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Transform Your Christmas Tree Into A Valentine’s Tree

Supplies:

*Small Valentine’s Day Signs

*Picks

*Garland/Banner

*Faux Spray Snow

*Tree Skirt

*Lights

Normally I leave my Christmas tree and decorations up through New Year’s but this year I decided I wanted to do a Valentine’s Day tree and enjoy my tree a little longer. We always get a live Christmas tree for the holidays so I figured why not keep it up as long as possible and get the most of it, right? Now, if you use an artificial tree that’s probably even better as you don’t have to worry about such a mess or your tree drying out. Either way, you will have so much fun decorating it for Valentine’s Day.

Here are some before pictures of my Christmas tree that we had decorated for Christmas. Each year my kiddos get a new ornament with their name and year on it so that is primarily what our tree consists of. I added a little burlap and buffalo check garland, a few little signs from Hobby Lobby and some lights and that was our tree this year.

To start the transformation from a Christmas to Valentine’s tree I simply took everything off my tree. Now I had a blank canvas to start decorating again. This tree looked pretty sad without any decorations on it let me tell ya.

Next I used some fake spray snow that I had on hand from last year to make my tree look “flocked” or frosty. They make actually flocking for trees but I didn’t want to mess with that so I just cheated a bit. HaHa.

Once my snow had dried I added pink lights, Valentine’s garland and some burlap/buffalo check garland that I had on hand.

It’s slowly coming together but still has a ways to go! Next, I started adding in little Valentine’s signs and picks to fill the holes in the tree. I found most of my signs and picks at Hobby Lobby or Walmart. I also had this buffalo check banner that I made last year so I draped that on my tree also. You can see the video for the banner HERE.

The large galvanized hearts that I used for my tree topper came from Hobby Lobby. I also found the red Valentine’s picks at Hobby Lobby so I stuck one on each side of my topper. I then continued filling in the bare areas with various picks and signs until I was happy with how my tree looked! I found this tree skirt on clearance at Walmart for $18. Is this not the cutest tree ever! I think this will definitely be a new tradition in our home!

I hope this will inspire you to get creative and transform your tree into a Valentine’s tree! I am telling you, this was honestly so much fun!

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Peanut Butter Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients:

*Ritz Crackers

*Peanut Butter

*Chocolate Almond Bark

*Sprinkles(optional)

These peanut butter sandwiches are one of my favorite things to bake during the holidays. They are super easy to make and only take 3 ingredients!

First, I cut the almond bark into squares and then toss them in a saucepan on low to melt. You will want to stir the almond bark often to avoid it scorching.

While the almond bark is melting I start assembling my sandwiches. For this step I simply take two Ritz crackers and spread peanut butter between the two crackers.

Once the almond bark is melted you are ready to start coating the sandwiches. I like to add some holiday sprinkles to mine to jazz them up a bit but you can certainly skip this step if you wanted. Once the almond bark has hardened you can now indulge in a sweet treat! These are perfect for any holiday gathering you may be attending whether it be a Christmas or New Year’s party, an office pot luck or even just on a goodie tray for your loved ones.

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DIY Budget Friendly Christmas Gifts

Supplies:

*Oven mitt-Dollar Tree

*Sugar cookie mix-Dollar Tree or Wal-mart

*Cookie cutters-Dollar Tree

*Hot cocoa mix

*Small Christmas container-Dollar Tree

*Candy cane sticks

*Mini marshmallows-Dollar Tree

*Bows/Ribbon

As we all know Christmas can be a very spendy holiday to say the least so I wanted to show you a few different ideas for you to be able create budget friendly gifts. These are great for teachers, secret santas, daycare providers, co-workers, etc. Almost all of my supplies for this came from the Dollar Tree except for my cookie mix and my curly bows which came from Wal-mart and Hobby Lobby.

To start out I simply took the cookie mix and stuck it inside of the oven mitt. Next I used a piece of a curly ribbon bow that I had from Hobby Lobby to tie a cookie cutter to the loop on the oven mitt. I had a couple extra spoons from making these gifts last year so I also stuck one of those in with the cookie mix. How easy is that? For under $5 you have the perfect gift that your loved one is sure to love!

For the next gift we are basically making a hot cocoa bar all in one container. I found these cute little Santa containers at the Dollar Tree. They also had some with snowflakes on them that were super cute and I’m wishing I would have grabbed a few more of these! I instantly knew what I was going to do with this container so I picked up a box of Swiss Miss hot cocoa mix, candy cane sticks, and a pack of mini marshmallows. Who doesn’t love some hot cocoa this time of year, right?

