Looking for an unconventional take on holiday decor this year? Why not take the phrase “go big or go home” more literally? We teamed up with The Home Depot ® to transform a glass light cover into a giant pattern-covered ornament, fit to adorn your mantel, bookshelf, or entryway table. While it’s definitely too heavy to hang on your tree, it’s a fun way to add a bit of holiday charm to another spot in your home. Follow the tutorial below to see how we made ours.
Materials:
– 1 handblown glass globe
– 1 hose clamp
– 3 DecoColor silver broad paint markers
– 1 DecoColor red fine point paint marker
– 1 DecoColor green fine point paint marker
– 1 DecoColor white fine point paint marker
– 1 bottle Martha Stewart Antique Silver Glitter Paint
Tools:
– 1 roll painter’s tape
You could mix up the colors however you like, but we went with traditional silver, white, red, and green.
First, cut off several strips of tape and use your tape roll as a stand for your globe.
Be sure that you use scissors to cut off your tape pieces, at around 3 inches long. Press two pieces of tape together to create a 90 degree corner. Attach to your globe to create an ornament topper design at the top of your piece.
Here’s what a fully taped globe should look like!
Now, to make that topper. Fill in the taped off zone with silver paint using a silver paint marker. We found that paint marked worked way better than regular acrylic paint, and you only need one coat. Let dry for 20 minutes and then peel your tape off.
Onto the pattern portion of this tutorial. You can practice patterns on a piece of paper to make sure you come up with something you like. When broken down, our entire pattern was made of half circles and lines.
Keep going as far down your ornament as you like. We wanted to leave the bottom portion plain — sometimes negative space is essential.
Use your white paint paint to add details to your globe.
And for a little more bling, use silver glitter paint to sparkle up bits and pieces of your globe. We found that the glitter paint shows up best on red or green blocks of color, and doesn’t really do much to the white or silver sections. Use the back end of your paint brush to add bits of glitter to the smaller sections of your pattern.
Now for the finishing touch, your ornament hook! The most important thing to know about his hook is that it is PURELY decorative. The hot glue and hose clamp will not stay attached to your globe if you try to lift it up by the hook. So please don’t try!
Take the hose clamp apart, squeeze some hot glue on the inside edge of your globe, and attach the hose clamp. That’s it!
How cute is that?!
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… ;)
The Apron blog
from The Home Depot where you’ll find more holiday DIY ideas.
Welcome to Selfmade Finance School, our new money series with Block Advisors to help small business owners with their tax, bookkeeping, and payroll needs year-round. This week, we explore the tax implications of bringing family members into your business.
The question for today is this: Does hiring your family members make sense for your business? Let me be clear. This is not a piece about whether hiring your family members makes sense for your relationships with those family members. As someone who is part of a family business, I could fill up a lot more than 600 words on my opinions about that. For today's purposes, we focus on whether it makes sense from an overall "good business and tax implication" perspective. As it turns out, there is a decent amount of tax nuance when it comes to employing your family. Let's break it down based on relationship to the employee:
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Spouses Who Are In Business Together
Personally, if I had to be in business with my husband, it would not go well. However, many couples build viable, strong businesses together and I say, good for them! Depending on how you have your business entity structured, it will make a big difference on the tax treatment of you and your spouse working as partners. Because a business jointly owned and operated by a married couple is generally treated as a partnership for Federal tax purposes, the spouses must comply with filing and record keeping requirements imposed on partnerships and their partners. The election to file two Schedule C (Form 1040) forms, (one for each spouse) permits certain married co-owners to avoid filing partnership returns, provided that each spouse separately reports a share of all the businesses' items of income, gain, loss, deduction, and credit. Under the election, both spouses will be subject to self-employment tax and on net earnings from self-employment and receive credit for Social Security earnings.
One Spouse Employs Another
If you have a dynamic where your spouse is an employee of your business, then your spouse's wages are subject to income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare taxes. If you are self-employed (not a corporation or a partnership), your spouse's pay does not have to be included in your federal unemployment tax account (FUTA) contributions and payments. However, if your business is a corporation or a partnership you must include that spouse's pay in your unemployment tax contribution calculation.
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You Employ Your Child
First, let's be clear. I work in my family business, but I am an adult, so I am treated just like a normal employee. However, if you, for example, run a family restaurant and want to hire your children under 18 to work for you, there are some tax benefits. But first, you should check with your state for rules on how many hours minors can work (in non-agricultural jobs) and reference the Fair Labor Standards Act for information on limitations on the kinds of work children can perform.
"This is an often overlooked or under-utilized strategy. Paying your children for true services they provide in your business can be a powerful tax-saving tool," says Cathi Reed, Block Advisors Regional Director. "If you are a sole-proprietorship or single member LLC, and the child is less than 18 years of age, the business is not required to withhold FICA or payroll taxes. The child can use his or her standard deduction against income you pay."
You Hire Your Parent
Oh dear. If you are brave enough to do this, know that you will need to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes on your parent's wages and make the appropriate withholdings, but you don't have to pay unemployment taxes. Now all you have to do is convince your parent that you are the boss. Have fun with that!
Is Hiring Family Members Worth It For The Tax Benefits?
"There are some positive tax advantages to hiring family members. It's important to treat a family member like any other employee. Hiring your children can result in substantial savings for businesses. Make sure your child has real, age-appropriate work to do and a reasonable pay rate, comparable to other employees. Consult with a Block Advisors small business certified tax pro to ensure that you are complying with all requirements," advises Reed. "Block Advisors, a team within H&R Block, is dedicated to meeting the tax, bookkeeping and payroll needs of small business owners year-round. To start working with the tax experts at Block Advisors, visit blockadvisors.com."
In my opinion, you should not hire a family member solely because of the tax benefits. You should always hire based on whether that person is right for the job and keep in mind how this hire could materially impact your relationship with that person and others in your family. Finally, as I mentioned, make sure you have a tax professional on your team when making these determinations. As you can see, things can get a little tricky!
*All details were sourced from IRS.gov and blockadvisors.com
The opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and may not necessarily reflect those held by Kestra Investment Services, LLC or Kestra Advisory Services, LLC. This is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific investment advice or recommendations for any individual. It is suggested that you consult your financial professional, attorney, or tax advisor with regards to your individual situation. Comments concerning the past performance are not intended to be forward looking and should not be viewed as an indication of future results. Securities offered through Kestra Investment Services, LLC (Kestra IS), member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Kestra Advisory Services, LLC (Kestra AS), an affiliate of Kestra IS. O'Keeffe Financial Partners and any other entity listed herein is not affiliated with Kestra IS or Kestra AS Investor Disclosures: https://bit.ly/KF-Disclosures