A couple of years ago we painted the unattractive brick fireplace and room-darkening paneling in our family room. It’s on the north side of the house and could get kind of gloomy in the winter. What a difference it made! Some time later we put up a simple, floating oak mantel. Hooray for more space to display seasonal collections!
Here’s what part of it looks like for the Easter/spring season:
Do you remember when Stampin’ Up! had a line of jewelry? There were pendants of different sizes (some with beveled glass) and charms of all sorts. I loved that mini catalog, from spring 2012, I believe. The pendants were hinged and double-sided so you could insert artwork. I still have these, including the one you can see on the dress form, above. I water colored that little bunny (from which set?), then added a narrow strip of DSP along the side, edged with a tiny line of glitter. I still love the way it looks:
On the mantel you can also see the HOME frame we made in a specialty class in October 2018. Along with a base of black, die-cut letters (H M E), we created eight different matted ovals with seasonal/holiday scenes to attach to the base in place of the missing O. I’m not sure who originated this concept (you see variations all over the web); my friend Jennifer Taylor and I collaborated on this class. I sometimes display it on a side table in the living room or hang it on the front door.
Even though no one is seeing this mantel IRL this year, it makes my heart happy!
