Gwenny Penny: Haul Out the Holly: Day 7 with Betty Crocker Wannabe

Hello Gwenny Penny fans! I'm Kristin from Betty Crocker Wannabe. I am a 30-something working, single mom with an amazing little boy who I adopted when he was nine weeks old. My blog is about being a mom, sharing recipes, showing off my mad photography skills, a little bit of crafting and a whole lotta life.

I was thrilled when Gwen invited me to guest post during her Haul Out the Holly extravaganza. To be included among the amazing talent here was an honor and I replied "YES!!" right away!

I have a lot of ideas in my head of projects I want to try out this holiday season, and today I'm going to share one of my favorites.

I {heart} Pottery Barn. I love to look through their catalog and dog-ear pages, gaining inspiration at every turn. This Christmas ornament swag caught my eye last year, and again this year, so I decided to make it.

Here's my Pottery Barn inspiration:

The Pottery Barn version is actually quite large and is for hanging outside. I liked the idea of hanging it from a window INSIDE instead.

Here's what I started with:

Two tubes of ornaments from the Dollar Store, and about 9 yards of opaque ribbon (I tried to use as much of what I had on hand as possible, so I used a roll of clearance ribbon from Hallmark's after Christmas sale and some green tulle I saved off of a gift last year and just cut it into strips to make them the same width as the other ribbon). The whole project cost me a little over $3.

First, cut the ribbon into strips. Mine were about 24" (sorry, I forgot to measure them).

Next, loop a strip of ribbon through the top of an ornament and tie it.

Sidenote: My original idea was to tie one ornament on each end of the ribbon, but that didn't work because the ribbon was too short. I'm really only telling you this so I can show off my little model holding it up for me. Isn't he the cutest??

So I tied one piece of ribbon to each ornament. Then I started collecting the ornaments one at a time, holding the ribbon at varying lengths.

I kept adding ornaments until I was satisfied with the arrangement, and there were no significant gaps.

I held all of the ribbon tightly, careful not to move the arrangement, and tied a knot near the top of the ornaments, letting the rest of the ribbon cascade down .

I snipped the edges of the ribbon to prevent further fraying, then tied two of the strips to a curtain rod over my kitchen window.

I am so pleased with how it turned out, that it has been hanging in my kitchen since I finished it in early November!

I have a couple other Pottery Barn ~~knock-off~~ inspired projects at Betty Crocker Wannabe. Stop on by and check them out!

Isn't this gorgeous? And so simple to make! I can just picture a room with one of these Christmas ornament swags hanging from every window. Make sure you check out Kristin's blog Betty Crocker Wannabe. First of all, this girl knows how to throw a party (check out this and this). She also shares some really great recipes. Her Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Reindeer are adorable, and I've made her Hamburger Soup... it's delicious! Thanks for sharing your tutorial today, Kristin!