Hodge Podge Spring Mantle

Here it is folks. My hodge podge mantle. A nice little mix of a few of my fav. projects from other people, and some of my own old standby stuff. :)

It doesn't really look like it, but I have been working on this mantle for weeks. That shows you just how busy my life has been. BUSY. Really, I guess the pennant is really what took the longest, and that's because I had to cut the chevron stripes out by hand...Ohhh to have a Silhouette... How I long for the beauty of the Silhouette.... ok, anywaaaaayyyyyyy, I saw this pennant on Tatertots and Jello, and instantly fell in love with the colors and how the chevron pattern was being used. You can find the tutorial here.
I pretty much followed her tutorial, except I cut my pattern out by hand and I didn't sew the pattern on to the flags. The flags are made with canvas, and the stripe pattern with cotton fabric.Next up... the bird houses. I know I saw some like these, but larger maybe (?) somewhere out there in blog land. I seriously can't remember where! I found these at Michael's for $1.00 each, so I couldn't pass them up. I painted them, then sanded them to give a distressed look. Topped it off by using a very watered down brown paint coating to really show the "distress." The houses were followed by this butterfly wall hanging that I found over at Stay-at-Home Artist
I thought it was really pretty, springy, an unique. Again, I followed the tutorial, except I distressed my old frame just as I did the bird houses.Now, this precious little fat bird :) is straight from Hobby Lobby. (%50 off!) Too cute, and (if you couldn't tell) I am totally crushing on blue right now. The candle I just topped off with a little rosette made from leftover fabric for good measure.
There you have it. Nothing too fancy, but it does make me smile. And think of warm sun. And cool breezes. And baby green leaves growing in the trees.

Hope you are smiling this week- T