I have always loved the "A Visit from St. Nicholas" poem which is better known as "Twas The Night Before Christmas" poem. It has always been my favorite Christmas holiday story and over the years I've read it so many times I almost have all the words memorized.
According to Wikipedia.com it was first published anonymously in 1823 and later attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, who claimed authorship in 1837. For more of the history of this beautiful poem please visit the Wikipedia.com page here.
During the past few months I have been creating a lot of mixed media Christmas decorations utilizing wood, paper, paper-clay, sponge painting, collage, decoupage, and scrap-booking crafts.
One of the scrap-booking papers I had was a 12" by 12" page that contained the entire "A Visit From St. Nicholas" poem as well as several Christmas graphic images. I believe it was from the "Echo Park - Twas the Night Before Christmas Collection - 12 x 12 Collection Kit - Volume 1" that I had bought a few years ago. I also had bought stickers, die cuts, and other scrapbook pages to match this collection.
I loved the page when I saw it and had been wanting to utilize this poem and scrapbook sheet in some way. I decided to use a large 6" by 6" unfinished wood cube that I had in my stash to show case the page, words, graphic images, die-cuts, and other scrapbook pages and thought decoupaging the cube in a mixed media collage type mode would be nice.
I also decided to add four 1 1/4" unfinished wood spools to the bottom as legs and add a 1 1/2" unfinished wood knob to the top center so the cube could be easily turned and the poem read.
So, first I drilled four 1/2" deep holes 1/4" wide in the bottom corners and top center of the 6" x 6" cube to hold the 1" by 1/4" wood dowels that I was going to cut and then insert into the wood cube to hold my legs and knob. Then I drilled a 1/2 deep hole 1/4" wide in the center of the flat side of my unfinished wood knob.
I added wood glue to the holes in the bottom of the cube and inserted the 1" dowel 1/2" down, leaving 1/2" showing. Then I added wood glue to the holes in the wood spools with 1/4" openings and inserted them onto the 1/2" wood dowels that were showing until the spools and bottom of the cube met. I turned the wood cube with legs over until the wood glue had dried and the legs were secure.
When the legs were secure I added wood glue to the hole in the center of the top of the cube and inserted a 1" wood dowel 1/2" down leaving 1/2" showing. I added wood glue to the 1/2" hole I had drilled in the bottom of the wood knob and then inserted it onto the 1/2" wood dowel the was showing on the top until the bottom of the wood knob and top of the wood cube met. I set this aside to dry.
When the legs and knob were secure I painted the entire cube, legs, and knob with black acrylic paint. Once the black paint was dried I sponge painted all the areas with red metallic paint, then green metallic paint, and then white acrylic paint and waited for the paint to dry.
In the meantime I cut several sections out of the 12" by 12" scrapbook sheet that I wanted to decoupage onto the top and 4 sides of the cube. I wanted the words of the poem paragraphs to flow from one side to the other and utilize some of the graphics that were on this sheet as well as some of the die-cuts, other scrapbook pages and stickers I had that would match.
I trimmed the edges of the word paragraphs and graphic images that I wanted to use with decorative scissors so I would have a pretty finished edge. Then I brushed Mod Podge on the back of the word paragraphs and graphics images I wanted to use with the decorative edges on the top and four sides of the cube and glued each to the section I wanted. When everything was everywhere I wanted it to be I brushed the words and image tops with Mod Podge.
I was pleased with the placement of the words and graphic images with the decorative edges so I proceeded to determine which stickers, die-cuts and other graphic images I might want to use as well. Once I knew where everything was going I brushed Mod Podge to the back of each, placed them where I wanted them, and then brushed Mod Podge on the top.
When I had finished the decoupaging I added a matte varnish finish to seal everything and waited for the cube to dry.
I was really pleased with the way my cube turned out. It will make a wonderful Christmas decoration for years to come. I knew exactly where I wanted to put it this year and could hardly wait to decorate for the Christmas holiday season. I had so many new decorations to use this year I knew I would be like a kid in a candy store when it came to decorating this year.
I hope you like how my mixed media "Twas The Night Before Christmas" wood cube decoration turned out and hope it inspires you to make one of your own.
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