Crazy Christmas Crafter: Just a Girl!

Hi there! I’m Chris from Just a Girl, and I’m loving Jamielyn’s Crazy Christmas Crafter series! How lucky I am to be a part of it!

I’m pretty much madly in love with everything neutral, but my kids have their funky, colorful tree in our front room. I wanted to think “out of the box” with this project, and give them something that they would enjoy. Apparently, kids like colorful things. Who knew?

Three goals needed to be met for this project.

1. It had to be very inexpensive

2. It had to be colorful

3. It had to be something my kids could help me with—even if they chose not to

I started out with a framed picture that I already had. I turned the picture over and spray painted the back side of it white. Yes. I spray painted the cardboard. Remember goal #1?

The beads were purchased at Michaels for a few dollars, and I outlined the tree on the cardboard to the size I wanted. I would like to say I chose  a retro-style tree because I like the look of it, but really it’s because it was the easiest to draw. Even then, it took me about three weeks to get it just the way I wanted it.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot to get a picture of the next part. I took a sponge brush covered with some craft glue to the inside of the outline and applied it. Once I had the glue all over the tree area, I dumped the beads onto it. Easy enough, right? 

The “trunk” of the tree needed to be a different texture (in my opinion), so I used some glittered scrapbooking paper. I cut it with my cutter and glued it on.

I won’t lie. There were moments when I wanted to take some explosives to this project. As soon as I thought it was done, a bead would fall off. My advice? Use some super adhesive (I used E6000) for those stubborn sections that just don’t want to adhere. 

When you’re all done with your project, call your kids in to show them what you’ve done for them. Decide not to get upset when they say, “Huh. Yeah. Looks nice, Mom.”

Each of my three goals were met, and I have a colorful Christmas tree that screams “Happy Holidays!”. Not too shabby. Thanks for letting me visit! Enjoy your holidays!