Day one with Sharon Johnson -JustRite Joy

It's Day One with Sharon Johnson and she has designed a beautiful Christmas Home Decor Project that would look spectacular on any ones mantel.

Joy To the World, The Lord is Come! Just hearing that song in my head puts me in the Christmas mood! So I thought I would start this series of Christmas season posts with a home decor item. Take a look –
I love this project – it’s somewhat Shabby-Chic with a bit of Old World Elegance. And the best part, it was quick and easy, which is what we all need at this time of year.

I purchased these chunky letters from Michaels. They are 5” tall and came painted white, which is perfect. It saved a lot of work as opposed to purchasing unfinished letters. And you’ll notice a tray under the letters that they sit in – well, I did buy that as well, thinking it would be handy. But as I started to decorate my letters, I decided not to use it. Inserting the letters into the slot in the tray just took up too much valuable space, restricting how I wanted to decorate the letters, so I decided not to use the tray.

To get my Shabby/Old World look I first wanted to cover my letters with paper. I chose paper from the Fruitcake Christmas 12 x 12 pack by Basic Grey. I traced each letter onto the paper, tracing on the back side of the paper. And when you trace on the back, remember to flip your letter over before tracing, otherwise you’ll get a backwards letter. I then cut my letters out with scissors. Now this is not an exact science for the look I was after on this project. It’s Shabby, remember? If the letters are not cut perfectly, it’s OK. Mine aren’t!

Once my letters were cut, I adhered them to the wooden letters with Mod Podge. I like to use Mod Podge for these type of projects as it holds very tightly and you never have a problem with edges peeling up. Now, when you are putting your letters on, if they don’t fit exactly perfect, it’s no big deal, because once the glue dries our next step is to sand the edges using a sanding block or file as shown in my photos. This gets rid of any paper hanging over the edges and just really binds the paper into the wood, creating a beautiful transition in a lovely Shabby style!

You could leave your edges just sanded if you like, but I decided to paint mine with Gesso as I had a bottle on my table. You could use Acrylic Paint if you don’t have Gesso. The idea is just to get some on the edges in a haphazard style – we’re trying to make our letters look old and worn, not fresh and crisp – so you really can’t go wrong with this painting project . Remember, we are after Shabby, which gives us a larger margin for error – LOL!!! And that’s a good thing!!!

Since my letters were ready to be decorated, I stamped my sentiment. Since my wooden letters said JOY, I wanted my sentiment to say *to the World, the Lord is Come!”, reflecting the real Reason for the Season! I had to break this down into 2 smaller sentiment panels, so I set up 2 blocks, one with each sentiment. The Harmony Rectangle Stamper comes with 2 blocks in the box when you purchase it – one of these larger blocks and also a smaller block. I used 2 of the larger blocks today. I decided to make my fancier capital letters with the Special Occasions Font (95 pt), and the rest of the letters were Brayton (both 50 and 25 pt). (3 sizes of letters come in each box of font purchased). I like the combination. As you can see, when we get to close-ups of the letters, I then traced over the Special Occasions letters with my Quickie Glue Pen and sprinkled on red glitter by Martha Stewart! Really dressed up those panels!!!
I wrapped my J with velvet ribbon. The chipboard snowflake is by Basic Grey, just covered with glue and Martha Stewart red glitter. I put a nice large pearl up on top.
The O is my favorite letter. The sentiment was made as above described using Brayton and Special Occasions Fonts on the Harmony Rectangle Stamper. The chipboard star is again by Basic Grey, covered with glue and Dazzling Diamonds. There is a hole punched in the sentiment for the ribbon to run through and the velvet ribbon loop is attached with glue dots.
The sentiment on the Y was made as above decribed, again using the Brayton and Special Occasions Fonts and the Harmony Rectangle Stamper. The ribbon is a pretty, satiny, wired grosgrain. Love using wired ribbon for home décor projects as it holds its shape. I added some rhinestones up on top.
And that wraps up this fun home décor project. I hope you decide to try something similar. You’ll have fun making it and then you’ll have the JOY of seeing it throughout the season!!! It’s one of those projects that is JUSTRITE!!!

Supplies:

JustRite Stampers: Brayton Font, Special Occassion Font, Harmony Rectangular Stamper

Paper: Fruitcake Paperpack -Basic Grey

Accessories: Chipboard Snowflake & Star - Basic Grey, Wooden Letters, Gesso, Mod Podge, Red Glitter- Martha Stewart, Dazzingly Diamond, Rhinstones

Keep us in mind....."When it needs to be JustRite".