Beachy Christmas Season
Cookie’s for Santa left on a Florida alligator plate.
I’m sure he will LOVE them!
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How About a Christmas Card Fishnet?
Merry Christmas at the Beach Condo
A handmade woven basket that I bought in Hawaii is housing a take home gift goodie for our guests at our condo beach Christmas party. Key Lime, coconut and Pina Colada candies.
Christmas isn’t just about decorating a tree and shopping for gifts. To a crafter it is an inspirational time. A time when our creative juices start flowing. Here we decided to spend Christmas at my family owned beach condo.
It’s just not Christmas without a barefoot hanging on the tree.
This is very easy to make. I found the foot already cut out at a craft store. I then painted it a tan color. Added some color to the toes so that it resembled nail polish. I then glued some tiny silk flowers in a shape to resemble a flip flop or sandal. Oh, before I started painting it I had my husband to drill a small hole in the heel so that I could hang it up. I am using some pretty pearl strand to hang it on the tree. I love it!
Santa Pirate
Only in Florida is Santa Claus a pirate.
Star Fish and Shells
When I set out to plan my Beachy Christmas I wanted to decorate with elements that are associated with the sea and I thought that a very unique way to present our Christmas cards as a gift was to put it in a bottle.
Kind of a message in a bottle theme.
But first I needed to find the bottles. I wanted some nice ones, some plain ones, and some fancy ones that would reflect the personalities of our guests. I also wanted them to be a bit vintage. I want our guests to keep the bottle when they leave and not just toss it into a recycling bin, although that is preferable to a trash can, but none the less, I want my guests to like their bottles. I scoured my own collection of vintage bottles as well as looking at some local thrift stores and even Ebay. I think I found some nice ones.
I discovered these beautiful old Avon bottles that I just adored. A mermaid, a fish, a dolphin, a lovely bird of paradise, an old whale oil lantern, a seahorse, a fire hydrant (for my daughter’s boyfriend who happens to be a fireman), and much more.
I also found some green vintage 7-Up bottles and some Florida Gator commemorative Pepsi bottles. Some of the Avon bottles still had such a strong smell of cologne and some of the bottles had some sort of “film” on the insides so I set about cleaning them up.
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Vinegar and Dishwashing Liquid
I removed the caps from each bottle and set them aside.
Vinegar and dish washing soap were all it took to get them clean.
I made a big warm soapy bath and added an entire bottle of white vinegar. I let these bottles soak for about 48 hours in the water. Incidentally, not one Avon paper sticker on the bottom of the bottles came off. What kind of glue were they using??
All that soaking with the vinegar will also get your sink all nice and white and clean.
That is if you have a white porcelain sink.
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Some of these bottle caps you just don’t want to soak for such a long time. But they do need a good cleaning.
Once the bottles have finished soaking then just spread them out on a towel and let them dry for a few days. Some of these bottle openings are so small that it takes awhile for the water to evaporate. Also, don’t expect the cologne smell to totally dissipate. But it will be much better than it was. More subtle.
I started this project at home but then brought everything out to the condo with me to finish. Now comes the fun part, the assembly.
I love this tray!! I think my grandmother picked it up on one of her visits to Hawaii back in the 1960’s. The tray is quite large with these beautiful plumeria blossoms hammered on. Just gorgeous!! This tray is how I want to present the gift of our Christmas card in a bottle.
All My Materials
The bottles, some corks, some pretty sea soaps, and of course our “Christmas Message.”
The Whann’s and Family
We had the photo taken on our beach in Indian Shores.
I printed out a photo of us on regular computer paper. You don’t want to use any card stock for this because you need to easily roll the paper up to insert into the bottle.
I wrote out our Christmas message……
These are vintage seahorse gumball machine trinkets. You’ll see what I do with these in just a minute.
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Here is an old olive oil bottle of ours that I saved for this project. It has a good shape and there is plenty of room for the message. But since the bottle was nice and clear I added some sand and some smaller sea shells in addition to our Christmas message. Topped the bottle off with a Barefoot wine cork. Nice.
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Some of these bottles are just beautiful. It will be hard to part with them. They really were unique. Funny how we don’t appreciate anything at the time, only years later do we see it’s value.
Sea Horse Trinkets and some Fishing Line
Once the message was in the bottle and corked, I added a nice seahorse charm around the neck of some of the bottles.
Here I added one of the gumball machine seahorse charms to my mermaid.
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Sea Glass, The Jewels of the Sea
I added the glass to these pretty bottles and placed them beside my mermaid.
They are her collection of jewels.
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Feather Tree
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Bath Salts Gift
I had these four cute bottles leftover from a past ‘condo luncheon’ back in August. I originally found them in a thrift store. I think they were old spice jars. I had added some sand from our beach and some shells to give as take home gifts to my guests. I placed one at each place setting. Well, I had these four bottles leftover from that project so I thought it would make a nice gift to fill them with some bath sea salts.
