Holiday Decor projects

Last Christmas I had all kinds of ideas for fun things to make and many of them never happened so this year I started early to make sure at least some of them happened.

A few months back I found a super cute idea on Pinterest to make your own mini marquee lights from paper and really wanted to do it until I found this while browsing Target.com recently.

 

They are large (12" high) metal letters with lights and are ready to hang if you so desire.  They also have Believe and Noel. I would have loved to get the Believe since that was the word I had in mind for the paper version but because these are large I didn't have enough room on my mantle to put it with the other items I have planned. 

 

I happily found it in stock at my store despite their online stock checker saying it was out of stock.

 

 

At only $19.99 I thought it was a bargain since I didn't have to make and assemble it myself.  It comes with a super cute woodgrain look but I was hoping for something a bit more shiny.

 

We removed all of the outer clear bulb covers and left the lights in place, we didn't think the plugs for the lights would come out easily enough so we opted to leave them in.  We just wrapped painters tape around each snug up to the metal base and pinched it closed at the top. I also removed the metal rings at the top of the letters with a pair of pliers. I knew I wasn't hanging mine so carefully and with a bit of force and wiggling they came off no problem.

 

 

As far as the paint choices, here is what we used;

 





The Metalcast primer my husband had on hand for another project but it ended up being a really great primer for both of the projects we did.  The white Ultra Cover was okay, it cracked and came out of the can a bit yucky but it could have just been our bad can.  It didn't matter too much in the end since we covered it up with the glitter spray which hid everything well.  The top coat was just to seal the glitter in so it doesn't go everywhere.  He ended up doing two coats of the primer, three thin coats of the white, several coats of the glitter until it looked the way I wanted it too and one coat of the sealer.

Here's how it looks all done and lit up, the white is pretty much covered but it definitely helped to cover the brown up first before applying the glitter. You could probably skip the paint step and just go with a white metal primer instead.

 

Because the won't stand on their own, especially the J and the O my husband took a piece of wood he had on hand and cut a little angled channel in the top and the letters sit down in that just great on their own.  He's painting it white for me to blend in with our mantle and as soon as it's dry I'll add a photo of it.

For my second project, I had found this super cool paper mache deer head at my local JoAnn's a month or so ago when I was there for something else.  It's labeled Craft Essentials item 1279-7577 and it's a nice size about 16" from the bottom to the top of the antlers.  It was $14.99 and with all the other seasonal Christmas crafts at the front of the store.

I thought this would be great painted gold so this is what we used;

The same Metcalcast primer and this Gold Foil paint.  He did two coats of the primer and two coats of the foil paint and this is how it turned out.

 



It's like it was dipped in gold and I love it!  I'm not sure how this paint will work on its own but in combination with the primer it was amazing!  We decided not to seal it so it wouldn't dull the look of the piece.

 

I look forward to adding both of these items to my Christmas décor that will go up in the next few days.