Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiday. Show all posts

Thursday, December 18, 2014

A Lauer Christmas Home Tour - Cardinals, Candy canes & Burlap - Kitchen, Bath and Dinning Room - Part 2

Good morning readers!

I am thrilled to be adding the Part 2 to this series, A Lauer Christmas Home Tour. One fantastic thing about his is I get to share my new home with my family and friends who have not been able to see it since we now live so far away. 


Today I am honored to be a part of a second Parade of Christmas Home Tours! This home tour has been well organized and generously hosted by Up To Date Interiors. Thank you Kathryn for allowing me to be a part of your special on Bloggers Best homes. 





Now let us get started, grab a cup of tea or coffee and take a few min to come on in, and let me show you around. Enjoy, and please subscribe or find me on my social media and follow, share, pin or comment your thoughts. Thank you for your support!

The Dinning Room

I just love the arches that cross between the dinning room and our back living room. We have two, one very large one with a 10' arch and a smaller one with a 3.5' wide arch. When we bought the house I knew I wanted to put our Christmas Tree there! It was perfect, we only had one tall tree but we had high ceilings in this new home of ours. So this would be a perfect spot to nestle the tree into and with the arch it makes the tree seem taller as it reaches up to the center of the arch.


The decor in the dinning room is a mix between the red and white in the kitchen and the red, gold and burlap in the back living room. 



The center piece is a Better Homes and Garden's candle holder filled with Dollar Tree Ornaments. 



I just love apothecary jars and this one full of sweet candy cane goodness is not exception. It gets decorated for every season or holiday.


Cardinals

Cardinals have a special place in my heart. Luckily they are found everywhere at Christmas time. My Grandfather used to sit in his bed, ill and unable to go outside, and watch the cardinals feed on the bird feeder outside his window. He has left this world now and is up in heaven with his maker. Though it's been over 5 years since his passing, the last days I was able to spend with him was during Christmas when he would tell me all the local cardinal's names as they came to feast outside his window. Cardinals were his favorite and this time of year seeing them everywhere brings him a little closer to me once again. 


In the image above there are also some handmade ornaments a glittered angel, a Christmas Mouse that I made as a child, and in the bottom right corner we have several book page ornaments my kids made this year at a workshop I taught at the local book store. Here are some more links to some other Book page art projects I have worked on this year. The second link is a great tutorial to this fun Kid Craft Ornament
If you want to see more of my Holiday Book Page art and ornaments please check out these links.
2014 Book Page Holiday Creations:

The Powder Room

I always love little surprises when people visit my home and they remember the details. Like decorating the powder room. It's a relatively small space so it doesn't need much to make an impact. 


Some extra flowers and ribbon, a few bows, a Santa hat and some wonderful paper snowflakes my nine year old daughter made for me.


Wrap the lid to the tank like a fancy present. 




The Kitchen


The kitchen is one of my favorite spots during the holidays! I love to bake and cook for entertaining friends and family. A few years ago I stumbled into a Dollar Tree to get something really quick and it happened to be the week they put out all their Christmas items. If you have never shopped there the seasonal items sell out very quickly. As I peeked at all the goodies (yes some on their own look very cheap) I started to see a theme. Something very easy to do, costing very little for an entire room decor and something very sweet (wink). 



I purchased all the rolls of white ribbon with red sequin stripes, red glittered bows, candy ornaments 2/$1.00, bags of 12 plastic candy canes and other tid bits that coordinated including the towel, the gift bags at the top of the cabinets and the white mesh.


The plastic Candy Canes were glued together with hot glue into the shape of a heart and decorated with a larger wrapped candy ornament.



Thank you so much for spending your precious time with me during this holiday season. I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Please leave your comments below, pin, share and follow if you like what you see.




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Find me on..
Facebook: Uniquely Grace
Twitter: Grace Lauer Artist @gracelauer
Instagram: @gracelauer_henna_artist
Pinterest: L. Grace Lauer


Monday, December 8, 2014

Book Page Poinsettia Ornament for your Christmas Tree

Since I was a little girl I loved the story of the 

Mexican Legend of he Poinsettia

I was so thrilled when I was able to design an ornament this year that was in the shape of one. I was able to make these in three colors. Gold, Silver and White. What do you think? Please let me know in the comments below.



