Christmas in July-Vintage Style Wall Hanging

Anyone care to guess why I was painting a cereal box at 10:00 at night? 

Honestly, when I saw that the gals at Knick of Time,  Bliss Ranch
and My Salvaged Treasures were hosting a "Christmas in July" party I thought, "That's nice. Have fun with that!" : ) 
I wasn't ready to think much about Christmas, and I determined that I'd have fun looking at the party, but I wasn't going to participate. 
So what happened?? 

 I don't know! The party went up tonight, I started poking around and I thought, "Hey, it might be kind of fun to make something Christmas-y...". Which quickly turning into, "I MUST make something Christmas-y! Right now." Sure, I could have shared a project from last year, but...

Here's what I did: 

  
Back in January I showed you how I made these recycled paper wreaths starting with a cardboard forms cut from cereal boxes. 


Tonight, I decided to put another little project together using a recycled cereal box. 

Did you know you can turn cereal boxes inside out? Are you a little worried about me because I know you can turn cereal boxes inside out? Haha
Carefully open the bottom flaps. You want to try not to wrinkle the cardboard if you can help it. Open the side of the box where it's glued by running your finger along the inside of the seam.

 Fold it all back together inside out, sealing it with hot glue. Why not just paint the box on the outside? Well, it's glossy and colorful, making it harder to cover over with paint. Also, I just love the possibilities of the plain brown box.

 I can think of alot of different ways to put this together, including leaving the plain brown box. But I decided I wanted to create more of a contrast, and a weathered looking surface to this little project, so I painted front and sides of the box with regular black craft paint.

 I forgot to take a "during sanding" photo, but you can see the result. Did you know you can sand painted cardboard? 
I lightly sanded over the whole surface and then sanded most of the paint away around the corners and edges of the box. 

 I went to my paper stash and grabbed a Christmas song page from an old hymnal and a cute vintage looking image of a girl with a bird. I tied some white string around it, hinting at the look of a Christmas package. I added a tiny glittered pine sprig, and a rustic metal star.

I really dislike taking indoor photos at night! But what are you gonna do when you have a sudden desire to go to a Christmas party?

 I punched a small hole in the back of the box and hung it on a nail inside a weathered white frame.

Why did I suddenly feel compelled to create a Christmas craft from a cereal box at 10:00 at night in the middle of July?

Sometimes blogging makes you do weird things.

Come check out the Christmas party!




See you soon, friends!

Jeanette


Sharing this week over at: 

The Scoop at The Farmhouse Porch 
Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm 
Christmas in July