The Colorful Cabinet and a DIY holiday craft even I could do!

The wind must have been blowing in the right direction for my pictures to upload. This is the great blue cabinet that Debbie from Whimseys delivered to the Austin Antique Mall for me last week. I love all the open shelving space and hope to have this piece hanging around for awhile!

While at the Rusted Gingham Barn Sale earlier this month, the first table I saw had these great crafted Christmas trees.

I bought two of these trees - the smaller ones with decorative tissue paper and a larger one covered in coffee filters - genius! The closer I looked at these trees, the more I thought about how I could possibly make them! Now, I am by far the least crafty person. So for me to decide to do this, you know it has to be simple. On my way home from the Barn Sale, I stopped at Hobby Lobby and bought a tall cardboard style Christmas-tree shaped cone (which happened to be 50% off - I think I paid around $2 for it). I also picked up some tack glue and some glitter glue. Since I have given up my morning coffee habit, I probably have a few hundred coffee filters in my kitchen cabinets. I used the neutral tanish colored ones, but you could also use white.

Really the only directions are to fold the filters in half, and then cut out the center. Here is a picture I borrowed from Crafts by Amanda.

You can find more thorough directions on the above link, but her tree has more 'ingredients' and is a tad more complex. I take the simple route and just started at the bottom of the tree and glued the filters around. As you work your way up the cone, you will need to trim the filters and use a portion. The only thing I suggest is to not just slide the filter over the cone - it flares out in an inconsistent way.

Since I didn't think to photograph my tree while I was making it, here again is a stolen picture from Amanda's blog. This is what her's looked like as she worked her way up a styrofoam cylinder (note that these do not have pointed tops):

And here is my finished product, standing next to the purchased one:

I haven't yet added any glitter to mine, but I kind of like it in its rustic natural state! A simple craft that even I could manage. Now, creating a burlap banner with spraypainted holiday phrases was not so successful....oh well. I will stick to shopping for my booth rather than creating for it!

In case I do not post before the holiday, I want to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving. A big thank you to the readers of this blog who make me want to continue to share my journey as a new 'antiquer.' I am thankful to have met so many wonderful people already in my short time blogging and antiquing.

I have so much for which to be grateful and I am thrilled to have spent fun times with lots of loved ones in the midwest this week! Check back for pictures of my trip with some amazing stores and displays!

Happy Thanksgiving,

Sarah