According to www.appleseeds.org here is the legend:

SOME TIME AGO, I heard a lovely Christmas story about Maria, a young girl who lived on a poor family farm in a small village in Mexico. It was a custom in the village to glorify the Christmas season with special events to celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, Jesus. Everyone took part in the preparations by festively decorating the village church and the piazza in front of it. Even the children helped by making gifts to give to the Baby Jesus on Christmas Eve.

Maria wanted to make a very special gift. She had helped her mother before with the loom, so she tried, on her own, to weave a colorful blanket. But Maria was too inexperienced and the yarns became an entangled mess. Maria was heartbroken. She wanted so much to be able to march in procession with the other village children, but she had no gift to give to the Christ Child.

Finally it was Christmas Eve! The villagers gathered in the piazza. Some whispered that they thought they could hear angels singing tonight. Everyone was ready. Holding lit candles, all the villagers began to process down the aisle amid joyous music and singing.
All except for Maria, who hid in the shadows, watching with tears in her eyes as the procession to the church started.
"I don’t have a gift for the Baby Jesus," she sniffled softly. "I tried and tried to make something beautiful, but instead I ruined it."
Suddenly, Maria heard a voice. She looked up and saw only a bright star in the sky; it seemed to hover and shine over the village church. Was it this star that spoke to her?
"Maria," she heard the voice again, "The baby Jesus will love whatever you give because it comes from your heart. Love is what makes any gift special."
With that, Maria stepped out from the shadows. Nearby she noticed some tall green weeds. She rushed over and quickly filled her arms with the weeds, covering them with her manto. Then she ran swiftly to the church.
By the time she arrived, the candles were ablaze and the children were singing as they walked down the aisle carrying their gifts to the Christ Child.
Padre Francesco placed the figure of the baby Jesus in the manger, with the children’s gifts all around it.
Suddenly, Maria was scared when she saw all those people dressed in such beautiful clothes, and she was dressed so poorly. She tried to slip behind one of the big pillars, but she was too slow. Padre Francesco saw her.
"Maria, Maria," he called out. "Hurry girl, come, bring up your gift!"
Maria was terrified. She wondered, "Do I run away? Do I go forward?"
The Padre saw her apprehension and coaxed her more gently, "Maria, come up here and see the Baby Jesus. There is space left for one more gift."
Before she could think, Maria found herself walking down the main aisle of the church.
"What is Maria carrying under her manto?" the villagers whispered. "Where’s her gift?"
Padre Francesco stepped down from the altar and walked with Maria to the Christmas crèche. Maria bowed her head and said a prayer then opened her manto and let the weeds tumble out.
Voices gasped, "Look! Look at those glorious flowers!"
Startled, Maria opened her eyes. She was stunned. For each weed was now topped with a flaming, bright, red star.
And outside, too, every weed now bore a bright red star. Maria's Love had created a miracle.  


www.WhyChristmas.com also states:

The shape of the poinsettia flower and leaves are sometimes thought as a symbol of the Star of Bethlehem which led the Wise Men to Jesus. The red colored leaves symbolize the blood of Christ. The white leaves represent his purity.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. Please leave a comment below and if you would like one of these ornaments contact +Books on Broad  or myself (see list below) and we can see what we can do.

Merry Christmas everyone!

2014 Book Page Holiday Creations:
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Find me on...
Facebook: Uniquely Grace
Twitter: Grace Lauer Artist @gracelauer
Instagram: @gracelauer_henna_artist
Pinterest: L. Grace Lauer

Friday, November 21, 2014

Stunning Book Page Angel Wing Christmas Tree Ornaments - Handcrafted


Good morning!

It is very hard to find an elegant, handcrafted angel ornament so I designed this bookpage one and fell in love with it right away. This is one of the Angel Ornaments, in silver, they come with words like Peace, Believe, Noel, Faith, and Joy. 

