for something as easy as cut and stick! Really, what could be easier? And at this time of year don’t we all need a little ridiculously easy-ness?? Click the Continue Reading button to see just how we accomplished this look and more pictures!