IT’S TIME TO (CHRISTMAS) DECORATE!
Whether it’s because you’re stuck at home and looking for something festive and fun to do, or you want to make the most of Christmas on a budget, or whether you’re simply right on trend - making your own Christmas decorations is ultra-popular this year.
To celebrate the festive season, decorating expert, Harris, known for its top-quality paint brushes and rollers is turning its hand not only to decorating the home and garden, but also to Christmas decorating too! Its social channels, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have lots of inspirational ideas to make sure Santa feels at home – all with detailed advice on the best tools to use. Even more exciting, there are Christmas competitions where you can win the kit you’ll need to turn all this fabulous seasonal creativity into a real festive treat for your home and family.
The Harris motto is ‘Let’s Decorate’ and its website is all about inspirational, achievable projects and how to do them well with a little bit of Harris help. So, to get your Christmassy crafting started, here are a few festive Let’s Decorate ideas…
Make Your Own Christmas Tree
Wooden Christmas trees are everywhere this year and range from high style to fun and funky. Depending on their size and sophistication, they can easily cost upwards of £100 from some retailers, but it isn’t difficult to make your own. By using a pallet, which already has its own framework and slatted effect, you get the perfect starting point, enabling you to move on to the creative bits of the project more quickly. The other great thing about doing it yourself is that you can personalise the result and create something not only festive, but unique. One of the best ways to do this is by painting the tree. For larger areas of painting the quickest and easiest tool to use will be a Harris Ultimate Flat Brush, but for super-neat edges, and perfect precision, check out the Harris Ultimate Blade Brush.
Is your fireplace Santa-ready?
These days many families don’t have a fireplace or a chimney for Santa to sneak down on Christmas Eve. If that’s the case, then take things in hand with a DIY festive fireplace. One effective route is to go for the look of traditional brick and it’s essential to be realistic! As the base, you can use pallet or other recycled wood, mdf, plywood or even stout cardboard, but the realism of the painting is the key thing. Once you have your structure sorted, paint a mortar coloured base coat using the Harris Ultimate Flat Brush. Once it’s dry, use Harris Ultimate Fine Line Masking Tape to create horizontal lines, followed by more random verticals to simulate a brick pattern. Once you have your brick pattern, then use the Harris Ultimate
Blade Brush to apply your brick colour. When the paint is dry, remove the tape, add a few decorations and even Santa will believe it’s real! Christmas Eve Boxes
Another great treat to make yourself at this time of year are those lovely little wooden boxes to fill with miniature gifts and open on Christmas Eve as a sneak peek at what’s to come. Not only are they easy and money-saving when home-made, but you can personalise them by painting on names and a variety of designs. For this kind of project, you should use the Harris Hobby & Craft range of paint brushes.
The Harris Hobby & Craft range of is great because it includes a selection of shapes and sizes for different tasks. There are three types - the flat brush, the round brush and the fitch brush. The Harris Seriously Good Round Brush gives you great coverage on curved as well as flat surfaces and the Harris Seriously Good Fitch Brush is designed for detailed and intricate areas.
Finishing Touches
Sticking with the Harris Hobby & Craft range, painted pinecones give a lovely Christmassy feel; and you can of course just dunk them in metallic paint, but it’s messy and not half as beautiful as a proper frosted look. For that you need a Harris Seriously Good Round Brush to paint the edges of the pinecone with white paint for that snowy, winter feel. Then using a combination of a Harris Seriously Good Flat Brush and a Harris Seriously Good Fitch Brush for the intricate bits, you can also paint your own Christmas baubles. One of the easiest ways is to buy or make them in wood and then use the different colours of paint to create the illusion of a 3D design. Again, you can personalise each one. Use festive colours or metallics for a traditional look or go wild with colour for a funky result.
Whatever your festive plans, check out Harris on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for Christmassy ideas, how-to’s and a chance to win the tools you need. On www.harrisbrushes.com, you will find stockist details for all the paint brushes mentioned. And don’t forget, once Christmas is over, Harris Ultimate and Seriously Good brushes and decorating tools are perfect for all kinds of DIY, arts and crafts and upcycling!