How to Make Easy DIY Outdoor Giant Christmas Ornament Decorations

I am obsessed with Christmas ornaments ever since teenage me got my first few handmade Christmas decoration from my grandmother as a present. By the time I struck out into the big wide world, I had a variety of Christmas ornaments to decorate with that was a nice change from the red glass ball ornaments that hung on my parent’s tree.

 I love the variety of ornaments Husband and I have collected over the years but I guess absence makes the heart grow founder. Ever since I saw the gigantic Christmas ball ornaments for sale to commercial spaces (malls, outside a business, etc.) at Bronner’s Christmas Store during our vacation a few years ago, I lust after round ball ornaments – super sized!

I adore everything about this cherry Santa decoration from the happy polka dots and lights to the cartoony Santa. If only I had mile high ceilings and enormous living room….

Taking pictures of the big Christmas ball ornaments in the store and in public places when I came across them has not scratched my itch.  I could use a few more decorations the size of a yoga ball in the front yard to balance the lighted Dachshund Christmas decorations (learn more about them here) we bought last year. (Disclosure: I am including affiliate links in this post for your convenience.)

Yoga ball?

 Hey! That gives me an idea!

Keep reading! I'll teach you how to make this fun decorating idea!

Let’s make Big Christmas ornaments from exercise and playground balls!

How to Make Quick and Easy Exercise Ball Christmas Ornaments

DIY Solar Snowman Jar Lights

I need to add new lighting to our outdoor Christmas decorations this year because for some inexplicable reason, our lawn service company felt the need to mow our  lawns in December. They ran over and destroyed my lights with a lawn mower despite the fact we are allowed to have holiday decorations in our yard for Christmas.

Uff da.

My HOA didn’t understand it either.

I’m turning an annoying head scratching negative and turning it into a positive. I’m taking the opportunity to change up our outdoor Christmas decorations a little bit this year by going green and making recycled glass jar solar snowman lights!

 Pin this tutorial for later!

I'm also giving my summer solar yard lights a big green reuse and repurpose by making them into energy efficient outdoor Christmas lights.

You can use glass Mason jars to make this project if you don’t have empty glass food  jars. At the time of this writing all of my spare Mason jars are storing and organizing food in my kitchen cupboards because it stays fresher longer and I can stuff more food in the cupboards than if I keep it in the original packaging.

How to Make Quick and Easy Solar Salsa Jar Snowmen

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 339

Last weekend, I did a Last Blast of Summer Tour by skipping up the road a bit to attend Bloggy Conference 2016 at Cedar Point. 

Tiff knocked it out of the park organizing and planning the conference this year! I learned quite a bit and paid it forward by being the Squad Leader for DIY bloggers during our community breakout sessions.  What's also nice about BloggyCon is being able to spend the evening in Cedar Point after our sessions finished for the day.

Sponsor Lake Eries Shores and Islands gave me the excuse to wiggle my toes in the sand of Cedar Point Beach (how I miss it!)

 I hugged a big cow named Big Cow and tagged it #Big #Cow for a very meta experience courtesy of Ohio made sponsor Udderly Smooth (if you follow me @condoblues on Instagram you would have seen it in real time!)

Not to mention, I named my new Rexy friend Snuggles and asked Husband if I could bring him home with me because we have the same smile. Husband and Lacey vetoed adding Snuggles to our family. Sad face.

Let's party!

How to Make a Quick and Easy Wine Cork and Mason Jar Centerpiece

After I decorated my outdoor patio for Fall, I took a step back and realized something was missing from my DIY chalkboard patio table and DIY bottle cap mosaic chairs.

I need an Autumn table centerpiece!

 Click here to take my Fall patio decor tour on Condo Blues!

My Fall centerpiece idea was heavily influenced by the growing number of empty mason jars drying in the dish rack (not to mention Husband’s do something with these will ya? look when he empties the dishwasher) and the wine corks in our kitchen wine cork basket waiting for a craft project (and more Husband’s do something with these will ya? look when he sees them taking up counter space.)

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 338

  Happy Almost Weekend everyone!

I am loving the unseasonably warm weather! I decorated my patio for fall and plan to eat as many dinners outside until the snow flies. 

I love, love, love when thrifting and shopping the house comes together in a new to me design!

Ready to party? Show me what you got!

Friday Favorites Linky Party - Week 337

I am taking an online Bead Embroidery (w/Myra Wood) craft class from Craftsy  (I am including affiliate links for your convenience) to learn how to add a little bling with beaded flowers and designs to my hand embroidery projects.  This is something I've wanted to to for awhile.

Funny thing buying the class lead to another craft organizing hack I've been wanting to do for awhile. After spilling beads out of my plastic bead organizer box similar to this one on Amazon while removing it from the storage drawer - again - I told myself I couldn't start the beading class until I  reorganized the  my bead stash.

A big chunk of my beads came from my Grandmother. I've done big beading costume projects with them ever since.

I spent a rip roaring party time evening streaming  movies on Amazon Prime Instant Video and  organizing my craft beads into empty prescription pill bottles I've randomly tossing into my bead drawer along with baby food jars, and film canisters. Remember those?

