Lovin' the Leftovers...

Welcome to Day 7!

let's talk about holiday leftovers.

[um, no... not the dried out turkey / soggy potatoes kind!]

ever since December 26, stores everywhere have been reducing prices 

on their leftover [ahem - unsold] holiday merchandise.

from Gimbels to Goodwill, stuff is marked WAY down - and yet it's not selling

because at this point in January, 

we think any holiday decor that is left in a store is broken or ugly and unusable.

or IS it?

today, we're looking at leftover holiday decor as a cheap way to create a sweet Valentine treat!

you can re-think what you see to make something out of 'nothing'

this broken and battered box of vintage bottlebrush bell Christmas ornaments

was shoved to the back of the bottom shelf in a Goodwill store.

it had been crushed - and probably thrown a few times -

but i found it and it made me smile.

and in a storyline not unlike Charlie Brown and his forlorn little Christmas tree,

i decided that i could make something of it

 because i LOVE making something out of bits and pieces of nothing.

i removed the UGLY green bows and the flimsy thread hangers,

 and the pink and red colors looked more like Valentine's Day to me than Christmas.

so i grabbed some pink and red plastic beads [dollar store]

and hot glued them onto the ends of the wire that already ran through the middle of the bells.

the yellow chenille trim that was on the bottom of the bells isn't exactly a Valentine color,

but it was bright and happy, so i decided to leave it on them.

i grabbed a small red heart-shaped box of candy that i had picked up [dollar store]

and ate all the chocolate in it.

what??? i needed an empty box! 

[i was a woman on a crafting mission and nothing was going to stop me]

 i cut two hearts the same size as the box lid and bottom

from pink and white striped gift wrapping paper

and lined the inside of the box with it, hot-gluing it into place.

i glued a pink and white polkadot ribbon around the outside of the box.

a small rectangle of the wrapping paper 

was embellished with hot pink velvet sticker letters [dollar store] that spelled out SWEET.

i attached that to the inside of the lid, and stood the lid up inside the bottom of the box.

and then i tucked the little formerly-bell-ornaments inside the box...

and helLO BonBons!

 this is no big fancy decor idea,

just the inspiration to create something with the bits and pieces that YOU already have -

maybe with the kids, maybe using pieces of broken toys or old blocks

or something you find in the thrift store or on the clearance aisle at Target.

look at those holiday leftovers a little differently...

maybe with the kind of hope that Charlie Brown had for his scrawny tree.

because it could be that those leftovers

just need a little love