A shabby vintage Christmas ~ day 2

Welcome to ‘Simply Christmas’ at Shabby Art Boutique.

Can you believe this is our 6th week! Wow. . . it has flown by so quickly. If you are new here and missed the previous Christmas activities, I’ve uploaded them to the Tutorials page for easy access.

This week I’m taking you for a wander through my Christmas home. . . where there’s a shabby, vintage Christmas theme going on.

Shabby Art Boutique bird tree 2

If you were here yesterday you may have spied this book paper bird tree in one of the photos.

It’s made from an artificial cream coloured tree that was inserted into a rusty watering can.

Shabby Art Boutique bird tree 3

I’ve been making these vintage birds and selling them at my markets for the past few years. . . I think it is their simplicity that makes them so popular.

The bird shapes were cut from 3mm MDF, however, they could easily be cut out of card stock for this project.

I covered each side of the birds with book paper, then drilled a hole in the top and inserted a cotton jute hanger.

For the wings I printed Christmas words like: Believe, Joy, Noel, Faith, Hope etc. onto brown Kraft paper using a typewriter font.

Next I traced a wing shape around each word and cut the shape out. The wings were glued to both sides of the birds with Mod Podge.

Shabby Art Boutique bird tree 1

If you’d like to make a set of these vintage book paper birds for yourself, you are welcome to trace this photo to use as a template.

 

I quite liked the serene and neutral effect of using vintage papers for my Christmas decorating, so incorporated them into another project. . .

A starry wreath.

Shabby Art Boutique starry wreath 1

These stars and wreath were actually a Kaisercraft kit that I picked up at a garage (yard) sale last week, but could be easily cut from cardboard.

I covered the various sized stars using vintage book paper, old music manuscript and a very old and discoloured dictionary. The colour variations add texture and interest.

Next I hot glued all the stars together and added a cream lace hanger and a satin bow.

Shabby Art Boutique paper wreath2

The starry paper wreath is hanging on an old window frame, in which I’ve inserted a blackboard. It’s quite large and a feature of my Christmas kitchen.

Make sure you follow along all week for other exciting shabby vintage project ideas.

Shabby Art Boutique Christmas candles

I’m sharing my book paper projects at this week’s link parties and with these friends: French Country Cottage, The Vintage Farmhouse, 36th Avenue, Clean and Scentsible, Live Laugh Rowe, The DIY Dreamer, Transformation Thursday, At The Picket Fence, Nifty Thrifty Sunday and Tutorials & Tips Link party.