Under Lacey's watchful gaze of course. Or maybe she just likes to binge watch The Sarah Jane Chronicles too.

I have more loose beads than I realize. Is is rude to ask your family to get sick enough to require prescription medicine so you can repurpose the bottle? I'm asking for a friend.

 

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How to Make Wine Cork and Bungee Cord Ties

Messy extension cords are taking over my workshop, power tool cords in particular. I think I wrap them well when I put my tools away only to find the cords are a tangled mess the next time I need to use them. Ugh!

To go along with my upcycled workshop scheme and more importantly I always have a stash of wine corks I use to clean sandpaper (read the tutorial on Condo Blues here) in my workbench I stopped what I was doing and whipped up a set of homemade power cord organizers.

Pin this organization tutorial for later!

This idea isn’t a new one but there are a few tips and hacks I haven’t seen written down and want to share.

Tips for Making Wine Cork and Bungee Cord Organizers: Everything You Need to Know!

21 Unique Bottle Cap Crafts to Inspire You!

I remake and makeover a lot of things using bottle caps but as our collection grows I need new recycled DIY ideas.

If you look at my Pinterest Crafts board you will see I have bottle cap projects on the brain. It seems like after I complete one bottle cap decorating project I see and pin a bunch more. (Follow me @condoblues on Pinterest pretty please?)

I can’t be the only one that doesn't this, can I?

Pint this post for later!

I thought I’d share the bottle cap craft love and show you some of my favorite recycled bottle cap projects from around the web to inspire you.

You can just drool over them like the bottle cap house. I doubt my Home Owner’s Association will let me do that or Husband for that matter.

10 Ways to Reuse Plastic Food and Laundry Measuring Scoops

Even though Husband and I try to run a low waste home with careful shopping and find new reuses for what we can't recycle through our city's recycling program, there is one thing we are swimming in and loathe to regularly send to the landfill: plastic laundry and food measuring scoops.

 Pin this list of ideas for later!

How to Make a Bottle Cap Mosaic Chair

Ewwww!

The cute little mosaic tile bistro set on our patio has lived outside in the rain sleet and snow for a very long time.

How long?

Long enough for the elements to take their toll and dry rot the wood base of the table and all of the chairs.

 

The thing I like best about the current set is the size and design of the metal ice cream parlor style chairs (minus the mushrooms.)  I wasn’t in love with anything I saw in the stores as a replacement.

Well, when I can’t buy I DIY!

Recycled Bottle Cap Craft Tutorial

 

   Pin this recycled bottle cap craft idea for later!

How to Make an Iron Throne from a Lawn Chair

Everyone and I mean EVERYONE wants to sit upon the Iron Throne.

If you watch Game of Thrones you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't I'll give you a quick rundown:

• There is a very uncomfortable chair they say is made from 1,000 enemy swords but it is really more like 200 forged by some guy named Shemp. Instead, they say it was forged by a Dragon because that sounds more majestic than A Guy Named Shemp and His Anvil. 

• If you sit on the pointy sword chair you can brag you rule all of the Seven Kingdoms in this made up Dungeons and Dragons kind of world called Westros where everybody hates everybody - eventually.

• Each Kingdom has their own ruler who has a Special Chair or Bench which is more comfortable than the Iron Throne. 

• All of the Comfy Chair Rulers (or their conniving relatives) want the Uncomfortable Sword Chair and will do anything to get it. This usually involves killing people at weddings. So mean!

• No one is smart enough to upholster the Iron Throne so the swords won't cut the person who plops their tush on it.

And I want one.

How to Make a Power Tool Battery Charging Station

It’s funny how one little project like hanging a DIY chalkboard above my workbench quickly turned into a reorganize the workshop project. Well, actually, it was more like an ACK! I can’t find the bench top and the mountain of STUFF is driving me crazy project but why quibble over details?

I made an easy sandpaper organizer and a quick woodworking clamp rack. My latest project – a power tool battery charging station and organizer is the last workshop organizer I need to keep my bench top clean and my power tool batteries charged and organized. Woo hoo!

I built the workbench from reclaimed materials too.

Read my Recycled Cabinet Workbench Tutorial here on Condo Blues

How to Build a Hanging Power Tool Battery Charger and Organizer

How to Make Motivational Chalkboard Art the Easy Way!

I learned in my garage organizing post Organize Your Garage in Three Simple Questions that hanging and storing items high on a wall doesn’t work well for a short person like me. If I can’t easily reach it without a step stool I won’t put it away in its proper place.

That’s why the wall above my recycled cabinet workbench (read the tutorial on Condo Blues here) is blank. All of my tools and DIY supplies are stored low to the ground – like me! – in the workbench.

Since that area is pretty much dead to me for tool storage, why not fill it with some motivational DIY décor?

 Pin this post for later!

