Christmas Mantel Decorating: Let It Snow

How to Decorate a Fireplace Mantel for Christmas With Let It Snow Signs

Back in the spring, one of the first big projects I took on after we moved into the lake house was to update the 1970’s brick wall and fireplace in the living room to stone. You can see the before photo in this post and read how I created a floating mantel using the top of an unwanted piece of furniture. Since making it over, I have enjoyed decorating the mantel for Christmas.  This Let It Snow mantel is one of my faves along with my Snowy Window Pane Christmas decorated mantel.

Decorating the mantel for Christmas was something I have been thinking about since the makeover. I moved south a year ago where snow is pretty much non-existent from what I am used to seeing around Christmastime having lived in Pennsylvania most of my life.

With the lake and outdoors being the main focus of the house, I decided to bring the outdoors in and create a white Christmas myself on the mantel.

I also decided to go with the color red and plaid this year after using turquoise and pink the last few years.

I made the Let It Snow canvases and the tree branch slices that the candles are sitting on. The greenery is from my yard. I have included free printable .pdfs (below) of the words Let IT Snow if you would like to make the canvases.

The tall trees are the same ones I used to decorate my foyer with last year in my previous house.

When I was deciding what to do on the mantel I knew I wanted to use lettering.

… and of course no Christmas mantel is complete without stockings.

If you look closely you can see I added glitter snowflakes to each canvas that is leaning against the stone fireplace wall. The glitter makes them look extra special when the twinkling tree lights hits them at night.

The 3 canvas signs were very easy to make using inexpensive stretched canvases I bought at Walmart. One of the budget friendly aspects of working with stretched canvases is that once you are finished using them, you can paint something new right over them. So in the future you may see these three showing up here on my blog transformed into something completely different.

Christmas Mantel Decorating: How to Make Let It Snow Canvases

Download the free printable .pdfs for the words Let, It and Snow here:

Let | It | Snow  SN + OW

I used the font: Malisia Script Regular for the words Let and It. It is not a free font, but one you can purchase. The font for Snow is Modern No. 20. It is a freebie you can find, here. 

supplies needed: list includes affiliate links 

• 3 – 18″ x 24″ stretched canvases – Walmart
• Black craft paint
• Medium-tipped black Sharpie
• Fine tipped artist paint brush
• Graphite transfer paper
• Large paper snowflakes
• Ruler
• Spray adhesive
• White, clear, or silver glitter
• Scissors
• Painter’s tape

How to Transfer the Words Let, It and SNOW to the Canvases

1. Print out the .pdfs above on your printer. The word SNOW is on two different .pdfs. The letters SN on one and OW on the other. Cut around the letters and tape together to spell SNOW as shown in the photo above.
2. Cut a piece of transfer paper to the same size as the words, let, it and snow.
3. Find the center on the canvas and lay down the piece of transfer paper over center of canvas so graphite side is face down. Place SNOW print out on top. Use painter’s tape to secure to center of canvas.
4. Trace over the outer edge of the letters with a pencil using even pressure.
5. Remove the tape, word, and transfer paper and you will be left with an outline of the traced word.
6. Repeat for the the words, let and it.

7. Go over the traced outline of the word with a black Sharpie. Let dry. Then fill in each letter using a fine-tipped paint brush and craft paint. Let dry.

Painting TIP:  Place a paper towel on the canvas to rest your hand on while you paint. It will lessen any smudges on your hands from getting on the white canvas.

How to Attach the Snowflakes to the Canvas

Line a baking tray with foil to help keep glitter from getting everywhere. Once you are finished applying the glitter, clean up will be easy as all you will need to do it crumple the foil and throw it away.

I added two snowflakes to each canvas. One on the upper left and one on the lower right corner.

1. Lay snowflake right side up on foil-lined tray. Spray a light coat of spray adhesive over snowflake making sure you cover the entire surface.
2. Sprinkle glitter over the snowflake and then shake excess glitter off of snowflake onto tray.
3.  Place snowflake on right bottom of canvas and determine placement. Cut away excess (overhanging part of snowflake) with scissors.
4. Spray back of snowflake with spray adhesive and attach to canvas. Repeat process for each snowflake.

How to Add Snow or Flocking to Christmas Greenery

1. Set up a large piece of paper or flattened cardboard box and place greenery on it.  Spray a light coat of spray adhesive over the greenery and then sprinkle glitter over it.
2. Hold each piece of greenery up and spray a few shots of spray snow over it. Let dry.

Lay greenery along mantel and if you want to create more snow, sprinkle the greenery with fake snow that you can buy in a bag at the craft store.

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