Little Christmas Crate Train

Oh my I LOVE LOVE LOVE how my little crate train turned out. I got my inspiration from  The Keeper of the Cheerios blog post. I did a few thing differently to make it my own. I figured I have about $100 in just the materials. So worth it though.

I didn't take step by step photos. You can pretty much follow her video and then just change it up a bit for your style. I tried to use items that I had on hand to keep the cost down a bit.

I had gotten some crates from Walmart and from Michaels. I like the style better with the ones from Michaels but the Walmart ones are built better. Both were right at $10 each.

For the wheels I went to the Dollar Tree and bought 16 of cookie tins. Painted the lids white (it took about 4 coats). In the video it shows hand painting the swirls on the wheels. I cannot hand paint anything so..... I have a Cricut so I cut them out with 631 vinyl and applied them. 

Used a piece of PVC pipe for the smoke stack. The base is a canning lid. I useed the E6000 glue to hold it in place. 

Of course I had to make some little signs to dress it up a bit. I had some miniature tree ornaments that I used for a little bling on the signs and the front of the train engine.

Santa and Rudolph are made from vinyl and put inside a 4x4 picture frame from Walmart. I velcroed these on in case I need to remove them for replacement one day. 

This project took a little more time then this "impatient crafter" cares to put into a project. But I really like how it turned out.

North Pole Light Posts

This is a Trash to treasure project I did for my Christmas outdoor decor this year.

We had cemented these PVC pipes in a bucket to hold a volleyball net years ago. Well it never gets used anymore so I turned them into some North Pole Light Poles.

I had the hubby cut them to about 5' and cleaned them up.

Spray painted them white. I think I did two coats. Then I took painters tape and wrapped it around the poles. Make sure it is on tight with no gaps in it where the red paint could seep through. I then did two coats of red. Take the painters tape off right away (a bit messy).

I used some quart canning jars for the light globes. I gave them the frosted look with a coat of spray paint. Inserted a string of Christmas lights. I ran a cord down the inside of the pole and cut a hole at the bottom for the plug to come out of. I did this on the back side so you can't see it. To hold the jar on I glued the canning rim on the pole with E6000 glue. We have had some pretty good winds and they have held up just fine.

Added some tinsel to the buckets to cover up the concrete. Just used hot glue to hold it in place.

Made some cute signs with scrap wood and attached them with zip ties stapled to back of the sign.

Love how it turned out. I had everything on hand so the cost was pretty minimal.  Trash to Treasure is one of my favorite DIY projects to do.