Holiday Wood Chip Art

So even though Christmas is only a few short days away (8 to be exact!  eek!) I wanted to share with you another art project that I love.

Very Country Living, no?  With a touch of bling?

First, I stumbled upon these great white Pottery Barn picture frames at the thrift store one day.  How awesome- I'd always wanted some of these!  They're 8x10 sized, distressed, with chunky white frames.  BUT, the best part?  They're the kind that you can simply slip a photo into from the slot- no taking the back off, no unscrewing, etc.  (I first came upon these in my babysitting years, when my favorite family had them in their twin girls rooms.  Such a great idea to slip in those art projects they're always making.  Classes them up and makes them feel so special!)

Anywho, they were $3.99 each.  SCORE!

Then, a few weeks back, I came across 3 packs of these Christmas shape chipboard cutouts.  Each pack was $0.39.  I thought of five or six different projects I could do with them.  Wrap them in yarn?  Make a garland?  Use them together to make a wreath?  I finally settled on framing them!

 

So, I found green scrapbook paper I liked, and cut two of them to size.  I played around with the shapes until I found the position and pattern that would suit me.  I decided on one shape in each frame.  Very silhouette-esque (like these modern dog silhouette frames I made) and very clean.

 

 

Then came the glitter.  I kept it monochrome.  Green with a touch of silver glitter.  Use a thin (but with enough that a nice layer of glitter stuck!) layer of tacky glue, and a paint brush to make sure each edge is covered.  Then glitter.  Yes, it got everywhere, and yes, the dogs seem to have ground it into the rug.

 

 

 

 

I cut a 5x7 piece of watercolor (thick white paper would work) paper and mounted the shape with tacky glue onto it.  Then, mounted the 5x7 sheet onto the scrapbook paper.

 

WAIT FOR THE GLUE TO DRY!

(I may or may not have the first one I made... I may or may not only have 4 of the tree shapes left, because I may or may not have ruined one by not waiting...)

Then, slip into frame!

I sure am going to miss the holidays.  These will probably stay up for a while after Christmas is over.

Oh, and those rocking horses pictured above?  THOSE are going to be used in a child's room decor, or something similar.

Don't you love the bling of the holidays?!

Fancy Felt

As you probably saw in this pillow talk *giggle* post, I was really interested in the felt Christmas tree pillow, and figured I could do that myself!

Now, I'll preface this by saying- this feature was supposed to be of TWO pillows.  However, I seem to have misplaced the 2nd pillow cover, and thus only did one.  I'm only crying on the outside inside.  I think I bought two.  Did I only buy one?  They were $5 each.  I had to have bought two.  My ADD isn't letting me sleep till I find it, but I wanted to post this for you even though sadly we only have one.

Anywho... I digress.

The supplies were listed on the post from the original Michael's project that I linked on my pillow post.  I basically made it up from the picture, but here's what I used:

• 1 presewn (I suppose you could sew your own!  I can't... yet...) pillow cover.  Mine was 16"x16" from Ikea and was $5
• 1 8x10" sheet of green felt (I actually used 2 5x7 sheets, but you get the picture) I got my pack of felt at the dollar store
• small section of white felt, or whatever color to make the trunk and star at top
• Fabric glue
• circular pattern to trace (I used one of my new glasses from my grandmother)
• and the usuals: scissors, pencil (or something to mark the felt that isn't dark

First, I stacked my two thin sheets of felt on top of each other, and drew circles with the help of the glass.  Stacking the sheets made it much more efficient when cutting them out- sort of like a two for one special!  And who doesn't like a sale?!  :)

 

Then, cut your circles in half, so you have little half circles.   These will be the pieces for the tree.  I needed a total of 28 half circles, or 14 full circles to make my tree.

I sketched out a rough pattern of the tree, and stuck pins in it to hold it in place.  This way I could see if the scale was right before I started gluing.  (as you'll see later, my tree "branch" placement didn't conform to my pattern...)

The next part took me a minute to figure out: to get the right shape that you'll glue to your pillow cover, first put a line of glue along the straight edge of the half circle.  Turn the piece around, so the glue is facing out from you.  Slightly pinch, from the back, the circle, while bending the pointed ends up and toward each other.  Since the glue was facing out, you can now apply direct to your fabric pillow cover.  The straight ends may not match up exactly.

After the first piece is attached, now the fun begins!  You need to determine if you want a skinny tree, or a fat one like mine.  Had I realized, I would have put the pieces closer together on every row... mine turned out more like a triangle, but you get the picture!  Once you determine how you want it to look, attach your pieces to the entirety of your patern.

Then, decide on the trunk length/width, and the size of your "star".  I made one that was too small to begin with.  The one I stuck with was about half the size of the green half circles.  I liked the white because it had a nice contrast against the tan color of the pillow.

Once everything was attached with the fabric glue, I gave them all another good pat so they'd stick, and that's it!  Done in about 45 min!

Isn't this just so cute!  I could see doing something similar with shiny fabrics for Valentines day!  :)  (Anyone thinking THAT far ahead yet?!  I know I'm not, really, I swear!)

Hope you like it, and if you do this, I'd love to see your version!