I read several interviews from local resident Kelly Harris when she was on Face Off. (Which is the only reality show I watch because it is all about creating cool movie makeups and not about manufacturing drama between the contestants and judges.) When asked in interviews how Kelly learned to how to do  makeup special effects, Kelly always says her personal motto is, “Try. Suck. Get Better. Repeat.”

I immediately scribbled her motto on a Post It Note and slapped it on my computer stand because she summed up how I go about doing just about every project you read about on Condo Blues. My plan was to hang Kelly’s motto above my workbench for DIY inspiration when I hit a spot in a project that makes me sing the blues.

How to Make a Pallet Wood Clamp Storage Rack

The small downside to insulating the garage walls is I lost my free wood clamp storage organizer. I can’t store my clamps on wall stud like I used to now that they are filled with insulation.
Currently my wood clamps are stored in a pile of stuff on top of my workbench. At least I think they are. There is too much junk on top of the workbench to tell. Sigh.

During Operation: Clean and Organize my Workbench and Clear My Recycled Materials Stash, I added a woodworking clamp storage rack is a quick and easy wood pallet stash bust project that took practically no time and with very few tools to make to my punch list.

Quick and Easy Workbench Woodworking Clamp Rack

 

Pin this for later!

You will need:

How to Make a Colorful Year Round Wood Wreath

I found a bag of round hole saw scraps in the reclaimed wood stash in my workshop.  I’m not sure why I kept them. Most of the “wood holes” in the bag were cracked, split, and otherwise wonky because that’s how hole saws work.

A hole saws is designed to cut a round hole in wood and not for cutting a piece of wood into a perfectly round shape.

I could blow it off as part of a being DIYer who works with recycled materials but the fact of the matter is, my reclaimed wood stash is starting to outgrow its storage area. I need to either use it or start making up gift boxes of scraps for friends to use as kindling in their fire pits. Which I may or may not have gotten puzzling looks when I may or may not have tried to pass off a box of wood scraps for a fire pit as a hostess gift in the past.

 Hole saw scraps!

Fortunately, there were a few wood rounds that were in good enough shape - or could be with a smattering of wood filler and some sanding - that I decided to use them to make a scrap wood wreath. And you can too! Read my step by step tutorial to learn how!

How to Make a  Wood Wreath

How to Make Vintage Wall Map Decor

I like big maps and I cannot lie.

I cannot tell you how many times the room I fall for in a decor magazine or on a blog features a big vintage map hanging  on the wall. Swoooooooon!

In my made up fantasy world I would find the perfect old school wall map at a thrift shop for 10 bucks, merrily dance with it all the way home, and after a rousing game of Not It Won't Fit Yes It Will with Husband, hang it on a well deserving wall in our house. Where it fits perfectly, of course.

Photo courtesy of Blesser House

How to Test for Lead Paint on Flea Market Finds

We are the first owners of our condo built long after the US 1978 lead paint ban. We don’t have peeling paint and my family doesn’t lick the walls (which in my opinion would mean we have a bigger problem!) As far as any scaremongering about lead being everywhere in every home, we figured we’re good.

Except.

Maybe not.

Pin this post for reference! 

I like to upcycle and recycle found, salvage, and old stuff in my DIY projects. Swap meets, antique shows, and flea markets are my playgrounds. Some of my favorite transformations started out as thrift store finds or from the side of the road. I didn’t think I had to worry about lead in my project materials because I generally steer clear of chipping paint because it is a pain to sand smooth.

I recently discovered chipping paint does not mean an item is covered in lead paint. Neither does the color of the paint. Actually  bare wood or stained items can test positive for lead because of something in the stain or varnish.

Recycled Pallet and Pot Planters

A big wood barrel planter is so welcoming at the end of a driveway,  on a front porch, deck, or patio. Unfortunately those expensive buggers start to crack and rot a few years after you buy them.

If only there was a way, to get a lasting  wood barrel planter look for less. Then we can get down to the business of buying and growing pretty plants and not replacing their planters every other year.

There is something to say for a lasting rustic garden like this one.

Photo courtesy of  Make the Best of Things

How to Make Bottle Cap Tiles

I want another ear phone, phone, and table charger organizer for the living room to hold the overflow from the Cigar Box and Wine Cork Storage Box I made last month.

I found a decorative Indian spice box during a 10 minute tidy in the kitchen that will a few quick tweaks will fit the bill just fine thank you.

 
The interior wood dividers easily popped out of the box in my hand. I wanted to add feet to the bottom of my DIY decorative storage box.  What to use?

Bottle caps!

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How to Cut Wine Corks for Crafts the Easy Way!

Have you ever tried to cut a wine cork in half?
 
Neatly?

Without the cork flaking and shredding?

Or  accidentally cutting your fingers to shreds?

ME TOO!

I need to cut a wine cork in half for an upcoming project. I want to cut the cork quickly, easily, and safely. Most of all I want to cut the wine cork without cork bits shedding all over the place. A nice, clean, cork cut is all I ask.

How to Neatly Cut a Wine Cork in Half

Cutting wine corks for crafts isn’t hard to do. If you want to cut a wine cork without it falling apart, you’ll need to do one simple step before you cut into it.

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