My lovely friend (and long-time art teacher and inspiration) Amanda Evanston recently taught several classes on how to make holiday-themed art and cards using scrap paper. I'm not making a lot of art myself right now, so getting creative with old Anthropologie catalogs was therapeutic!
While I love my brightly colored results (see below), I was curious about using only neutral tones to create something for the minimalists out there. Since this whole project is a perfect way to upcycle scrap paper (and old book pages) I figured I'd demo my thinking live. Below is a short video tutorial, explaining the basic steps.
As I note in the video, all you need is card stock, a variety of scrap paper, and glue. If you have old holiday cards that you'd like to reuse, then get your hands on some gesso and good acrylic paint. You can quickly gesso over old cards... both inside and out.
You could also lay down old book pages to cover what's already on the card. Hop over to this video for instructions on how to prep a surface with pages from old books.
Here's a closeup of where this scrappy little tree goes. You could, of course, add gold or silver sparkles, glitter, ornaments, a star on top etc. But you could also keep it this stripped down.
And for those who don't follow me on Instagram, here's where my colorful ones ended up!
One of the best things about a project like this is figuring out how to coordinate colors!
Of course, there's a ton of orange! A lot of the holiday decorating that happens in my home involves orange too. Let's blame my South African roots.
Last one! I hope this project inspires some crafty fun and that you're all able to have a safe, healthy holiday season. It's been an unspeakably difficult year so... here's to 2021! May it be the year we see the other side of COVID-19, and the year we see each other as more alike than different.
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