Christmas Canvas Art

During this time of year, I thought this might be a nice way to use up/recycle scraps of wrapping paper and holiday cards.  This is a variation on the ribbon canvas I made a few months ago.

For this craft, I just used the following:

• small canvas
• wrapping paper
• Christmas cards
• tape
• scissors

I used packing tape because it's stronger than regular tape
 (and I happen to be using it to mail something)!

Cut strips of wrapping paper (whatever width you want).  I folded the strips length-wise to create a clean edge.  Tape each end of the wrapping paper strip securely to the back of the canvas, as shown below.

I like the idea of taping the strips down because if you want to reuse the canvas, it's easy to remove.
If you want to make this more permanent, staple the strips down.

Once you've taped the strips of wrapping paper down, you're almost done!

Play around on how you would like to lay out the strips.
You can spread them out so you have some space between them or have them overlap as shown.

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Next, just get some Christmas cards and cut out some of the pictures to use on your canvas.

 Play around with laying out the different cut outs.  I like having them poke out of the strips.
Just tape or glue the cut outs to the canvas and you're done!

Wrapped Christmas Frames

I'm busily trying to decorate for the Holidays!  I did this same thing last year to make the house festive and all it took was some wrapping paper and ribbon.

BEFORE:
This is a picture of how my fireplace mantel looks pretty much year-round.

AFTER:

So, I wrapped the frames in some coordinating wrapping paper and ribbon and viola - a Christmas display that was cheap, quick and easy to do!  

I didn't wrap each frame completely, just mainly the front of the frame and left the back pretty much uncovered in order to save on paper.  I also used strips of wrapping paper to make a "ribbon" for some of the frames.  Basically I just folded strips of paper and taped them to the back of the frame. I hung a fake Christmas wreath to one of the frames because I wanted to add a little something differernt to the display.

Also, since I already had the frames laid out like this year-round, I didn't need to rearrange anything or make any new nail holes.

 I guess the hardest part of this project was just choosing the wrapping paper, but luckily for me I have a 99 Cent store near me and now I have a ton of extra wrapping paper to wrap presents.

So after the Holidays, all I have to do is "unwrap" the frames for a quick and easy clean up!