SUMMER

Watercolor Wooden Bead Necklaces

Despite the fact that I own twelventytwo thousand necklaces, I want more. Specifically, I want a bunch of these trendish-y bohemian summer, extra long wooden bead and tassel necklaces that are everywhere, but nowhere that I can find. I keep seeing metal versions in the store but who wants a metal chain around their neck when it’s hot out? No spanxs.

So, when the folks at Michael’s asked me to share a Mothers day project that could be made for moms or by moms or by dads for moms…I thought, this is a winner. Oddly enough, my own mom was not much of a crafter but I do recall her making a wooden bead necklace with me on a piece of leather cord. It was with those rainbow abacus beads and I would slide the beads back and forth to learn addition and subtraction. It is nice to think my earliest math skills are rooted in rainbow jewelry. Surely an omen of good things to come.

Anyhooters, back to the Mothers Day project, looky here!

I think I’m supposed to give them to a mom, but I’m probably keeping them for me. Cat moms count!

These are crazy easy to make, especially if you like projects that embrace randomness. I don’t want to pitch this as a strictly kid project because I think the end results can look pretty sophisticated, however, I’m confident the results will come out better if you can embrace unpredictability with kid-like, wild abandonment.

You in? Let’s go!

Materials
Wooden beads. Varying sizes. My smallest here is 5mm, largest is 20mm. The big ones look good but whoa can they get heavy! Be sure to buy the unfinished beads as anything pre-varnished will not absorb the pigments.
Water colors. I’m using Dr. Martin’s liquid brand here because that’s what I have on hand and I know the quality is supreb, but you could use any brand of watercolor. Even the stuff they sell in the cheapo travel pallets. Generally, the cheaper the paint the lesser the pigments, which will give you a more pastel color. I happen to like the chalky finish here. You do you.
Embroidery floss. I’m using this for the tassels, but you could certainly sub with yarn or ribbon.
Necklace cording. Michael’s sells a huge variety of colored cords but I like this stuff because it’s smooth. I love the look of the hemp and twine cords but I’ll only wear them with a collared shirt, so this smoother stuff is great.
Plastic or styrofoam egg carton. This is to provide little pools for dyeing the beads. If you don’t have a waterproof egg carton laying around, a deviled egg dish does nicely, or just a selection of disposable cups. Your call!

Mix your watercolor paint with a small amount of water. Maybe a tablespoon. Hard to say how much exactly depending on the density of your paint and the porousness of the beads so you’ll have to experiment a bit. Like I said – this project is best when you embrace the unpredictable!

Let the beads soak about 10 minutes. Some dye will absorb almost instantly (like the hot pink) and some will take a while and still look awfully subtle (blue). You can also take them out in phases and/or mix the dyes to get a whole variety of hues and saturations. When you pull them out, just set them on paper towels to absorb the extra liquid. They won’t dry 100% for a few hours but if you get them dry to the touch you can string them up within a few minutes.

Also. Warning: wear gloves.

Use gloves, or a plastic spoon, or just give in to the elements. If people ask you why your hands look odd, tell them purple fingers are all the rage in Ibiza.

Because everything is a trend in a Ibiza, eventually.

Now all that’s left to do is string them up!

If you want to know how to make a simple tassel, I wrote an in-depth post on that a couple years back. I also threw in a few black and white beads from Michaels for good measure. That’s my never-fail tip for color and pattern mixing: throw in something with a graphic black and white pattern to ground the crazy and it will always, always, always look good.

Or you can skip the tassel and extra beads. It looks mighty swell on its own! And no fancy clasps here. These necklaces are meant to be worn long so you just tie a knot off the top and call it a day. Bam!

Although the beads are laid out randomly, sometimes I’d find that it did not lay evenly because there was too much weight on one side, so I went and added an extra large bead to the opposite side. If I was a serious beader I’d weigh this stuff on a scale first, but I don’t think anyone is calling the bead police here.

This one is the simplest but it might be my favorite! I also like this one…

Michaels sells this twisted cord stuff that is super cute, although a bit too big to thread through the holes of most beads. Darnit!

This makes a terrific project for kids of all ages (that means you) and if you decide to not give it to a mom, that’s cool too. Happy crafting!

An InLinkz Link-up

Ice Painting with Liquitex Paint

by aunt peaches 27 Comments

As much as I have been grooving on painting flowers lately, there is something really satisfying about a totally random abstract. No meaning or purpose – just color, color, COLOR. Michael’s asked me to show a new way to use one of their favorite brands – Liquitex paints. Lucky for me, they are one of my favorites too! And since this is the height of summer, I thought this would be a great chance to cool off with an old favorite: ice painting.

I know what you are thinking; Ice painting? Paint ice? What the?

Yep. Ice painting.

