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Last Minute Christmas DIY’s
Sam Lutz • December 20, 2016
The holidays are here! Soon it will be time to decorate your home. At Ace Paint and Unfinished Furniture, we love this time of year, and we especially enjoy hearing about the DIY projects our customers are completing around the house. Below are some of our favorite homemade crafts and decorations.
Key Ornaments
Old keys are sentimental tokens that make great decorations for Christmas trees. To make your keys more decorative, we recommend painting them with metallic or colorful spray paint. When they’re ready, hang them on hooks to dry.
When the spray paint has been allowed to cure for about 24 hours, spray the tip of each key with adhesive and then dip them in fine glitter. Attach the keys to the Christmas tree with decorative ribbon. To make your tokens more meaningful, we recommend attaching labels that indicate which residence or doors the keys used to open.
Gold Leaf Ornaments
Gold leaf is shiny and beautiful, perfect for decorating Christmas ornaments! For this project, you’ll need to buy plain glass ornaments. Fill the ornaments with paint and then dump out the excess, or paint the outside of the ornament. Give the ornament time to dry. When the paint is done drying, spray adhesive over half or a portion of the ornament and then attach gold leaf to the adhesive, leaving the paint visible over the rest of the ornament.
Clothespin Wreath
Bend a wire from a hanger or a stiff craft wire into a circle to form the base of your wreath. Buy a pack of clothespins and paint them with green spray paint. Attach the clothes pins to the wire with a red bead in between each pin, arranging all clothespins so the clipping parts of the clothespins are facing outward. At the top of the wreath, attach a red ribbon to hang the wreath. When the wreath is hanging up, use the clothespins to hold Christmas cards and photos. You can see an example of this project here.
Photo Cubes Ornaments
Cut a 4×4 piece of wood into cubes, or buy cube-shaped wooden blocks at a craft store. If you’re cutting your own piece of wood into a cube, sand down the edges of the cubes to remove splinters. Cut meaningful photos into pieces small enough to fit on four sides of the cube, then use archival-quality glue to adhere the photos to four sides of the cube, leaving the top and bottom of the cube empty.
When the glue has dried, use paint to decorate the top and bottom of the cube, and paint around the edges of the photos to bring the design together. When the paint has dried, cover the cubes in Modge Podge to protect the cubes and make them shiny. When the project is completely finished, screw a small eye loop into the top of the cube, and string a ribbon through the eye loop to attach it to your tree.
There are many variations
of this project. For example, you can use cardboard boxes instead of wooden cubes, and can paint the cubes before attaching the photos.
Stop in at Ace Paint and Unfinished Furniture
Ace Paint and Unfinished Furniture carries tools you need to complete DIY projects around the house. We carry everything from paint to paint brushes, wood stain, painting tools and more. Call today or stop in to check out our inventory!
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