Angel Wings Book Page Ornament


They also come in gold. Books on Broad is where you can find my handcrafted ornaments and holiday decor. These can be found at +Books on Broad in +Camden SC 



#Booksonbroad #handmade #decor #Christmas #Wings #peace #Noel#Believe #Faith #Joy #gold #gift #giftideas #booklover #bookclub #tree#Christmastree #Design #Art #artist #Unique

(not all words are available in each color)

2014 Book Page Holiday Creations:


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Find me on...
Facebook: Uniquely Grace
Twitter: Grace Lauer Artist @gracelauer
Instagram: @gracelauer_henna_artist
Pinterest: L. Grace Lauer

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Book Page Christmas Trees just in time to decorate for the Holidays - Table Decorations

These stunning Christmas Trees were created to be sold from the window display at +Books on Broad, in +Camden South Carolina. The book page trees were created from damaged books, so no readable books were harmed in the making of any of my projects. Some of the books are newer and some are older,  creating the nice dynamic of the light and golden colored branches on the tree in the middle.

Book Page Christmas Trees





These elegant holiday table top decorations stand between 16" (one on left) and 13" (one in the middle) tall. They are a beautiful addition to any holiday decor especially for that book lover in your life. This unique gift can be found at Books on Broad in Camden. Handcrafted by myself on display there for sale this holiday season.


This last tree is only 10" but I adore the color and it's stature.




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Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Golden Star Book Page Ornament for your Christmas Tree - Must have for any book lover or book club present/gift swap


New to my #Book Page #Ornament collection this year is the:

 Stunning Star 

This star ornament is adorned with a small ostrich feather and a golden flower and leaf added to highlight the gold leafing that has been applied to help this start shine bright! Get them fast there are only 5 in stock at Books on Broad, we sold one while I was finishing setting up the window display.




To see more of my book page art please check out my page Uniquely Grace and the bookstore my items are being carried at locally is +Books on Broad.

#Handcrafted #bookpages #Christmas #Christmastree #holiday #deocr #Decorations #goldleaf #handmade #artist #create #books #bookstore #booklover #bookclub 
 #Star



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Certified Helmar Educator

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Hand Painted Holiday - Wooden Halloween Raven

I was spending some time today in a small local second hand boutique in town. In a corner of a store they had this unique wooden blackbird with wire feet. I could hear him now "squawk, take me home". I picked him up, my fingers rolled down his back and I inspected the distressing and the few flaws of a life or two lived before in someone else's care. He was simply beautiful just the way he was, sleek and simple. But, I felt something missing if he was to fit into my home. He needed a fresh start, a start with a new look and a makeover idea popped into my head.


With the fantastic VOC free, Non-Toxic paints I have been using lately I thought it would be fun to put some in an empty henna cone and use the fine tip to draw with the chalk paint, Alamo White from Shabby Paints. This sweet and simple black bird was transformed into Wolfrum the Raven overnight.


Wolfrum now sports some fantastic detailing from his head to his tail feathers.


A simple heart on this tail feathers states he will be adored every Halloween as he makes his aperance in our home for the season.




Thank you so much for reading and viewing this post. Please leave a comment below letting me know your thoughts on this project.
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Saturday, December 8, 2012

Winter Wonderland Wreath - Upcycled from plastic grocery bags

PHOTO POST! This one is about a up-cycled wreath I made this year. This wreath is made up of Plastic Grocery Bags, a dollar store wreath and some floral stems from the craft store. Enjoy this winter wonder land!



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Certified Helmar Educator

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Santa Baby Snowman - Book Pages

PHOTO POST! I have a lot of these this time of year... to much to do so little time! I am sure you feel the same way. Santa Baby Book Page Snowman! This adorable guy stands about 12" tall and is so cute! Who doesn't love a Snowman dressed like a Santa?



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Certified Helmar Educator

Monday, December 3, 2012

Book Page Ball Ornaments - Pine cones and tags too

Here is a brief photo post of another one of my ornaments. This one is made up of glass 3" ball ornaments, book pages, glitter and pine cones. Enjoy!

They are paper mached book pages onto glass balls. For best results use Helmar's Decoupage & Craft Paste for all your paper mache needs.

They are now for sale in my local Book Store, Dinah's on D. St. and my Etsy.com shop, UniquelyGrace. Ejoy and have a wonderful holiday season!





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