Personalizing Your Holiday Home Decor {giveaway}

It’s officially the Holiday Season and like many people I’ve been looking to transform my home’s decor into something cozy, comfortable and festive.

Usually I do something like pull out a cozy blanket in my favorite color for the couch, put a different display on the dining room table, and a few other decor things.

This year we’re spending our first holiday season in our new home and I need (I mean neeeed. Just kidding) I mean I would like to a few more things to personalize and cozy up our home.

My Dilemma

I started with finding a good clock for my home.  Because I have guests every weekend I’ve noticed many times they’ve been hunting around looking for a clock to check the time and the bright blue of the stove and microwave digital clocks just weren’t cutting it.

And I actually  had the perfect space for a clock above my pantry in my kitchen but I never could seem to find the right clock to fit it.

I’ve always liked a little bit of a vintage feel so I gravitated to the wave of clocks out there that were designed with that in mind but I had a hard time choosing if I wanted my clock to say Rome, Paris, or London. It seems that all the vintage clocks out there seemed to have that particular imprint on them. And even if I did find one it wasn’t quite right. There was always something a little off.

The Solution

Then I had the ingenious idea to make a clock over at Zazzle. The creative marketplace where you can create a design and have it imprinted on dozens of products to buy yourself or sell to others.

I’ve been making things on Zazzle for years and my sister reminded me they had clocks. I hemmed and hawwed over this decision and then they had the ingenious idea at the same time to send me a free product to test. (This really happened. I do not make things up.)

I’ve been making stuff on Zazzle for years but it’s been officey stuff. Binders, stamps, and stuff like that.  This is the first time I’ve attempted to make something to decorate my home. And I was nervous!

I’m a little squeemish about my creative abilities. Especially if they’re going to be permanently on something. My mother is a bonafide artist and I’m sure the gene has skipped a generation.  So I wasn’t sure it would work out like I wanted.But I dove in and got it done.

The Steps

So I pulled up some vintage images from my various suppliers on my hard drive, read the template measurements on the Zazzle website for clocks, and got to making something that would fit with my budding decor in the kitchen.

The Inspiration

When we picked the tiles and backsplash for our new kitchen I picked purple and blue tiles for the backsplash. They’re also a bit sparkly. They spoke to me and I could see my love of green fitting in there too. I have some kitchen linens that we received when we got married (eons ago) that I’ve never used but they fit this set up perfectly.

 

 

So for the clock the design I picked was a vintage setting of blue plums and green grapes. I put this on a background of vintage paper. I had some other elements I tried to add but as I was putting them on the clock face they didn’t space right so I toned them down. Good thing too.

For me designing is no easy process but when you’re done it’s so wonderful to see your own creations so I powered through. I applied said design to my clock and waited for the delivery man.

The Result

I didn’t know what kind of quality to expect for my clock but I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived.

My design of the vintage plums and grapes with a background of the vintage paper design background is laid behind a clear clock face with the clock hand on the front of that. The clock takes one AA battery and hangs perfectly with a picture hook behind. You can’t tell from my photo because I AM NOT a photographer but it goes really nicely.

It now hangs in a prominent place in my kitchen.

This got me to thinking of all the great holiday decor you could do with Zazzle.

I made a few more things for my kitchen to match the clock and then headed off to look for Thanksgiving decor. Here are some more designs I made and some other things you can pick up on Zazzle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is only a very small taste of things you can find on Zazzle. There are plenty of more items to use to decorate your home. From lamps, to poufs, serving trays and much more.

And the beauty of it is if you don’t see what you like you can create your own!

And be sure and sign up for Zazzle’s mailing list if you think you want to make your own items. There are great coupon codes all the time.

Giveaway

I’m also giving away $25 in Zazzle credit to one lucky reader. Just follow the Zazzle prompts below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

* Disclosure of Material Connection: I received my clock free from Zazzle but actually had the clock in the planning stages before they contacted me. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

 

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