tis the season to...

Tis the season to... get my act together and decorate this house.  With my dad being in the hospital, Thanksgiving, going out of town and being busy in general, I haven't gotten much Christmas decorating started done.  This is the first Christmas with our snow-white fireplace and I wanted to make a new, wintery center piece.  I love the chevron canvas I made but it does not represent the season.

I really like the size of the chevron canvas and thought I would do something similar.  I went to Michael's to buy a canvas and luckily they had them on sale for 60% off.  (I feel like if you ever buy anything for full price at Michael's, you are a silly person.  Most things are on sale or you can download a 40% off coupon on your smartphone while you're perusing the store).  The canvas ended up only being $15.00.. score!

I decided that my masterpiece 4th grade art project would be a snowflake.  I felt like it was less cheesy than a Christmas tree or snowman or a Santa.  My original game plan was to paint a snowflake on top of a solid-colored canvas.  Then, I thought, I am not a patient person nor does it take much for me to get frustrated so let's avoid WWIII in the Feldmeyer house and use painter's tape instead.  I decided to use painter's tape to make the snowflake so that I wouldn't even have to paint the intricate design.  Keep it simple, stupid. 

I also grabbed some paint at Michael's.  I was debating whether to do a subtle light grey or a deep cranberry.  My designer colorblind husband said to go with cranberry.  (Gosh, another reason why I love that man.  He plays along with my decorating adventures and actually has an opinion.)  I had my coupon on my phone and since 60% off is more than 40% off (har har), I used the 40% off coupon for the paint.  It ended up being $10.00 for both paint colors.

Now, for the tape - I've heard that the Frog Tape is the best.  Ehren ran to the hardware store for me because obviously I had already changed into my most unflattering sweats and slippers.  These are the pics I got:




 

We went with the first one because it was the thinnest - I figured if I wanted thicker lines, I could just overlap the tape.  Other than the paint and the canvas, these were my only other supplies.

I hopped on Pinterest to look for snowflake inspiration.  I found this pin and picked out the snowflake below to go off of.  It didn't go exactly like the picture but that's okay, it was just a pinspiration.

And so it began.  I decided to angle the tips of the snowflake.  Even though I'm a perfectionist, I knew I couldn't make this a perfect snowflake.  Every snowflake is unique, right?

I decided it was starting to look like an Aztec-y snowflake (is that even possible?) and I liked it!  But before I started liking it, I hated it.  I had a mini-meltdown (meltdown, get it?) in the middle of the taping process because I thought it looked stupid.  But then when it was done, I was happy.

I pushed down around all the borders to prevent paint from seeping through.

Next, time to mix the paint.  Red + black = cranberry.  I was worried I wouldn't have enough paint so I made a lot and it actually turned out just right.

Our conversation went like this:

Jamie:  Does this look right?  Does it look cranberry?
Ehren: Yea, it looks just right.
Jamie: Why am I asking you?  You're colorblind!

 Now for the easy part - painting!

The instructions on the tape say to remove the tape immediately and so I did.  Which is good, because I was way too impatient to wait until the next morning to remove it.

Please ignore my grossly hyperextended elbow.

Ta-da!  I let it dry overnight to avoid getting cranberry paint on my white fireplace and put it up the next morning.

If you know me by now, you know that I love contrast, I love simple, clean, contemporary design without feeling cold - even if it's a picture of a snowflake.  I'm excited to have a winter-themed canvas now and I'm starting to ponder what other canvas I could create for other times of the year.  (Suggestions appreciated!)  This project took about an hour and a half from start to finish.  If you do this, don't get frustrated.  You can easily remove the tape and change your design as you go, like I did.

Now, I'm off to make clam chowder and put up the Christmas tree.  We put up our Christmas village this past Saturday and I will blog about that soon.  Happy decorating!