Christmas copy-cat

I'm linking up with Debbie for her magazine copy-cat challenge party...

These are decorations I made last year (is that cheating?) and I really wanted to do something Christmasy for the party!   

I put up fall stuff the first day of September and although our summer was pretty short, I just couldn't wait.  My husband called me out on it too: "It's still summer!!  And I have to admit that as much as I love the fall colors and all, I'm ready for some red, green and sparkle!!  

I couldn't find anything in any of my holiday magazines to make in the last couple days, so I'm recycling this idea.  :) 

I bought the Farm Chicks Christmas book last year and fell in love with the little trees they had made and figured they would be easy to replicate.

(mine)

They were...just a lot of time spent wrapping styrofoam cones.  I had the most trouble with the paper wrapped one, but that was probably because I didn't have a lot of patience on this particular night.  I just wanted them done already, lol!!

(Serena's)

I'm going to make more this year and utilize our new bookcase as it has cubbies.  There are lots of cute ideas and eye candy in that book.

I love me some Farm Chicks...the summer show is lots of fun, but boy I wish there was a holiday one, too!!

OK, well I'm off to check out the other party go-ers!!

Copy-cat!!

Debbie is having a Copy-cat party and I wanted to attend, so here I am!!

I recently spied the cutest outdoor checkers set in which the board was a small vintage style tablecloth with the checker pattern in the center. The game pieces were vintage looking buttons.

Super cute.

And I wanted it, but for $27, I figured dragging our original style checkers game outside would suffice. Not super cute, but it would get the job done. ;)

Until one day I was trolling through the local Goodwill store and not finding anything, started to walk out and I spotted a brown wooden checker board! For $ .99....it was a no brainer, so it came home with me.

Imagine my surprise when I bought the recent Woman's Day mag (with the cute 'corn' cupcakes on the cover) and flipped through and saw that they copied me!!

Well, not really, but I bought my board way before I saw the how-to article. So there!

The board I bought had light and dark squares on it so it made a great template. All I did was spray it with primer, then taped off stripes to paint. I then sanded it down to give it a worn look and trimmed it out with an antique white craft paint. A light poly coat and she was done.

Except I didn't have any playing pieces. Not to worry! Another trip to the GW (after forgoing finding buttons) and I found a checkers/chess game for $1.99 and painted the pieces coordinating colors.

(I just noticed this pic is off center and it's bugging me!! Sorry 'bout that...)

I love how it looks and have it all set up for a game if you wanna come over....

Check out the party!! Lots of cute ideas to see!!