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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Natural, Textured, Artsy, Rustic Winter Mantel 2013

 

Is that title loaded or what?? LOL! 

Anywho… I finally finished my winter mantel!  Yay!

I was in the process of working on it when my neighbor called me up about a week ago and asked me if I wanted a big shipping crate.

Of course, I said yes and started devoting all my time to it (post coming soon)… Soooo, I had to put the mantel on hold.

But… finally… I got back on track and finished it up.

I love this mantel display because I actually had to create some art for it…

which is always fun to do!!

So… here is my Natural, Textured, Artsy, Rustic Winter Mantel!

Natural Rustic Winter Mantel Frnt

Let’s start with the woven art I created for my display…

Woven Canvas Art

First… I bought cheap piping cord at Hobby Lobby.  I wove strips of it together and glued them to an old canvas frame I already had from my painting days.

Natural Rustic Winter Mantel Agl2

Next… I wove hemp string and made a smaller canvas piece.

(Both are on the right corner)

Natural Rustic Winter Mantel Agl3

Then… I had a full canvas which I used for the ol’ decoupage paper bag faux leather look.  (Left Corner)

Natural Rustic Winter Mantel Agl

And for the distressed white tube piece (left center)… just used some old cardboard tubing I saved from years ago.  I cut them down, glued them to a canvas board and distressed them after painting them white.  Easy Peasy!

And finally… for the focal art piece of the mantel…

Paper Birch Bark Art!

Natural Rustic Winter Mantel Front

If you read my blog, you know that I took a trip to Maine a few months ago.  While out sight seeing… we found some cut down and some rotted paper birch limbs!! 

Paper Birch

(This is what the paper birch looks like in the fall…so pretty)

My sister-in-law and I went to town gathering some if this stuff on the ground!  She was much better at getting it off the limbs than I was. 

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I really do love this stuff!

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We managed to get a bag full of it for me to use. (Thanks sis!)

After carefully washing and drying the bark, I simply hot glued it in strips to a wood board.  It is one of my favorite pieces on the mantel.

As you can see… I also added a vase with pine cone limbs and some of those left over cut wood slices from my Sliced Wood Pine Cone Trees.

SO MUCH Natural Yummy TEXTURE!!

Natural Rustic Winter Mantel LVR

And as for a full shot… I can only show you half of my fireplace wall. The shipping crate I mentioned earlier is to the right… again, post coming soon!

Natural Rustic Winter Mantel LR

I have to say…

I’m lovin’ all the natural woodsy elements and textures in this display!

It is one of my favs!

Now… off to finish working on my shipping crate!

Here is last year’s rustic winter mantel which actually got a feature over at HGTV.com (still excited over that one!)

Rustic Winter

Thanks For Stopping By!

 

6 comments:

  1. Kendra I love it! Nice to see you around again.. have been missing your amazing creativity!!
    Karen

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    1. Thank you Karen!! Good to hear from you! Still following all your awesome art on facebook! :)

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  2. You are so wonderful and I LOVE your mantel too! Oh my! the woven items are so pretty! You have my mind working on some fun ideas weaving items together! LOVE IT SO MUCH! The texture is such a pleasant sight....one's eyes search throughout the entire mantel to see what's up there! It's simply beautiful!!!

    XO
    ~K

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    1. Thanks for all the love Ko!! If you weave something... you've gotta post it so I can see!

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  3. I love your new mantle! I also got a kick out of seeing last year's mantle and where you re-purposed some of the items you used there - awesome!! Looking forward to seeing what you do with a shipping crate because I have a lovely wooden one I would like to do something with!

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    1. Hi Farm Quilter...thanks so much... I did use a piece from this mantel/post on my new winter mantel for this year... I try to reuse things when I can! :) and the shipping crate post is here: http://creative-ambitions.blogspot.com/2013/01/shipping-crate-desk.html... I'm now using it as a TV console!

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Kendra