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So easy to make and I think a very nice gift to give to any woman that likes to have a nice relaxing bath. I added one final accent. One of the seahorse charms to the neck of each bottle with a piece of fishing line. I then placed them into the master bath at the condo for my mother and her friend Judy when they come later in the month.
My Pretty Shell Rose Boxes
I started this project at home but ended up bringing them out to the condo to finish. Not only are these boxes a nice gift in themselves, they will also house a lovely gift inside.
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I started by painting some old cigar boxes white, on the inside and outside. The smaller boxes are wood that I purchased from a craft store. I then hot glued some of my shell roses to the tops. (Way down below near the bottom of this blog I have instructions on how you can make your own roses).
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I think they look lovely.
Who wouldn’t want to receive one?
The big star fish box is mine to keep. It’s very simple. If you notice the blue tag on the left side of the box. It is the freshness stamp on the cigar box. I just couldn’t bring myself to paint over it.
Everything shimmers and sparkles just like it’s suppose to.
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We aren’t just a “one” Christmas tree family. We usually have several around. Sometimes with different themes but yet they are similar. Here is just one of the condo Christmas trees that I have.
I wanted it to look like an undersea fantasy. I purchased a small white opalescent tree for about $5.00 and added some ‘seaweed and sea grass’ looking decorations that I bought at Michael’s craft store.
The tree skirt is a vintage tablecloth that my great-grandmother made and crocheted the border. I have all the fish swimming in the same direction, except for the one by Santa. That fish represents me. I tend not to go with the flow.
Wine and Gift Boxes
Here are the finished results of the wine bags that I made, the wine bottles that I decorated, and the boxes that I made. The projects are depicted below down the page. They are early Christmas gifts for our party guests.
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Although it is a bit hard to see, I’ve put hair “scrunchies” with shells woven throughout them around some of the wine bottle necks. I think it looks very nice.
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Little Treasure Chests
This box I made for me. The painted cigar box, except I couldn’t bring myself to paint over the freshness label, it was just too cute. I also glued a shell to represent a knob on the front.
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I LOVE my vintage shell platters that I use for my shell projects.
Sand, Sea Shells, and Glass Ornaments
Here I decided to make some sea ornaments for the tree and for take home gifts at our condo Christmas parties this year.
Just buy the clear glass ornaments at your craft stores and fill them with some sand from the beach, some sea shells
When you make something yourself it becomes something of a memory. These ornaments will be given to our Christmas party guests to take home to hand on their own Beachy Christmas trees.
Hanging on the Tree
A few years ago we gave our Canadian friends some of these clear glass balls as an early Christmas gift while they were down here visiting. They took them to the beach, filled them with sand and some shells that they found themselves, then took them back home to hang on their Canadian Christmas tree. A great memory of Florida that they carried home with them.
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These are some small vintage jello molds that I bought at a thrift store a few years ago. Two lobster and two star fish. They will go nicely on our big tree this year.
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See How they Sparkle!
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Sand dollar place cards for our condo Christmas beach table this year.
They will also act as take home gifts.
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These are so easy to make.
I bought the sand dollars at a souvenir store and the paint markers at the dollar store.
They are very glittery glue paints.
Remember to give them plenty of time to dry. It took these about a day and a half to dry.
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The Sand Dollar
There are so many religious significance associated with the sea and sea shells. The sand dollar is a good example. Which makes it perfect for our Christmas party.
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The Legend of the Sand Dollar
A legend grand is told about the life of Jesus throughout this odd shaped sea shell. When viewed from the top, the center shows the Guiding Star that led the Wise Men to Bethlehem. Also shown in the top is the Easter Lily for His Resurrection.
The five holes in this shell represent the wounds that Jesus suffered when he died on the cross. Four from the nails and one from the Roman’s spear.
When turned upside down, a Poinsettia, the Christmas flower, can be detected portraying His Nativity.
Within this shell when broken, five Doves of Peace are found to emphasize the legend of Peace and Love.
Place these five Doves together and again a star is formed.
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Star Fish Floating By
I really like the way this turned out. I wanted it to look as if star fish were floating and swimming all around.
I can always enlist my husband’s help with these projects of mine. I wanted to use the knobby star fish for this project. They are small and cute and have such nice detail on them.
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All the project required was some fishing line, it’s nice and clear, scissors, and some thumb tacks.
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Gordon staggered the starfish, usually tying two to a strand.
Thumb tacks were all that were needed to secure it to the ceiling.
You can use clear ones but I used what I had.
Star Fish Floating By……..
Merry Beachy Christmas to All,
Gordon and Julie