Recycling and repurposing items for decorative craft projects is a great way to help the environment, by keeping cast off objects out of our landfills. Discarded window screens make wonderful holiday decorations, and they add just the right festive flair leaning next to your front door, on your porch or in your entryway. Transforming a window screen into a holiday decoration is easy and economical, using leftover house paint and button box buttons.
Instructions
1. Cover your work surface with a drop cloth. Lay the window screen on the drop cloth. The side facing up will be the front of your screen. Place a red brick under each corner of the screen frame.
2. Dip a household sponge into dark blue acrylic latex house paint. Wipe and pat the sponge over the entire front surface of the screen and the frame. Lift and tap the frame on the bricks. This will cause the wet paint that is clogging the holes in the screen to open. Allow the paint to dry.
3. Paint a three-ball snowman from the bottom edge of the screen to the top using white acrylic latex house paint and a large stencil brush. Dip the brush in your paint, and pounce it on the screen. The size of each snowball will depend on the size of your screen. It is fine if your snowman shape is not precise. The imperfections will add to the primitive look of the decoration. Repeat with additional coats if desired. Allow the paint to dry.
4. Space three colorful 1-inch flat buttons down the front of the snowman's tummy. Cut three pieces of craft wire 6 inches long. Thread one wire through each button, from the front to the back of the screen. Twist the wire on the back of the screen to secure. Clip off the excess wire. Rip a 2-inch-wide by 18-inch-long strip of Christmas novelty fabric. Tie the strip into a bow. Cut a 6 inch piece of craft wire. Thread the wire through the back of the bow's knot. Insert the wire through the screen at the neck of the snowman. Twist the wire to secure, and clip the excess.
5. Paint round cheeks on your snowman using red acrylic paint and a stencil brush. Use a pencil to mark the center of the snowman face for the nose. Place two 1-inch flat black buttons above the nose mark for the snowman's eyes. Cut two pieces of craft wire 6 inches long. Thread one wire through each button eye, from the front to the back of the screen. Twist the wire on the back of the screen to secure. Clip off the excess wire.
6. Starting at the center nose mark, paint a 1 inch vertical line with orange dimensional fabric paint. Without lifting the tip of your brush, continue to zig zag vertically to the right for 3 inches, gradually shortening the vertical lines to taper to a point. This is your snowman's carrot nose. Starting in the center of one cheek and ending in the center of the other, draw a large smile on the snowman face using black dimensional fabric paint. Allow the paint to dry.
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