AFFORDABLE CHRISTMAS DECORATING WITH THRIFTED & DIY DECOR

Welcome to our Green Acres everybody. I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas. I'm gonna work on some projects that I've been wanting to work on and make sure to stay Toward the end of the video because I'm going to show you some glimpses of some areas in my home that I have decorated for Christmas. So let's get started spending some time together. The first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take y'all to Goodwill. I'm in town on this day and I'm doing some Christmas shopping and every time I go to town I try to go through the Goodwill and see what kind of treasure we can find. Now they didn't have a lot on this day, but they did have a few things. So I wanted to make sure to bring them along to y'all. That snowman was really pretty. It had an easel back. It was I think around three foot tall and it was a Hobby Lobby piece. So I thought that was just neat. I thought these plates were really pretty. They were Threshold brand purchased from Target. This right here was very interesting and I know you could bring this home. You could probably take all these ornaments off, have a lot of ornaments to use on your Christmas tree and also do something else with this wooden tree. So so many possibilities for this. This would make a great DIY project. They had this priced at $14.99, but I'm sure it is well worth it and I'm sure somebody has handmade this. Now also on this day, they had this really cute Santa pilla. It was back in the back of the store kind of random. It wasn't over in the Christmas section. But they did have a shelf with a few, you know, random Christmas things. It was priced at $2.99. Unfortunately on this specific day, I left empty-handed, but another day that I ran in there with one of my friends, I absolutely loved this little go dish with the lid. I picked it up and it was only a $1.99. It comes with that really cute spoon. I'm not a big fan of the lid, but you can easily take the lid off and I am gonna style this and show you how pretty this will be for the Christmas season. You can set this out and put some of your favorite candies or peppermints in it. Have you seen this DIY project where people take oyster shells? They decoupage an image on it. You can go around with some gold rub and buff or you can paint these. Napkins will work really good on these. But I have really been wanting to make some of these and I found some, I guess these are more mussel shells than oyster shells, but I did find some of these in our yard. So I guess the previous owner for some reason, he had these randomly scattered throughout our yard. So I went around the yard, gathered up some, I brought them in, washed them really good with some soap and water. Look how pretty they are. Now, I am just taking some old decoupage paper scraps that I have left over. The decoupage paper sheet is this one right here. And I ordered it maybe a couple of years ago, but hopefully if you just go out and search on Christmas decoupage or rice paper, and you can also put in postage Christmas, of course, related if you want the Christmas theme for years. And that's what I'm gonna do today. I had some of these left over from that decoupage sheet. So I really want to use some items that I have on hand, so this don't cost me any money. I got the shells from my yard, and I'm just using some decoupage paper that I already had. Now napkins one ply will work really good, too, because they are real thin and you can put these on your shells also. And you can also paint the inside of your shells if you want to do that. I love the inside of my shells and the way they have that iridescent look. So I'm gonna leave mine just like they are. And using some decoupage medium, I'm just going around and applying some of it to the shell and also to the back of the decoupage paper image. Now, I'll go around each one, and I just kind of go around. You always let the paper be your guide with your scissors. You don't have to cut away perfectly, but you can go around and cut a lot of the excess paper off. And two, since mine were in a square shape, just to give it a little bit more, you know, of a design look, not like I just cut it out in a square. It also makes it look good. So I just went around each one, kind of trimmed off some of the excess background, and then applied each one using my decoupage medium, but you can always use mod podge. These right here work perfect. And I'm just going in and kind of I'm just kind of working with the images that I have and kind of place them on some of the shells that I have. And whichever, you know, image worked the best on the shell is the way that I apply them. It's such an easy project, but these turn out so pretty. And once you get these made, you can always, you know, apply some hangers to them, hang them on your Christmas tree, use these as ornaments. You can give these away as gifts, or you could just put these in a bowl and use these for a beautiful Christmas filler. Once you get all your designs applied to your shells, and they have dried really well, you can always go around the edge with a very small brush and just go around the edge of your shells and put some gold Rub and Buff on them. Another item that I found at Goodwill on another day was this beautiful basket. It was only 99 cents. These make great pieces to sell for the Christmas season. You can put some ribbon around them and then just decorate them in so many ways. You can add greenery, ornaments, your Christmas cards, just so many things you can do with a little 99 cent beautiful basket. In a video, I think last year, I showed y'all how you can bleach your own pine cones. I just gathered up pine cones from my yard, and then I did a bleaching process on them, and they turn out absolutely beautiful. It really does transform the color of them, and they are really pretty. So I'm just going to take some ribbon now. I cut mine pretty long because I wanted to make sure I had plenty, and then I'm just taking some hot glue, dabbing some in the top of each pine cone, and then put one end of that ribbon into that hot glue, letting it dry. I'm going to show y'all how you can make a really pretty pine cone garland or swag, and it's so easy, and it makes such a beautiful decorative piece. If you need something to hang somewhere, and maybe you're just out of gold veils or something, I think these pine cones will make the great addition to hang from a mantle or maybe a staircase or just somewhere where you need just a little bit more extra detail, and I think the natural look of these pine cones really bring in that beautiful Christmas and winter season vibe. I had enough pine cones to make two of these swags. One, I put eight pine cones, and the other I did seven. Once I got the ribbons hot glued to the top of each pine cone, I basically just staggered the lengths of my ribbon, and then I tied all the ribbons in a knot at the top. Also, I want to show y'all some beautiful artwork that arrived at my home. This was gifted to me by Zoe's Deco. Their artwork is 100% handcrafted. They offer free shipping globally, and they have 24-7 customer service around the clock. They have hassle-free returns within 30 days of your delivery, and also they have professional painters that paint each piece of artwork. I picked out this beautiful set of cranes. I'm gonna, you know, put these up over at our condo because I love cranes and herrings. I also got mine framed in this beautiful gold frame. You can get canvas style. You can get the frames. You, you know, you can pretty much go out and customize your artwork to fit your home in your style. They have so many styles to choose from, from minimalists to landscapes to animals. Just go out and check out all the many selections they have. They're also offering all of my viewers a 40% off site-wide discount code. So make sure to go out and use the code Teresa and get 40% off. They're already great deals because around Christmas time now is a great time to go out and get some new artwork for your home or possibly for a gift for someone. This right here is a timeless piece that you can have in your home. You never have to take this down. It just fits in your home throughout all the seasons. All of their artwork, like I told y'all, is customized and it's all painted by professional painters. So they put a lot of love and care into these pieces. I am so happy with these. So like I told y'all, make sure to use my discount code and go out and check out their website. Weren't those pieces of artwork absolutely beautiful? I haven't actually hung them on the wall yet because I'm still indecisive of where I want to hang them. There are so many options of where in the condo I can hang those and actually where this dog picture is after Christmas. I may put them here in our dining room so they will be front and center. I just want to show you the tree that I've got decorated over at the condo and how I decorated it. I did it in all white in neutrals. It's a white tree, but it's absolutely a really pretty tree actually. It's not an expensive tree. It's very budget-friendly one that I got at Walmart, you know, probably over five or six years ago, but I am still using it. I just add, you know, several ornaments. A lot of these I've gotten over the years at different places like Hobby Lobby and Walmart. These big ornament decor pieces, I picked these up at Target this year. Love these and I just set these around the tree. So I just want to give y'all some glimpses of some Christmas touches that I've put in over here at the condo. So now let's play some Christmas music and just let you see some of the areas that I've got decorated so far.