Christmas Mantel Display

Finally, a few minutes to share my craftiness of the past week with you! Last week, my family came to visit for Thanksgiving and then Black Friday was actually my birthday. My sweet hubby took me out and let me purchase up some goods for making our new home pretty for the holidays. I've been so excited to decorate for Christmas since we first laid our eyes on this mantel. I knew it had to be something simple and yet powerful. So, here you go:

Started off with an idea from that addicting site and it turned out so well. This is everything as I originally purchased it. Let's just say the colors probably would have worked okay, but I wanted it to look more Christmasy, so I had to make some changes.

First, the letters I bought at Hobby Lobby. The 'N' and 'L' were in the clearance aisle for $10/letter. They both had some very tacky doodads on them, but I got creative and removed and painted them to fit. The 'E' was also purchased at Hobby Lobby for $6. The star was also from HL and was on sale for $10, it was super cute so I had to pick it up. The stick wreath I bought at the Dollar Tree. And the lantern was the one I used in the Thanksgiving Mantel Display. The Christmas tree was our first Christmas tree as husband and wife when we lived in our one bedroom apartment....oh, memories....

Here is the finished product:

You can see that the 'E' is totally different. That's because after I picked up the first 'E', my mom and I returned to Hobby Lobby later in the day and I found this one...already painted the perfect shade of red for the display. The 'N' we painted green and the 'L' we painted brown. A touch of Christmas lights and there you have it. I absolutely LOVE it! (Once I find our stockings, those will be up there too.)