Easy DIY black/white christmas art: leaf printing

 

to christmas or not to christmas, that is the question. Some people are just born with the christmas spirit. I'm assuming they just march out of the womb, accompanied by the beats of Wham! spreading tinsel, while eggnogg evaporates out of their pores

he's doing a heckin' festive, yes he is.

Joost and I are a teensy bit more down to earth when it comes to christmas. We usually sort of forget about christmas decorations. Added complication in the Netherlands is that christmas is slightly overshadowed by the celebration of sinterklaas in the beginning of december. A holiday that is, depending on how you look at it, very much like christmas, or nothing like it at all (celebrating sinterklaas usually involves a lot less trees, and a lot more writing of snarky poems, which I've been told is sadly not a part of christmas)

But I do low-key love the festive, laid-back atmosphere of christmas (in Dutch we'd say "gezelligheid") of christmas. I'm a closeted christmas lover; not quite ready yet to fully embrace the tinsel, tacky decorations and the horrible music, but secretly longing for a bit of festiveness. 

That is where this came in: 

At least the depicted location is quite christmassy..?

You must be wondering; Marije, have you absolutely lost your marbles? That tacky poster is as far removed from christmas-spirit as can be! You're right, and I was actually about to toss it out (I'm at a loss why we owned it in the first place) but then I thought, what I need for a christmas spirit, is... a clean slate... 

so, I dissasembled the frame, turned the poster around and..

Tabula rasa! it's going to be a white christmas after all

now that is surely giving me inspiration! I rushed outside with some clippers, attacked a poor conifer in our backyard...

and got to work creating my very own fashionable black and white christmas art!

The process was super simple!

step 1: find something that you can use as a medium: the backs of framed old posters are ideal: strong paper, nice size and usually very cheap to get at your local thrift shop 

step 2: Cut your conifer branches into manageable, flat pieces. There are your 'stamps'! Several different ones that differ slightly in size are quite nice for a more natural effect. 

festivities begin! 

step 3: Put some black paint onto a was of tissue paper to create an impromptu ink pad (paint pad?). make sure there is enough paint to saturate your branch, but not so much that it drenches it.

step 4: press your branches into the paint pad (you can use tongs or a wad of paper or something like it to keep your fingers clean)

step 5: and press it onto the paper! Because I forgot the cautionary step at step 4, My fingers were covered in paint, so I used a bit or clean tissue paper to push the brach onto the paper without smearing finger prints all over the place. 

Voila!

step 6: repeat! I went for a very simple triangle shape to make a lil' christmas tree, but go wild: make whatever you like!

step 7:to finish the tree, I painted a little treestem underneath. doesn't have to be perfect: the imperfections add to the charm!

to finish the whole thing of, I put my new christmas decoration back into its original frame ( the formerly hated, tacky golden frame now looked quite christmassy!)

it's a tree! 

I didn't think it to be humanly possible but Joost -a.k.a. the Grinch- actually loves it so much, that I had to promise him to give it a prominent place in our house. So, the new decoration now proudly hangs in our tv room, ready for christmas.

:Now we just have to decide what to do for christmas this year" Joost said. 

"maybe find some extra time to go running..." I muttered to myself

"I just look forward to all the food..." Joost said dreamily

"maybe read a good book..." I countered

"or just get drunk on mulled wine?" he kindly suggested. 

We'll see whose plans turn out to be the most realistic, but we can at least rest assured that we have a fashionably festive house to celebrate it in once the time comes!

Inky showing off her winter body...

hope you enjoyed it!