Ice made from paint. You just leave it to melt on the paper and it’ll make these colored puddles like WHOA. I learned to do this in nursery school (shout out to Palisades Pre K!) where we made paint puddles then when they dried we drew faces and legs on top. It was precious. I don’t recall what I made, but I recall it was really messy and that meant I liked it. That’s pretty much the criteria for a good craft – messy meter reading of 8 or more. This won’t be that messy for adults, or, play it safe and keep it outside. Your call. It can be an easy or sophisticated as you like it.

Materials
Liquitex acrylic paint
Watercolor paper
Water
Ice cube tray (you could also use baggies or disposable trays (any sort of plastic ‘bubble’ packaging will work fine too))
Toothpick or plastic fork (for stirring)
Paintbrush
Old towel (or work outside on the grass)

Note on paint: Ice painting can be done with lots of different kinds of paint, but I have found that using a full bodied acrylic like Liquitex will give you the most interesting and saturated results. You’ll want a paint with a lot of pigment. It needs to be water soluble to lend itself to ice, but thick enough to that some of it will resist melting into the ice completely (you’ll see the difference when it melts). I’m very fond of Liquitex because that was what was recommended as the standard in art school, and although they carry several varieties, I like the big tubes you can get at Michaels. They last for years. Literally, I just finished off a tube of white Liquitex from 1999. It’s a workhorse!

So, let’s start. Add a small amount of paint in each compartment of the ice tray (somewhere between 1/2 a teaspoon and a full teaspoon). You can get 2 ice cube trays at any dollar store, or you can line an existing tray with tin foil or plastic wrap.

Add a small amount of water. Maybe a teaspoon. DO NOT FILL (YET). You need enough room for the next step.

Use a stick or spoon to mix the paint with the water. Plan on it splashing around. Don’t worry about it blending completely (in fact you will get more interesting end results if you leave a few paint chunks)…just get the party started.

Now go back and add enough water to fill each compartment. Remember, water expands when it freezes so leave a little room on top.

Put it in your freezer and let it solidify. Most ice will freeze up in a a couple of hours, but I just let it set all night.

Now for the fun! When the ice is solid, plop it out onto a piece of watercolor paper. I like to crush a few of the cubes and let them run around the paper a little. You can actually paint like this, using the cube as a sort of brush, but I like the results that come from letting the ice do its thing.

Note, you really need an absorbent paper like watercolor paper for this. You could also use white fabric, or a cotton rag paper, but regular copy paper will just shred – get something absorbent.

What you see above is what it looked like after about 5 minutes on the paper. The melting has already begun. You can see the colors starting to spread and mingle. Also, note the colors spreading off the edge and the old towel underneath. This is not a project you get to control, so just get ready for spillage.

This is what it looked like after 30 minutes. Still a few large cubes, but all the small ice crumbles have melted and mingled. This is one of the reasons I recommend using ice cubes in a similar color way for each piece of paper. If you do the whole rainbow on a single sheet they’ll melt into brown early on. Then again, maybe you want brown. I can dig that too.

This is how it looked the next morning. I’m telling you, it has a mind of its own. The key here is DO NOT MOVE THE PAPER. Keep it on a flat surface and leave it alone. The paper will gradually start to warp and create peaks and valleys and that will distribute the color while creating the coolest patterns and stain ruffles.

Yes I said stain ruffles. That’s a real term. Those ruffles of color stains are what happens when you use a good, full bodied paint. See how the yellow runs from a deep sunset orange to a pale butter yellow wash? Yep. And it’s all from a single ice cube, crushed up and allowed to melt at different rates. It’s magic!

Now, here is the optional part: go back in and fill the white spaces with another paint color. It looks cool with a white background, but I like to pull out the color wheel and pick something to balance off the values I already have working here. Hey now, how about a crash course in color theory?

I don’t usually reference the color wheel, except when choosing final ‘accent’ colors, in which case I won’t finish a piece without it. I use it for painting, graphic design…even putting pillows on the couch or hanging art on a wall. You can make this really complicated but I like the triangle method, aka: three point color harmony.

Here goes: Identify the two most dominant color zones you have going on already, note their spot on the wheel, then use those two points to identify the opposite third point of the triangle. Sometimes it’s an equilateral triangle, sometimes it’s an isosceles triangle (<<brownie points to me for knowing how to spell isosceles)…but no matter what, the third point is always the opposite middle between the other two color zones. For some reason, adding a dash of calculated color always works out way better than anything I pick in my head. I don’t know why, but it does. I don’t fight it any more.

Now, just pop it in a frame and call it a day! Good news: You can also get the frame at Michaels. More good news: Michael’s is having their Big Brand sale next week so you can get major discounts on Liquitex paint for the next two weeks. The colors are intermixable so you can use them for all kinds of stuff. Check out all of the Liquitex products in store or on Michaels.com and check out the Big Brand Sale page for more details.

