Christmas Cards and DIY Projects

Got my Christmas Cards and pictures ordered.  I got these cards from here and after shipping paid $0.20 each:

Inside:  Matthew 1:21 "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."

And here is our picture to put in each card (I just saw a report on tv where people's personal pictures are stolen from the internet...hence my new watermark).  I ordered the pictures here and paid $0.15 each. 

Add a stamp and it all comes out to $0.79 each card sent out.  Not too bad.  My goal is to have them all out by the 12th.

See the clock on the far right above Shane's shoulder?  My mom's dad, we called him Pop, collected and fixed up old clocks.  This is one of the two I got after my grandmother (we called her Abuela) passed away and is one of my favorite things (need to do a Favorite Things Friday about clocks, don't I?).  I'm going to include a quick note in the cards we send to my family about the clock and honor my Pop and Abuela this Christmas.

Ok...moving on to the DIY part of this post.  I actually have two little projects.

The first one is the one I mentioned a few days ago.

From Better Homes and Gardens

From Abbey @ Practically Perfect

This really requires no explanation, you just cut a globe in half and add some potpourri.  I already had an old globe so this only cost me $2.50 for the potpourri (I was going to get pine cones from the yard but I really liked the colors of the potpourri).  The end.

This next one is a rip-off of about five million other bloggers' ideas.  (Sorry the pictures are so dark, I had to take these last night.)  First I made this little garland.  Cut out felt circles, stitch them together. 

Then I draped the garlands (they're actually 3 very short garlands) around a couple sticks I picked up from my yard.  I stuck them in a vase I found at Goodwill.  I didn't LOVE the vase, but I liked it.  I wasn't totally sold for $7.99.  Then I looked at the bottom and it's Pottery Barn.  So I bought it.  I'm nothing if not a sucker.  Anyway, I put some foam balls in the bottom of the vase to hold up the sticks, used a pipe cleaner to hold the bases together and poured popcorn kernels in the bottom.  Hey, just working with what I have, ok?  If you found a bag of popcorn kernels with your Christmas stuff you'd use them to hold up some sticks, too...don't judge.

The vase looked too gray against all the silver things I had on the piano so I hung this Noel sign from it.  It's from Hobby Lobby and I just love it.  Later I added a red bead garland to the top of the vase (you can see it in the next picture) but I think I like the naked look better.  Anyway, I already had the thread and felt (and foam balls and pipe cleaner and popcorn kernels) and paid $8.00 for the vase, $2.50 for the Noel ornament...so $10.50 for this project.

So here's a picture of my piano so far.  I'm still moving things around.  Some of this will probably end up on the mantle above the fireplace once we get that in place.  And I think I'm going to switch out the light switch cover above the lantern (and have Shane patch the wall if he has time).

What looks out of place?  Should I add some greenery or something?

I'm linked to Kimba's DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land and to The Inspired Room..go check out some more projects!