Art Every Day - Vingt-quatre • Vingt-cinque • Vingt-six

The Christmas Holidays have come skating around the corner today.

Let the crafting begin!

I created these for Jillayne's Christmas swap,

and have a small tutorial here,

in case you feel inspired to make one for yourself.

The base for this piece is a 5x5 canvas, flipped over.

I found these at Michael's in the dollar spot. They are actually coloring canvasses for kids,

but since it is all getting covered up, they work just fine.

First, cut a square bit of cardstock.

Double stick tape around the perimeter.

Top it off with a sqaure of red velvet, trimmmed to size.

Top wooden stretcher bars with decorative tape (this is Tim Holtz tissue tape)

or use strips of printed paper. Glue inside the square opening and top with velvet square.

Tuck in edges of velvet fabric under the wood, all the way around.

Ok now, here's the fun part.

Embellish as you please!

After adding the main image, which is a hand-colored print out that's been

pulled around a block of thick chipboard, then wrapped it in netting,

I topped it with a tiny paper fan made from book pages.

Then, I used Magenta foil tapes, lace, ribbons, metalic yarn, buttons, netting, tiny paper flowers, rhinestones and MM metal file labels, to spruce things up.

The last step was to finish off the back with some vintage book pages.

I chose a holiday story about Father Christmas from an old reader,

just to keep things jolly!