Without fail, the day after Thanksgiving my kids start begging to decorate the house for Christmas and I love the feeling our home gets when we decorate it. This year I decided to add a little flair and get creative cause how could I not? It’s just what I do. It also helped that a fellow blogger/photographer, Bree Johnson, was looking for modern Christmas decor ideas to post. So this series is one I’ve been planning for a while and have been really excited about. 

The whole concept came to me when I decided I wanted to create Christmas decorations that matched my living room. Growing up in the Las Vegas dessert I’ve grown to love the ethnic prints and desert inspired decor. My living room is already decorated with Guatemalan prints and succulents. So I carried those elements into my Christmas concept. I wanted to make the concept modern so I thought of the triangle patterns often found in Guatemalan prints. I added a geometric element to this Christmas decor idea. 

In this first post I’m going to show you my Christmas mantle set up and how I made my wreath. And yes, that’s our new kitten right there.

 I don’t have a fireplace or mantle. So I showed my set up with this table so you could all see the fun decor ideas I’ve had. There actually used to be a fireplace behind that table in our 100 year old home. Unfortunately the people who renovated it totally covered up. I know, a crime right?! So now I have to stage my mantle with a table. There you go.

The mantle is bright while still retaining the elements mentioned above. Bright florals are a commons theme in Hispanic culture. So I ran into this floral company at Pinners Conference called Eco Flower and was able to get these great flowers for my mantle set up. The flowers are made from 100% recycled materials like paper, book pages, wood, burlap, and pine cones. I took these amazing flowers and made a flower letter “M” out of them. I also use a few remaining flowers to make my floral headband. Cool huh?!

The succulents are from one of my favorite decorating stores, TaiPan Trading as well as the geometric basket which matches the wreath. The large deer are from Joanns and spray painted bright colors. The small tree I found second hand and spray painted it as well. I spray paint for days my friends. The mini trees are from Miniature Plastic Deer as well as the little deer garland. Aren’t these little deer the cutest thing ever?! I also brightened up their Holiday Craft Kit that I am giving away on my Instagram Monday.

The wall hanging was a super fun touch thanks to Fiber and Fringe. All of the colors present in the hanging really helped tie the concept together, plus Nora loved it so it must be good!

To go with the ethnic bright feel of the concept Nora and I are wearing traditional dresses from Flor De Luz Shop which is owned and ran by a local friend and shop. I simply love this shop. Jason is wearing a skinny tie from Simply Skinny Ties. I am also wearing jewelry from Musana which is an awesome company that educates and employs Ugandan women. This shop is a great one to support this Christmas. My necklace, earrings, and bracelet are from them.

 My watch is from Jord Wood Watches and is amazing. My husband was so impressed by this watch the craftsmanship! Nora and I wore matching Chankklas sandals with out dresses. They were perfect for the pictures and I can’t wait for our cruise in February when I can wear these bad boys again.

The prints are a gift to you all. I made them so you can easily print them out. You can totally grab them on my FREE PRINTABLE page.

The wreath is a DIY that cost me less than $5 to make not including greenery. It was inspired by this 

wreath I found on Pinterest by Dwell Studio. I used skewers, hot glue, a wreath form, succulents, and a strip of that Guatemalan print. So here’s the tutorial for my Modern Skewer Wreath. This wreath is so fun you could really use it anytime of year or tailor it to other party themes. 

 My son wanted to help me make it so you’ll see his little hands in the pictures. He actually was comfortable using the cool glue gun. It’s super fun when my kids want to craft with me. A little crazy, but fun!

Modern Ethnic Wreath

What you need:

 30 skewers

A wreath form

Hot Glue gun

Hot glue stick

Greenery (I used faux succulents)

Ribbon or fabric for the bow

Diagonal cutters or dykes
Spray paint (I chose gold)

How to do it:

1. Clip the tip off your skewers with your dykes.

2. Mark the skewers into pieces of three.

3. Clip the skewers on the two marks.

4. Glue the skewers into triangles being careful not to burn yourself. Use a generous amount of glue so you can make the joints strong.

5. Arrange the triangles onto the wreath form making sure it lays across two pieces at least. Once again use a generous amount of glue to keep it strong. Start working around the form and leaving a gap on about 1/4th of the wreath. This is to leave space for your greenery.