Bringing the Outdoors In

Thanksgiving is over and right around the corner is Christmas. I started to decorate for Christmas and I like to bring the outdoors in.

When we were in Vermont this summer, I found an old door screen that I bought. I also brought home some birch logs from my son's farm.

I hung the old screen in my lanai and cut the log into thin slices for making a Christmas sign.

For the Merry Christmas letters: I used my small chop saw to cut thin slices from the birch logs. If you don't have access to wood or a chop saw, you can purchase already cut wood disks at craft stores. 

Then I used my wood burning tool to write a letter on each one of the wooden disks. I found my wood burning tool at A.C. Moore for around $15, with coupon it was about $7.If you don't have a wood burning tool, you could use a magic marker to write your letters or you could paint them on.

Next I used my drill press to make a hole in each one of the disks. You could also use a drill. I used jute for hangers and then tied them onto another piece of jute that I would hang. You could also use wire for hangers.

For the wood garland:  While I was in Vermont, I would find all of these branches from when they cut down the trees. (They cut down about 20+ trees) So again, using a chop saw, I cut them into 5 inch lengths. Then I used jute again and tied the jute around one piece of wood. You just keep adding wood and tying each piece. You can find complete instructions for making these wooden garland over at Donna's at Funk Junk Interiors.

The old screen door:  I loved this screen door since it was small. I think it was an insert for a door or it could be for a window, but it doesn't seem like it would be for a window. Anyway, it needed some repairs. Now I love old stuff but because I wanted to hang it, I just wanted to replace the screen part. 

I took each wooden piece off carefully that was holding in the screen. One section was cracked, but I was able to get it off and put back again. Repairing the screen was easy, getting all of the pieces off was a little more difficult, patience is the key here.  

This hole was quite big, while the bottom one was not so bad.

I left it with its original paint and added some hooks so I could hang it. It is perfect for lanai with all of my plants around it. I don't put too much out here but needed something simple. The best part was I only had to pay for the screen, the rest was free. Yea!!

So when you are doing your decorating, you might want to head outdoors and look for some branches/twigs. The craft stores are filled with pre-cut slices if you can't find any of your own. 

The post  Bringing the Outdoors In first appeared on Eclectic Red Barn.

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