Reindeer, more importantly Rudolph. How can you get more Christmas and magical than that? In keeping with my theme of nature, fun, and rustic I had to think of a piece of art for the holiday season. I have never removed my big Hydrangea painting for any holiday until this past Halloween. I replaced it with a leaf string and bat two piece art. I loved the look and idea of changing things up for a specific holiday. So I had to get busy doing something for Christmas. There are a ton of reindeer silhouettes right now floating around online. This is a trend I think is beautiful. If there is some holiday decor band wagon I am hopping on this ride holding my reindeer silhouette. Highfiving all of the other awesome people with their reindeer art.
First step to this project. Oh, I will mention that I spent $2 on this. I purchased a red, poufy, sparkly nose for Rudolph. The rest I had, but if I had not had the supplies the cost would still have been maybe $20 for all of the supplies. I took a unused bulletin board that was in our basement.
I flipped the bulletin boards over, planning to have the smooth backing for the front of my art piece. Then, using painters tape and running it on the very edge of the board. Protecting the wood frame. I am going to leave the wood frame the way it is. I might paint the frame later. Or not, I think it works with the untreated wood. Using a dark gray that we had left over from our hallway I painted the surface. I did two coats to make sure the texture of the cardboard back will not show through.
I wanted to have this piece be simple, stark contrast of the dark gray, white reindeer and one red nose. Next, time to break out my mad sketching skills. I real be real here, I am classically trained. I have four years of high school art class under my belt. I know, everyone should be impressed. Yes it has been ten years since high school. But, I am a creative person. I figured I can do this. I found a deer silhouette online that I liked and then drew it out onto a smaller piece of paper. It is easier to draw free hand with a smaller scale initially.
Then using a large poster board, I decided visually how big I wanted the reindeer to be. And I just started drawing. I have tackled a bathroom redo, painted my kitchen cabinets, put in wood floors, but this blank poster board staring at me terrified me. I know I was using pencil, and could erase. However… I was scared.
I tried to take a picture of my drawn out reindeer, but I guess I was too timid to make the lines dark enough. They did not show up on the camera. I drew it, held my breath and asked each person in my family what it looked like. Dale and Nora said a reindeer, Caleb kept asking me what it was, and Gavin said either a tree or a Dinosaur. I was 50/50 on it resembling a reindeer. Not great odds. I cut out the drawing. However, this was my best work and as good as it would get. Centered it where I wanted it to be, made tiny little marks at the top and bottom of it to make sure the deer stayed centered.
Turned it over, used a standard glue stick and glued away.
I have a reindeer, or a dinosaur, or a tree….
Time to make it become Rudolph, the best one of all. I mean he lights the way for Santa, he is kind of a big deal.
I used my hot glue gun, added a blob to where I wanted it to go and pressed the pouf down.
I initially planned on just setting this on the fireplace mantel and not hanging it. But, it made the picture feel really small without it up higher on the wall. I used a standard picture hanger. Screwing it in the picture. There is already a hook on the wall for my other large pictures.
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| I got distracted of the hanging process, pause for Teddy cuteness! |
Here is the hook that the picture hanger will be used for.
I created this chalk board a few months ago by using a flat wood board and painting it with chalk board paint. I wrote this quote with my kids chalk. I am sure there is a much fancier way of making letters. I don’t have it. I recently found out there is a chalk board pen, which will be something I am going to get for sure.
I know there are amazing tools, tricks, crafty apps, software, that can do most of what I did. Including the reindeer and even printing out letters for the chalk board. But, I am trying to do this as standard and low maintenance as possible. I may get something that can make this all easier in the future. I also like sharing how to do things with other people. And not everyone has the means, knowledge or interest to invest in a tool or software. Sometimes you just have to pull on your big girl pants, hope for the best, and draw a reindeer. Or a dinosaur. Either way it is a animal that will guide my sleigh tonight.
Here is my Christmas fireplace mantel and the full tutorial of my wood snowflakes.
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Love this! So cute!
Thank you!
You made a great choice by using the grey background for Rudolph. What a cute & fun project. Teddy is way adorable, by the way 🙂
Thank you! I was thinking of doing with either gray or black as the background. But, decided on the dark gray. I love me some Teddy 🙂