I started off by sticking three packets of hot cocoa mix in my container, followed by three candy cane sticks and then filled the remainder of the container with mini marshmallows.

Next I put the lid on and stuck a cute little bow on top. Whats not to love about this? So cute and fun! I used a bow that I got from Hobby Lobby, but they have gift bows at the Dollar Tree that would be just as cute!

Now, whats even better about these little gifts is that you can get all of your supplies from ONE place. Dollar Tree can be your one stop shop for everything you need for these. Of course if you don’t have a Dollar Tree you can obviously get these supplies at other places so don’t panic! I hope this blog post was helpful and will save you a little bit of money this holiday season!

Happy Holidays!

Lacy

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Crock Pot Green Pork Chili

Ingredients:

*4 Cups Shredded Pork

*48 oz. Box Chicken Broth

*2 Cans Bush’s Southern Style White Beans

*28 oz. Great Value Salsa Verde

* 1 Medium Onion

*2 Cloves Garlic

*Cilantro

*Shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese(for garnish)

*Sour Cream(for garnish)

*Corn Chips(for garnish)

This has quickly became a family favorite at house. We enjoying smoking various meats including pork loin and pork butt(pulled pork). We always have tons of meat left over so we usually make this for one of our meals from our leftovers. SO GOOD! The even better part is that it is super easy and crock pot friendly!

Simply combine all of your ingredients in the crock pot and turn on low for 6-8 hours. Easy enough, right? We like to garnish ours with a little bit of sour cream, shredded monterrey jack cheese, and corn chips. Yum!

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DIY Mod Podge Noel Sign

Supplies:

*4-5 Ft. Tall Board

*N-O-E-L Letters From Hobby Lobby

*Srapbook paper or wrapping paper of your choice

*Mod Podge

*Apple Barrel Paint-I mixed Kelley Green and White

*Paint brush

*E6000

*Jute twine

For those of you who love to decorate your porch for the holidays…you can never have too much porch decor can you? I absolutely LOVE how this porch sign turned out!

The board I used for this project came from Menards. It was a 10 ft. board that we cut in half to get two 5ft. boards. Once my board was cut to my desired length I then painted it. I mixed “Kelley Green” and “White” Apple Barrel paint together to get a sage green color.

While my board was drying I began tracing my letters and using mod podge to adhere my scrapbook paper and wrapping paper to my letters. The scrapbook paper I used came from Hobby Lobby and the teal plaid is Pioneer Woman wrapping paper that I got at Wal-mart. Both worked great for this project.

Once I had my paper mod podged on the letters I also went over the top of the paper again to seal the letters.

Once my board and letters were dry I used E6000 to adhere the letters to my board. If you plan to use this sign inside you could also use hot glue for this step. You will want to be sure and let your E6000 set up for the recommended time to ensure your letters stay put.

I used my staple gun to wrap some jute twine around the top and bottom of my sign and added a cute home made bow to the top and voila! Stinkin’ cute, right? So excited to add this to my porch! If you wanted to spruce it up even more it would be super cute to add some lights around it.

If you plan to put your sign outside you will want to spray it with a clear coat to seal it from the weather!

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DIY Holiday Porch Pot

Supplies:

*Flower pot with soil/dirt

*Christmas tree branches.

*Christmas picks

*Bow(optional)

Every year when we get our live Christmas tree I make a holiday porch pot for my deck. As I was starting to make mine this year it dawned on me that I should do a blog post on how to make your own pot instead of spending $20-$50 on buying one! So, I am doing just that.

Like I said, each year we get a live tree so I just use the branches we cut off of our tree to make my porch pot. Now, if you don’t get a live tree don’t worry. You can buy bundles of live tree branches at certain stores. I have seen these at Menards or any place that sells live trees.

I like to start off my sticking my bigger, taller branches towards the back of my pot. I then fill in all of the bare areas with my remaining branches, saving the shortest pieces for the front of my pot.

I know it doesn’t look very pretty just yet but once you start adding in your picks it will all start coming together! I like to use several different sizes and styles of picks. I found mine at Hobby Lobby and Menards. These work great as fillers so don’t be afraid to use several to make your pot look fuller.

Once I had all of my picks stuck in where I wanted them I decided my pot needed a bow. I simply took a bow that I had on hand and used the the twisty tie on the back of the bow to secure it to one of my pine cone picks and stuck it in the front of my pot.

Can you believe what a difference adding the picks can make? I used some flocked branch picks to add some dimension to my pot but if you can’t find them you could just lightly spray over your branches with the fake snow spray that you can buy almost anywhere in the Christmas section.

I also like to add a solar light or two to my porch pot to light it up during the night time. I found this cute solar light at Menards last year and love how it looks!