Tutorial Tuesday & Linky Party - My Super Cheap Easter Mantle!!

Yay for Tuesday! Before I get all happy and excited to show off my Easter decor, I have to gripe a minute about my SD card. I think it hates me. I work so hard on all these projects, and diligently take pictures throughout the whole process, only to go in to download said pictures and find about 25% of them missing. Just gone. Poof! So... there are a few gaps here {again, sad face} but I'll do my best to fill in. Oh yeah, and I'm super late today because I was waiting around hoping for some good natural light to photograph in, but after 3 days of overcast weather... nada. So, missing pictures, check. Sucky pictures, check. Ok, done complaining, moving on!

I have never really been a holiday decorator. I mean, Christmas, yeah of course. But not much else. Hubby and I go all out in the outdoor foyer for Halloween, because it's fun for the trick-or-treaters, but this year I've been making an effort to step up my decorating. I'm hoping that by working on it now, building up some stock decorations, and holding myself accountable to show it off, that it will become 2nd nature to decorate for holidays by the time Baby A is big enough to enjoy it. :)

I have to admit, my Valentine's mantle was less than impressive, but I think I'm getting better now that Easter is rolling around...

What's extra fun about this mantle collection, is that I only spent about $5. YAY!

I found some more great stuff in the Target $1 bin:

Birdhouse: $1

{originally green and speckled}

Daisy Stakes: $1

{originally multi-colored}

Easter Egg Candle Holders:

Eggs: $.44

Wood Disks: 2/$1=$2

{originally unfinished wood}

Already had:

 Picture frame 

{was also from Target $1 like 2 years ago}

Russian Blown Glass Flower

{gift from a well-traveled friend! Love you Nessa!}

Rustic Chicken

{Hobby Lobby last season, if you want to get picky, he was $5 then, haha!}

Vintage Milk Bottle

{got from Mom's stash when she was cleaning out the house}

Felt Ruffle Wreath

{Christmas Project, 2010}

Flower Pot

{repurposed baby shower decoration}

So, I sort of have a bunch of mini-tutorials this week. :)

Flower Pot Topiary

Bird House - $1 Target find painted a robin's egg blue

Daisy Stakes - $1 Target find, painted yellow and white {was crazy multi-colored}

Flower Pot 2/$1 last summer @ Target, bought for baby shower, repurposed!

Moss - leftover from monogram project

Floral Foam cut to fit the flower pot

Ribbon scrap tied in a bow

So easy, and adds a little greenery too.

Easter Egg Candle Holders

I can't take credit for this idea. 

I saw this tutorial on The CSI Project, guest posted by Paula @ JC's Loft.

She has all kinds of pretty little Easter projects!

Ruffled Felt Wreath

You can see the original here in my Crafty Christmas post.

I just took this beauty, dressed it up with a little purple ribbon and added a silver monogram.

Perfect addition to the Easter Mantle!

No- Sew Spring Banner

This may have been the easiest part! 

All I did was take some bright fabric scraps, cut them into triangles 

with 6" tops and 7" sides, and hot glue them to some white, medium sized ric rac. 

Done!

P.S. I also hot glued them TO the brick. Easy to stick on, easy to take down, no mess!

So there you have it! I'm pretty proud of myself. I had no idea how much planning actually goes into getting all this stuff together to decorate with. But, it was worth it, and fun to boot!

What have YOU been working on? Any fun Spring crafts, or Easter inspired ideas? 

Link 'em up below and grab a button! 

<a href="http://www.littlebirdiebaby.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjybpWehEcQYkr_bcTNwQtjMs-pSV-lbAnKMq0wQAbpkfm8Vn6I1fmUjYtVvzwqfTuazi67qG1Z7SWKRWPfgV3kkRVaYGnhKP7LJ0txiH6AQQj2x8KUcYdEuPtOudXo4oDmxEdFyxqjJ7RO/s800/Tute%20Tues%20LB.png" height="150" width="150" /></a>

I can't wait to see them. :) I'll be picking my favorite 5 to show off on Saturday.

XOXO