I just love decorating our home at Christmas with meaningful and sentimental art! Today, as I was (finally) putting up part of my snowman collection, I thought I'd share 2 easy DIY Christmas art projects that our family is enjoying this year.
This is actually a new china cabinet in our kitchen, and I have to say--looking at it just makes me happy. Because it's new, I had to figure out how to decorate it for Christmas. I decided to put part of my cutie pie snowman collection on top, and anchored them with 2 DIY art projects.
Project #1 - FREE Joy Printable on (in)Courage
I was SO excited when I saw the lovely JOY graphic. I originally printed this one out to use as a gift. I even bought the inexpensive acrylic frame at Michael's as part of the gift. When I slid the graphic into the frame, I put it on top of my china cabinet to see how it looked. I loved the look of it so much...that I am KEEPING it. I'll print another to give away!
(By the way, if you haven't ever read (in)Courage, please click around over there. I promise you'll be encouraged if you do.)
Project #2 - Poinsettia Sponge-Painted Canvas
This was an art project my creative sister taught her nieces to do last Christmas. The girls always look forward to Aunt Gina's newest art project for them whenever she comes for a long visit. Last year, she brought all of the supplies needed to make these simple sponge-painted poinsettias: Canvases, craft paint (red, green, gold), brushes, pencils (needed for the eraser), and inexpensive dish sponges.
Instructions: First, they made the centers for 5 poinsettias, by dipping a pencil's eraser tip (or end of a paint brush) into gold craft paint and pressing onto the canvas. The 4-5 gold dots each should form small circles, and be spread across the whole canvas.
Next, she cut a regular dish sponge into a pointed petal shape. Each child got 1 petal-shaped sponge and some red craft paint on a styrofoam plate. She instructed the kids to sponge the poinsettia leaves around each gold dot "center"--giving each flower 6-7 petals. She told them not to worry if their gold dots were too close to an edge--the picture looks better if a few of the poinsettia petals are "falling off" the edge of the canvas.
The last step is to paint the background, using a greenish-gold they could mix together on their styrofoam plates. They used brushes to paint the background over the whole canvas--but leaving a thin white outline around each of the flowers/petals.
That's it! Each of the girls' canvases is unique--and strikingly vibrant and happy! I have my girls' names and last year's date written on the backs.
I'm sure these sweet paintings will make me smile year-after-year as I unwrap them, and place them back up for Christmas.
(More DIY art ideas... Inspiring artwork ... Pottery Barn-Inspired Bulletin Board ... Scrabble Tile Decor ...Inexpensive Custom Bulletin Board)
What are some of your favorite easy--and handmade--Christmas art projects around your house?
Linked up with: We are THAT Family
