beach combing {shells, coral and other random finds}

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Oh, remember the days of large craft supply stores with after holiday deep discounts, add a coupon and you can buy the next 3 years worth of tissue paper, decor accessories and ribbon for $2.50?

What, you still have that? Right, it’s just me who has moved to a little island where the craft supplies stores are barely bigger than a bread box and if you see something you may just want someday down the road, be sure to buy it now. Because there’s no such thing as a real sale and there are no guarantees it will be restocked when it’s gone. Like ever again.

Instead, I just go for the five finger discounts. No, not at the store! At the shore. 🙂 Where we are lacking the usual shopping conveniences that I once new when living in the states, I am overjoyed at the abundance I have of these.

So, when I decided to take on this little challenge…

I knew exactly where to start looking for supplies.

A couple of hours on a drizzly Saturday morning with these characters…

And here was our take.

Now, what do I do with it all? Is that a light bulb? Will this all become Christmas decor?

So, the Mega Crafty Challenge is to decorate a whole tree, at least 4 feet tall, with homemade ornaments for under $20 (cost of tree and lights not included). The kicker for me is that I actually made my own tree out of driftwood, check out my process here.

Yes, I do realize this picture makes it looks like the tree is just less than 4 feet. But, it’s not, I swear! It was the challenge of doing a one-arm-stretched-out-photo-while-holding-a-tape-measure-trying-to-get-all-relevant-info-into-in-the-picture. It’s just the angle. Really! That’s why I took the close up too.

And, I’m hoping, that the total cost, tree and all, will come in under budget. So, far I’ve spent under $2 for the dowels to put the tree together. All of the driftwood was grabbed on a five finger discount. Everybody who knows me will tell you I am nothing if not thrifty, so this challenge is right up my alley. 🙂

Now, I just need to get some Christmas ornament inspiration a flowin’. Any suggestions???