Holiday Party Tablescape

"Someone said that life is a party. You join in after it's started
and leave before it's finished."
~Elsa Maxwell, American special events planner and hostess

If you have paid attention to my blog, you know that I have been on a design team for Halcraft USA. Have you ever been to a Michaels.com store and seen the wall of beads in the Bead Gallery line? Yup. That's Halcraft. And I am one of six designers that gets to play with new-not-yet-released beads and findings months in advance to share with Michaels.com. {I can tell you that something fun is coming out in the spring! You will want to keep your eyes peeled for those!}

Back in October, the fine folks at Halcraft asked us to switch gears and create holiday themed designs. Instead of our usual offerings, they asked us to think outside the jewelry box... I was simply astonished by the clever and cool Yule designs that our team created!

For this holiday project I chose to work with a festive tablescape. I wanted to come up with designs that had a great impact and were easy to produce. Click the links to take you to the step by step instructions for each project on the Michaels.com website.

{Happy To Serve - bejeweled serving utensils}

Wouldn't these Happy to Serve utensils make the perfect hostess gift?

{Close up of the slotted spoon. Dollar store finds never looked so good!}

I bought the utensils at the dollar store and used a little wire and some pretty vintage-y metal and jewel-encrusted slides from the Bead Gallery line at Michaels.com to whip these up. You could have a whole set done tonight! You can find the instructions here.

For a more blingy project and one that might be better for next year at this point, you could go with the O Bejeweled Christmas Tree for your mantel or tabletop.
 

{Jeweled Tree - Frontgate.com}

I was inspired by this jeweled tree that I found on Frontgate for the bargain price of........ {wait for it}....... $699! {It has now been marked down to $449 - what a deal! ;-)} Zoinks! I knew that this would be a pricier design due to the amount of materials required but I was certain that it wouldn't cost me nearly that ridiculous amount!

Because I was on a tight time frame, I was not able to take advantage of any good sales for the materials. Still, I think that I spent less than $100 on this. I am sure that if I had been able to buy these items on sale, I could have made this for about $60. I know that sounds like a lot, but this is not a throw-away decoration. This is something that would make my Aunt Charlotte proud and something that would be passed down. And it is heavy so you know it will last. However, Michaels.com is always having a good sale, and if I were to make this again, I would buy and hoard all the vintage sliders needed so that eventually I could sit down and make this again.  Because it really is that spectacular.
 

{O Bejeweled Christmas Tree - doesn't it look spectacular against my red wall?}

The way the vintage sliders from the Bead Gallery line at Michaels.com catch the light is dazzling! My pictures just do not do this justice. And the base was a tall candleholder that I found at Michaels on clearance in the Halloween section! I used a little bit of gold paint rubbed on to give it that burnished antique look. But you might already have a candleholder to use or could even pick on up at a thrift store for cheap!

{O Bejeweled Christmas Tree - showing all sides of the tree. I like mine better than the pricier one, don't you?}

This would be a festive design in any color, but I chose the same red, green and turquoise palette as the serving utensils. The cool thing is that you could do this in just about any color. Black, white, silver and gold was another combo that I considered. And you could go really quirky with purple and pink and lime! You could even sprinkle in some of grandma's earrings and brooches and fill in the blanks on this to make it ultra personal and use the Michaels vintage line to fill in the spaces.

So there you have it! Two festive holiday ideas that there is still time to whip up for Christmas! ;-)