Creations, Coastal Christmas

the Painted Apron

8 years ago

I am not a Black Friday shopper, there’s too much fun stuff to do…like bringing out the decorations and making festive creations!

Seas ‘Ns Greetings!

I’ve been making some Coastal Christmas decor

These are fast and easy creations, a painted sign and a painted wood holiday tree

That can be adapted to any theme or style to personalize your unique greeting

I started with some rustic wood and chalky paint [Americana, from Home Depot, pale sea green]

I left a little of the original white board showing for a rustic, casual look

Next I painted the letters with Annie Sloan Florence chalk paint. I painted it freehand, because I paint so much it’s easy for me,* but you can certainly pencil in the letters first, use a stencil, or a graphic transfer

*Tip: If you choose a font that is playful and you purposely vary the placing of the letters, it’s much easier than trying to paint a straight and even series of letters. Find a font you like and play with it on your computer and then print it out to use as a guide

I messed up the N so I went back with some background color and repainted it. After it dried I repainted the N

I was going to paint sand dollars on it,

But decided to glue some faux sand dollars on it for dimension

I wanted some old wood for my tree but I’m not much for dumpster diving, so I bought this woodpile of aged wood pieces at Hobby Lobby for $8

Glued them together with Gorilla Glue

And let it cure over night

One of the pieces had a gouge in it, but I liked the rustic look

I used the same Americana paint and painted a simple tree

Using short loose strokes, with a semi dry brush

When the paint dried I added a rattan star and sea glass pieces, using a glue gun

Next came a little bling with turquoise glass beads

You can use mini string lights to light it up

I can’t decide where I want to put it, it looks great inside and out

It will probably hop around a little

Seas ‘Ns Greetings!

Here’s a cute way to personalize your message

“Have yourself a __________little Christmas”

Fill in the blank with:”sandy” or “fishy” or “mountain top” or “lakeside” or “country” or “your city or state” or “American” or “Canadian” or “artsy” or whatever is your passion…

Instead of seaglass you could use pine cones, fishing tackle, skis, boat oars, farm animals, cotton… for a tree unique to your house, area, passion or state. Hobby Lobby has a huge section of mini ornaments for small trees that are very affordable~

So have fun and

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