paper garlands are classic- christmas mantle 2013

I really can't quite believe it's Christmas time again. It seems like we just took down the tree from last year like 3 months ago.

This year I am inspired by the amazing and intricate work of various paper cut artist.

I hand cut the village and trees. I ended up buying the sleigh and reindeer because, well, I saw them and it saved me some time. I also bought the snow flakes.  Everything including the black and red paper used to create the silhouette and garlands is available at Paper Source, a.k.a. One of the Happiest Places on Earth.

country christmas mantle

Welcome Christmas.

We are gearing up for a magical year here in the Meeker house. Our children are all believers. Their Christmas spirit is contagious.

Every year I design a new theme for our mantle. This year I was inspired by country life. I love old barns and natural fibers. I'm also loving all the mounted animal heads as long as they are fake. I find real animal heads to be disturbing. Taxidermy. Not for me.

Anyway, Ben humored me and constructed my pint sized barn door. I painted it with our initials.  I found the stag head at Target along with the small snowflake votives.  The mercury glass jugs are from World Market.  The larger porcelain votives are from Crate and Barrel.  The garland was made by ripping natural linen into strips.

You can't see it too well in the photo but there is a pair of antique ice tongs propped against the door that I found in an antique store.  I can't remember where I got the large bells.

Because the mantle isn't overtly Christmas, I think if I take away the bells I can leave it up through January.

Hopefully I will have time to share more of our Christmas this year! Remember that I can be found on Instagram almost everyday.