Guest Post: DIY Seasonal Switch Plates

With Christmas just around the corner, here's one another festive guest post for you! Today's post comes from Alex Cobbe, aka Hydrangea Girl...

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My name is Alex and I'm addicted to all things design. I also have a fascination and passion for crafting, cooking, kitties, and anything quirky, unusual, or out of the ordinary.

I love Christmas and that warm fuzzy feeling that goes along with it. I love decorating for the holidays, and what made me come up with the idea for these decorated switch plates was that there aren't many Christmas decorations that you can apply directly to existing parts of your home. There are many hanging decorations, and decorations to drape across things, but nothing that would add a certain 'je ne sais quoi' to that big bare patch on your wall that just has a light switch. Does that make sense? In my head it does. So anyways, on to my tutorial!

What you'll need: a cereal box or supermarket pizza box (thin cardboard works best), paint in a range of colors, PVA glue, glittery things of your choice like snowflakes or stars, scissors, paint brush, a black pen, pencil, and a ruler.

Step 1: decide on a template for your seasonal switch plates. I designed a silhouette inspired a little by Russian architecture. I drew my template on a folded piece of paper - when I cut out the design and opened it, it was a perfectly symmetrical template. I also cut out a square the size of my light switches. To make sure the templates fit each switch snugly, I fitted and trimmed the inside square with a pair of scissors (scalpel or exacto knife) where necessary.

Step 2: with your pencil, draw a Christmassy scene. I went with a different design for each switch plate, but there's no harm in doing the same pattern en masse.

Step 3: once you're happy with your design, paint it in. I began with the gold background, which I needed to build up with two layers of paint. Once the gold was dry, I went ahead and painted the remainder of the scene.

Step 4: When your paint has dried, use a black pen (or fine marker) and draw an outline around your design to really make it pop!

Step 5: attack every boring light switch in your home.

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You can check out lots of other crafty tutorials over on Alex's blog, Hydrangea Girl, her dust cover project is especially fun and would be a lovely way to add a personal touch to a book you're giving as a Christmas gift.

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