Rustic Paint Stick Snowflakes

When my husband and I got married, we were still in college and so we lived in a handful of apartments before we graduated and settled down into our home.  My decorations were really more of a collection of things that had been given to me or that I'd made or picked up from the dollar store and didn't really have any kind of cohesiveness.  So a few years ago, I started sifting through my Christmas and winter decorations and getting rid of anything that I didn't love, which was actually quite a bit.  I love decorating for different holidays and seasons but it can get a little tiresome to only have pieces up for a month or so before taking them down and starting all over again.  That's why I'm totally in love with these rustic snowflakes I made!  I can keep them up all winter long, plus they match the style of my regular home decor.

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I made two different sizes of snowflakes using four different lengths of paint sticks.  I picked up everything I needed for less than $5 and I still have a few sticks left over to make more snowflakes or save them for another craft.

Here are the supplies you'll need to make your own:

• Paint sticks (all sizes, can usually buy them in packs from a hardware store like Home Depot)
• Paint (I used chalk paint in white, and acrylic in silver and metallic light blue)
• foam brushes
• glue gun
• ruler or measuring tape
• pencil
• razor blade or small saw (optional, but recommended)
• sandpaper 
• Command strips (for hanging)

First, I suggest figuring out what kind of snowflake design you want to do.  (To get some ideas, you can easily hop on the internet and search for images of snowflakes and then simplify the design from there.)  I got all my snowflake designs put together (minus gluing) so I could see how they all looked as a group.  I took pictures of each snowflake so I could remember what they looked like after all the pieces were painted and I needed to put them back together.

Next, start with one set of paint sticks (snowflake) and paint the front and sides.  If you had to cut some down to size, you may need to smooth the edges with some course grit sand paper before painting them.  Once all the sticks from one snowflake are painted set them aside to dry and then start on the next group, making sure to keep each set of snowflake pieces separate from each other.

After everything is dry, you can start assembling.  I used a ruler to mark the center of each stick I used for the main part of my snowflake so I knew where to put the glue.

Press firmly after you glue down each piece.  If a little glue seeps out, you can scrape at it with your fingernail before it completely dries to get it off.  One of the reasons I prefer a low temp glue gun is that I don't get burnt if I need to touch the glue after it's been put on my project.

Then, turn over the main snowflake piece and glue the pieces onto the back side.  I used a ruler again for this part so that I could get the other pieces in as close to the same place as possible on each stick.

Once all your snowflakes are assembled, you can either hang them or embellish them a bit.  I decided to use some silver acrylic paint and dry brushed each of my pieces.  This actually accomplished two things: it gave a slightly antiqued/weathered look and a little bit of shimmer.  Another option would be to use some sandpaper to get that more rustic look.

To hang my snowflakes, I used some Command strips and stuck them straight to my wall.  This is the perfect solution for those temporary or seasonal pieces of decor you want to put up.  We have this big space on our wall that was looking a little sad and lonely and putting the snowflakes there worked out perfectly.  (Although I'm thinking I'd like to add one more smaller snowflake to balance it all out.)

What do you think?  I love how they turned out!

With it being the second Wednesday of the month, that means it's time for the Inspire My Creativity link up that I host each month!  This month's theme of SNOWFLAKES was a lot of fun and I'd love for you to check out what the other hosts have shared as well.  Also, please feel free to link up as well if you have a post that fits with the theme!

Shani  |  Sunshine & Munchkins

Anna  |  Practical and Pretty

Emy  |  Semigloss Design

Missy  |  Gypsy Magpie

Christine  |  Swordfights & Starry Nights

Candice  |  She's Crafty

Meg  |  The Kusi Life

Be sure to come back and join us next month for an all new Inspire My Creativity link up!

An InLinkz Link-up