I found these adorable lit­tle bells at our local Dol­lar Tree last Christ­mas and knew they would made a cute base for this Dol­lar Tree bell makeover. It dawned on me today, in the heat of July, that I would use them to cre­ate a Scan­di­na­vian inspired wreath for Christmas! 

Scan­di­na­vian Christ­mas decor is sim­ple and focused on nat­ur­al col­ors and ele­ments. I think you will see the beau­ty in the sim­plic­i­ty of this dol­lar tree bell makeover and hope­ful­ly find it inspir­ing.… let’s get to it!

Here is what you will need to recre­ate this look

Supplies

• Plas­tic Bells (I found mine at the Dol­lar Tree)
• Met­al Effects Rust­ing Kit
• Paint Brush­es
• Rope
• Rib­bon
• Wreath

The key to this Dol­lar Tree bell makeover is in this DIY Rust­ing Kit. it’s a 3‑step process that can trans­form any sur­face into an authen­tic rust­ed piece. Check out these DIY rust­ed han­dles I used on my island makeover!

Start by remov­ing all of the faux green­ery from the top of the bell. If there are oth­er ele­ments like bows or glue remove that as well and paint 2 coats of primer on the bell(s) allow­ing 30 min­utes of dry time in between coats. 

But, if you’re on a time crunch, you can use a hairdry­er or heat gun in between coats for faster dry time.

Next, apply 2 coats of the iron oxide paint on top of the dry primer. Again, allow­ing dry time in between coats. After this step you will notice the col­or of what­ev­er you hap­pen to be paint­ing begin to darken…this is a GOOD thing! Let the paint do it’s work.

Now this next step is where the mag­ic hap­pens folks. Spray your new­ly primed and paint­ed sur­face with the rust acti­va­tor spray in the kit.…lis­ten if you’re on the fence about this kit…DO IT! You can lit­er­al­ly rust absolute­ly anything!

All I did here was spray it and walk away for a few min­utes, then sprayed it again. It real­ly is mag­i­cal to watch it trans­form. (even cool­er if you can accel­er­ate the process with a heat gun, it’s fun to watch) 

Once the acti­va­tor has had time to dry com­plete­ly, it reveals REAL RUST.