My Attempt At A Summer Mantel

**So this post has been a work in progress as I started it on April 29th and here it is the last week of May and I am just now finely tuning it for release on several link parties! I thought about redoing the whole post but wanted to show the progress my mantel made in anticipation of this party so here ya have it!**





Here is my original take on a summer mantel:

I love this little lamp. I got him at Target years ago on clearance for under 3 bucks.

I may add some fake faux geraniums to this mantel before I link it up.

Ok, so don't get used to the above as it has changed a multitude of times......

First, I created these cute little accents with frames from Dollar Tree here.

Then I wanted some color for the mantel so I painted these cute little birdie candleholders that I got from where else....Dollar Tree.....here.

And I loved the mantel even more....really I did but it was missing something......

A cute little touch that I created here.

And that seemed to do the trick. Almost.

Then my good friend Melissa bought me the cute little 2 mason jar explained here and I knew I had to use it on the "summer mantel".

So here it is, the final product.

I swear.

Then I couldn't just leave well enough alone.

So I painted the middle star red with my handy dandy spray paint.....

                                                                    Much better..:)

If you have been following my blog for any amount of time, you know that I love to list a cost breakdown to give you an idea of how much it cost me and how/where you can find the items above so here we go!!

Cost Breakdown-

Lamp- as I said in the first part of the post, I got this cute little guy at Target years ago in the clearance section for around 5 bucks (I think even less??). They have little lamps like these at thrift stores EVERYWHERE.

Fake (so sorry, faux) geraniums- from a cute little craft store in central Illinois called Jeffrey Alan's that I love to shop in while visiting mom and dad. Love this place! I wanna say they had a special going on so they weren't more than 10 bucks for the two plants.

Mason jars- the number 2 jar came from Melissa who bought it at Tuesday Morning and she said it cost her $3.99. The other mason jar is just that, a mason jar AND I got it for free at a yard sale!! (No, I didn't steal it! It was one of those "free garage sales" where they just want to get rid of everything. I swear!) NOW, if you have a Silhouette machine (I am just a little jealous) you could easily re-create the number look on a plain ole' mason jar too.

Lemons in said Mason jars- 1 buckaroo each at where else....Dollar Tree!

 I had these already in my kitchen so no extra cost to me for this mantel project. Amazingly, fake (again so sorry. f a u x..) fruit is quite pricey. I know, right? Why??? So DT is the place to go to get these puppies.

Stars- I got these at Goodwill last summer. The smaller ones were 50 cents each! I know!!! The larger one was a dollar. They were this really bright yellowish orange and I have since spray painted them several times.

Chalkboard hearts- see the link way above for the "tutorial" but I bought these hearts at Goodwill last summer for 25 cents each.

The framed F O U R- again, thanks to Dollar Tree I created a cute little accent for under 5 bucks!

Total cost to me to create this summery mantel = 25.00!!! (and that is over the course of five years...wow!)

I am linking this mantel up to the following blogs:

Happy Summer Mantel-ing!!