Friday, October 24, 2014

DIY Christmas Crafts


I am fully aware that we are still in the month of October.

I know Halloween hasn't happened yet.

I know. I know!

But Christmas is by far my favorite holiday and I just couldn't resist making some cute Christmas crafts when the mood struck me.

My all-time favorite Christmas song is Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. It doesn't even matter who is singing it, I love it so much. So every year, I look for a sign with this saying to add to my decorations. Last year, I found one at Joann craft store but didn't buy it when I saw it and then it was out of stock the rest of the season. This year, I found the sign and bought it immediately. While I love the sign, my problem stems from the fact that it's not in my Christmas colors.

So I thought to myself, I'LL CRAFT ONE!

I'm not a crafty person, but I thought I'd at least try. So let me share it with you!

Supplies needed: Blank canvas, any size you want
                            Poster stickers, to spell out the words
                            Painters tape-I used green frog tape
                            Colors of Spray Paint that you want to use


 I started with a plain white canvas from the craft store. It was a 3-pack so we ended up with 3 signs. First, I spray-painted the canvas white (yes, I know they were already white) because of some imperfections that I wanted to cover up. Next, I taped out my border and made sure to really press down the edges so that the paint didn't bleed through.

 I decided how I wanted the words laid out then used the poster stickers to spell everything out. I ran out of letters so had to improvise for the second R in merry but it worked out fine. I had to reposition the letters over and over again because the spacing was bothering me but I finally got it just the way I like it.

 Once I had all the letters in place, it was time for the main color. I tried to paint in even sprays but for my first time spray-painting, I didn't do too bad. The one thing I didn't realize was that the letters weren't super sticky. I accidentally got too close to the T in Christmas and the force of the spray blew it up a little bit so the lines around it aren't as crisp but it gives the sign character, right?

 Once the paint was dry, I took off the stickers and the border tape and TA-DA, I had my sign. I have been wanting one of these forever and I'm so happy with how it turned out.

 The hubs decided to make this next sign. He again taped the borders then painted the darker blue color. We then set the letters up and put another piece of tape under it. We sprayed the letters white then once it was dry, we took off the stickers and line tape off. Derek sprayed a coat of glitter over the sign then took off the border tape. I love how his sign turned out and I love that it's a quote from ELF since it's one of our favorite movies for any time of year.

 This final sign was a little harder to make than I thought. I painted the whole canvas blue then taped the border and put the stickers on. Somewhere in my mind, I thought it would be easy to cover to blue paint with white paint. Nope. Not easy. We both had to attack the canvas with the white paint but it the end, it still wasn't an even coat. I kind of like that it ended up almost looking like a frosted window(hard to see in the picture) so that it goes along with the saying.


The paint I used for my two signs

The paint Derek used

The white that we both used

The glitter spray
Overall, I'm so happy with how all these signs turned out. I'm not the most crafty person but I think we did a really good job with everything and I can't wait to add them to our Christmas decorations
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