Christmas Decor from Budget-friendly Items

Hello Sweet Friends,

For today’s DIY, I will be showing you how to create Christmas decor from budget-friendly items. Most of the supplies used for this Christmas Decor were already in my stash, and were either thrifted, from Dollar Tree, or from Walmart.

I’ve had a thrifted oval frame for quite a while, but could never decide what to do with it. What better type of craft than a Christmas craft. I also had one of those splatter screens from Dollar Tree; the ones that some DIYers use to make pumpkins, snowmen, etc. Soon, I came up with the idea of putting the screen and the oval frame together to create a oval screen “window.”

Follow along for the rest of the details for this super CUTE Christmas DIY.

Supply list

• oval frame 8 x 10
• oval paper template to fit frame
• Dollar Tree splatter screen
• 3 piece wood cut out trees (Michael’s)
• heavy duty scissors
• sharpie or pen
• Mod Podge
• Cinnamon
• Waverly chalk paint (plaster and celery) and antique wax
• paint brush
• ribbon and embellishments
• glue gun
• twine

Let’s get started on our Christmas decor DIY

For this project, a square/rectangular frame would also work; may even be a little easier. But I had an oval frame and I was committed to creating something beautiful out of it.
The first thing I did was to paint the frame with Waverly chalk paint in the color plaster. (did not get a before picture of the frame.)
Then I made a paper template using a pen and paper, tracing around the inside of the frame, and cutting it out.

Using the oval template and a sharpie, I traced it onto the screen. Then I cut the screen out and it fit the frame perfectly. I suppose I could have used the frame itself as a template, but I did not want to chance getting any of the black sharpie on to the white frame.

Making the screen look rustic

For the next step, I wanted to give the screen a more rustic look. So I added cinnamon to the screen using Mod Podge and let it dry.

I have to say that I wasn’t really happy with how the cinnamon looked, but I continued on.
Using the Waverly chalk paint, I added some “snow” to the screen.

Let’s paint the little Christmas trees

Next up was to paint the three little trees. I chose Waverly chalk paint in the color celery. It took a couple coats with dry time in between.

The little trees looked a little pale, so I added some of the antique wax to them; then painted the tree trunks with a thick coat of the antique wax. Once the wax had dried, I added some white details onto the trees.

After tying a neutral bow, I gathered all the items together; I was ready to put everything together.
I’m working on a bow-tying tutorial and will link here when I am finished.

Putting it all together

Using a combination of hot glue and E6000, I added the screen to the back of the frame. Then I hot glued a length of twine around the perimeter to cover the edges of the screen.

I hot glued the three little trees directly onto the screen. Then I glued the streamers of the bow to the top of the frame. The only thing left to do was to add a few embellishments.

Putting the finishing touches on the Christmas decor

A few berries and foliages were glued into the bow, and I had myself some pretty darn CUTE Christmas decor.

Even though this project had a rocky start, I have to say, I am very pleased with how this turned out. What do you think?

I hope I have inspired you to create something similar using this idea. It would not have to be Christmas. I’m thinking about creating something similar for the fall season.

Until next time…… Happy Crafting!

Pamela