I have talked before about the challenges of my mantle and fireplace.  After managing to decorate the mantle in a way that I actually liked for fall, I was determined to step it up a notch for Christmas too.  Of course, you can guess where I turned for ideas: Pinterest.  In my search, I found this

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I figured I could use the three sections above my mantle with this three letter word display.  So, I picked up some letters (J and Y), a wreath form and some jingle bells.  My letters were MDF versus paper mache or wood because I couldn’t find the size I wanted in either of the other materials.

Being the cautious painter, I primed the letters quickly with my standard Kilz primer…a gallon of that stuff goes a long way!

Then, I painted both letters red using some acrylic paint I had in my stash.

While my letters dried, I grabbed the wreath form, glue gun and jingle bells.

I layed out the jingle bells and then started glueing them around the wreath form.

I quickly got annoyed with the way the bells were lining up though and switched gears.  I just moved the ribbon wrapped wreath with the few bells attached over to our display case.  It looks like I meant it to only have a few bells that way.
I couldn’t decide exactly what I wanted to do in that space and I couldn’t locate any bell wreaths in the correct colors so I picked up a $.20 (yes, 20 cents) tinsel wreath to fill the void for now.  I used the command picture hanging strips and a command hook to attach them to the wall above out mantle.