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Create a beautiful addition to your vintage Christmas home decor using a second hand frame and a retro style print! You probably won’t find the exact frame that I have but this is inspiration to find your own, because you’re going to love this Pink Retro Santa Thrifted Makeover! Make sure to check out our other Thrift Store Makeovers while you’re here!
Supplies needed for this project :
- Thrifted frame or plaque
- Rice paper print, napkin or scrapbook paper
- Spray paint
- Acrylic paints
- Paper cutter
- Rotary blade or scissors
- Mod Podge
- Paint brushes
Let’s talk about our thrifted pick!
For my birthday this year, my only request was to go thrifting! We found this piece with a beautifully detailed frame on it, and I just had to take it home! My challenge was to turn it into a piece for Christmas. One of our Christmas trees is completely decorated in vintage ornaments, so that was also my vision for this piece. First, I needed an image.

Have you ever crafted with rice paper?
Rice paper is similar to the texture of a napkin, but it’s a bit sturdier. I chose this pink retro Santa Claus rice paper from European Excellency because it will fit in well with our vintage themed Christmas decor! If you shop on this website, make sure to use code DIANA for our exclusive discount!

The sheet was too large for the area I wanted to cover, so I had to cut the rice paper. I measured the square center on the thrifted frame, then marked those measurements on the print. Then using a ruler, a rotary blade, and a self healing mat, I cut the rice paper to size, making sure the Santa face was centered.
Now, let’s paint!
At first thought, I was looking for an off white color for my frame, but just so happens, I’m out of any kind of white or off white paint! How can that be?! So, I went hunting for another option. These things usually have a way of working out, and this time was no different. In our spray paint supplies, we had this soft pink chalk paint that was rather perfect.

It was rainy outside, so I placed my frame inside of a large box to paint it, outside under our covered porch. This ridiculously huge box was from Amazon, and this worked out perfectly as well. Ha! I used a separate box to elevate the frame to make it easier to paint the sides.

After the frame was completely painted, I let it sit out and dry for a couple of hours. I also made sure to cover my mouth and nose when I was painting it. It almost looks white here, but I promise you, it’s pink. Such a pretty pink, too. Unfortunately, they no longer offer this particular paint, which makes me sad. It’s a great paint. Here is a great alternative made by Rust-Oleum called Blush Pink.

Now, we’re going to add some accent color!
I wanted to bring some of the darker color from the print onto the raised parts of the frame. Not having an exact color match, I had to improvise, by color mixing! These two colors from Apple Barrel created a very close match to those colors; Cameo Pink and Bright Red.

This is the color that they created. Using a chippy paint brush, I dry brushed this color over the four sides of the frame.

I did this by adding some of the paint to my brush, then offloading the paint as much as I could by rubbing the brush on a dry surface, leaving just enough color on the bristles to just hit the raised parts. Isn’t that cool?!


Let’s decoupage!
Last thing that I did, was add my cut rice paper print, using mod podge. I laid the print down, raising a small section at a time to add the mod podge. Then I used it again over the top to seal it.

And that was it! I considered adding another color and adding some type of trim around the print, but ultimately decided to keep it simple!

I absolutely love how it turned out! It is going to be the perfect addition to our vintage Christmas home decor! What do you think? Could you see this in your home?


Thank you so much for visiting our website and I hope you enjoyed this project and that it inspires you to make something similar for your Christmas home decor! Make sure to join our email family so we can keep in touch! Have a very Merry Christmas!
Want to save this Retro Santa Thrifted Makeover project for later? Pin it!

Check out these other vintage Christmas diys :
- Lots more Vintage Christmas ideas from our friend Agnes, over at Just That Perfect Piece