The Man Space Christmas Tour

Merry Christmas!!

I hope you are having a blessed day!

Here is a quick view of one of my favorite rooms in the house.

The "ManSpace".

(Given the name because I wanted my husband's "hunting souvenirs" restricted to one room.)

The bar is covered with a natural pine garland and items from around the house.

A faux fur snowball (tutorial here) "preserved" in a homemade cloche. I took a broken candle scone (it's upside down), and glued a painted dowel end cap to create a knob. The wooden white candle holder is upside down to give a flat space for the cloche to sit on.

Dollar Tree birds in faux snow in a hurricane candle holder.

I layered the heights with old books; and filled in the empty spaces with pine cones and twigs.

Glittered feathers (also from the Dollar Tree) in another glass hurricane.

The resin bird was a WalMart garden center clearance for $1. I gave him a coat of white wash to instantly age him.

The lantern was filled with a burlap (hand stamped here) wrapped candle, painted sugar gum berries, a bird ornament, and faux snowflakes.

The lantern was another WalMart garden center clearance find for $3.
I painted over the original copper finish. (tutorial here)
The silver cracked glass votive came from the Dollar Tree as well.

The garland has the same elements throughout the house. Feathers, stamped burlap ribbon, pine cones, grapevine and birds. (Tutorials here)

Fabric and faux fur covered Styrofoam balls are tucked in for texture.

Here are a few closeups of the silver bird ornaments on the tree.

I found them at the Dollar Tree (4/$1), but they were bright orange.

I used a green paint thinner to strip the flaming orange paint off.

I splattered them with my favorite raw umber oil glaze. They remind me of beautifully aged mercury glass.

The poinsettias (and sugar gum berries) were once Liberace gold, but have been repainted with Krylon Nickel in satin, and raw umber oil glaze.

The tree has tons of grapevine, pine cones and stamped burlap woven in.

I wanted a natural but elegant look.

I found an old oak end table at a thrift store for $8. I painted it a soft black satin and distressed the edges. To create the illusion of a custom base, I mounted the tree stand to the tabletop.

The no-sew tree skirt was made out of muslin and burlap.

I started with a yard of each ($1.20 muslin and $1.80 burlap)

The muslin I dyed in coffee and then washed, this made it very soft and worn feeling. I stamped it with a ledger script stamp (basic black ink), and then went over and randomly stamped crowns, angel wings and lions.

I cut both fabrics into squares, making the muslin about 4 inches shorter overall than the burlap. I cut a slit halfway through each square and draped it over the tree stand (arranging it so the slit was in the back). I hot glued a small piece of grosgrain ribbon to each side of the slit and tied it back together. (Although I do not think this was necessary).

To create a little extra volume I hot glued the burlap underneath the table top.

The presents were wrapped with brown craft paper. The backside of grocery bags would be just as beautiful.

Strips of stamped burlap, twine, newspaper were used in place of ribbon.

The newspaper was rubbed with scrap booking stamps to instantly age it.

Poinsettias, birds and rosettes decorated the tops.

This bird's nest was created with a tiny grapevine wreath (6/$1), and burlap thread in the center.

The flowers are coffee filters that were dyed, and then stamped.

I layered five together and twisted the center until it created a full flower. I hot glued painted berries to the center and leaves (from the painted poinsettias) to the back.