On The Fourth Day Of Craft-Mas

On the fourth day of Craft-mas the crafting gods gave to me, burlap vase covering, so pretty!

This was a total impromptu project spawned from my love affair with fake flowers.  Yes…the flowers above are fake.  I know, I know…cringe, gasp, ewwwwww!  I’m growing out of it, I swear, but I still have quite the obsession with fake flowers.  They don’t die, they last FOREVER, and they always look perfect even without regular watering.  But, like I said, I am starting to grow up and prefer real plants (thank goodness).  Because alas, fake flowers always do look fake.  Anywho, I was setting up our tree and digging through random Christmas decorations when this project simply dawned on me.  As much as I love my fake flowers, I hate looking at the stems through clear, glass vases.

And let’s swoop in for an even closer look.

Armed with burlap and ribbon, I set out to dress up the fake flowers and make them look…well…less fake.  Here are my supplies for the project:

My supplies were simple.  I used a strip of burlap that I already had (recognize it?  It’s the same piece of burlap that I used back here on our holiday table setting which has since been picked up and put back in the cupboard.), some ribbon (also had on hand…I had used it to wrap a present for my grandma a couple years ago and my grandma being grandma promptly returned it to me so I could reuse it), and some straight pins from my sewing kit.  First up, I wrapped the vase with the burlap.

Yes, those are my arms.  Vanna White watch out, I’m coming after your gig next!  I kid, I kid.  But seriously, check out those biceps?!  Oh, and I should also mention that (since both my hands are completely visible here) I did not take these pictures.  Photo cred goes to Colby.  He managed to take over 40 pictures of burlapping and ribboning…oh…and a few butt shots (boys…sheesh) which I promptly deleted.  But he was VERY thorough in his photography…I just may have to keep him around!  The next step was to temporarily pin the burlap in place with the straight pins so it would stay in place for the ribbon adding process.

Voila…already looking better.

To add even more flair, I tied the sparkly, red ribbon around the burlap covered vase and tied it in a knot.

Then looped the remaining ribbon into a bow-like configuration and used a couple of straight pins to pin the bow in place.

So simple and quick.  It only took about five minutes to put the vase wrap together and I would have to say, it’s made a big improvement.  It looks SOOOOOOO much classier (as classy as fake flowers can get) on the parlor console.

And to prove that I’m not all about fake flowers all the time, here’s a poinsettia that I picked up to help spruce up the place in a more natural way.

This hot chick lives on the media cabinet in the living room.

Here’s hoping that I don’t kill the poor plant.  Must…remember…to water…plants…must…remember…to water…plants.

Pssst…Heads up, next Craft-mas project might just be adding a complementing piece of art to the Santa/underwear art project that we tackled here.  I cannot WAIT to show you! 

Psssssst…anyone else out there have a super adorable grandma (who they love immensely) who saves them wrapping paper and ribbon?!  I love my grandmas!!!