Leaf Print Pillowcases

by aunt peaches 11 Comments

People say Memorial Day is the beginning of summer, but in my book the season doesn’t start until the feather duvet gets yanked off the bed and swap it for a beloved, lumpy, bumpy, oil-spill-quality-absorbant-cotton, chenille blanket. Always white. Always retro. Chenille blankets are wildly impractical 9 months a year, but when they are good they are great. Only problem is I don’t do plain white anything, which usually means that June is when I get a hankering to go pillowcase shopping, which means I have an absurd amount of pattern and color dense pillowcases. This year was different. This year I made my own!

I’m not even going to tell you how easy it was to make-over a couple of thrift store pillow cases.

Okay. That’s a lie. I am going to tell you. It involves stuff I cut out of the alley behind my neighbor’s house and a secret ingredient that will change the way you think about fabric paint. Want to know the down low? Get it!

Marble Painting with Tacky Glue

by aunt peaches 2 Comments

I’ll warn you now, there will be a repeating theme throughout this summer: Marbling. Marbleizing. Marbleupzing.

If it stands still, Imma put some marble on it. And if it’s still standing still after that, there could be glitter. No promises.

This tray is easy, impressive, and yo, did I mention cheap? CHEAP YO.

Want to see how you make it using stuff you might already have around the house (or after a quick trip to the thrift store?)

Go and see it for yourself!

Painting with Watercolor and Glue

by aunt peaches 9 Comments

I don’t think I’v ever seen a painting of flowers that I didn’t like. Doesn’t matter if it’s a Van Gogh, or a finger painting on a refrigerator, I just can’t help but love the sight of flowers on paper. When Pentel asked me to come up with an interesting way to use their watercolors, I thought of a new take on this old technique with white glue. Not going to lie, it came out splendid! I’m getting some mats cut right now so these can be up on the walls soon.

These sorta work like coloring books. Some lady peeps came over a couple weeks ago for a weekend crafter-noon and we had a blast making these. The hard part is letting them dry. I may have attempted expedite the process by putting them in the oven. A couple may have come out over crisped. I say, it just adds artistic integrity!

If you are not condiment in your ability to doodle flowers in a vase, no problem, just scribble and fill in the holes. Like this!

Want to see how to make them yourself? Pop on over to Pentel for the step-by-step.

How to Upcycle an Old Tray Into a Photo Display

by aunt peaches 1 Comment

The nice folks over at Etsy asked me to think of a homemade gift idea that kids-of-all ages could make for their moms for Mother’s Day. And, as much as I love a good glue-and-glitter coffee mug, I wanted to come up with something that the mom population would want and use. Something practical. Something nice. Something she could leave out on the coffee table to hold remote controls or a stray glass of iced tea. Something Mom could show off to her friends and say LOOK. YOU DON’T HAVE ONE. AND I DO!

Yo. Moms are way competitive.

The secret ingredient here (that you might not be able to see in the photos) is resin, a thick sealer you lay on top of the photos and it dries hard (I mean HARD) with a glass finish. You can polish it, wipe, whatever. I wouldn’t put it in the dishwasher but I promise you it will last for years. Want to make one yourself? Good. because it’s going to be AWESOME.

Go check it out for yourself!

Earth Day Upcycling: Bird Feeder Bottles

by aunt peaches 10 Comments

Earth Day is an occasion when we are asked to consider what we can do to help our planet. A great place to start is by finding ways to recycle, or as I like to call it –upcycle, the items we might otherwise throw away. And, if you can find a way to remake those items into useful tools to help our feathered friends, even better. Let’s make a birdfeeder!

Like a lot of people, I am a sucker for great packaging. Califia Farms delivers most of their beverages in these beautiful hour-glass shaped bottles, which are surprisingly sturdy. As soon as I saw them I thought they would make a great vase or storage container, but when they asked me to try to think of a craft with a tie into Earth Day, a birdfeeder was the obvious answer.

This project will take around ten minutes to create the basic structure and you can spend as much (or as little) time as you want on decorating the outside. I used some simple paint dashes to dress up mine, but feel free to dress yours up in a big way. Some types of birds are especially attracted to things that are brightly colored and sparkly (HELLO GLITTER!) while other types of birds are scared off by unfamiliar objects. Consider what types of birds you want to attract before you decide how to decorate the bottle.

Let’s get started!

* Califia Farms beverage bottle
* Wooden spoon
* Strong twine
* Box cutter or sharp knife
* Permanent marker
* (not pictured) Decorating supplies: paint, markers, glue, glitter, etc.
* (not pictured) Bird seed

Here is the best part of the craft: drink up!

Califia Farms’ line of almondmilk has a cult following, but their sweet-n-sour lemon limeade is my favorite. It’s fabulous on it’s own, or sometimes I like to add a splash to sparkling water. It also makes for a great summer cocktail mixer, but let’s save that for after we are done with the craft project. Just trust me: it’s tasty stuff.

1. Peel the label off the bottle.

2. Wash and dry the inside.

3. Decorate the outside however you see fit. Here I am using regular acrylic craft paint (it’s waterproof). If you want to go all-out with extra trimmings and glue, just make sure your bird feeder can be hung in a way that it is shielded from the elements (under a roof overhanging is a great option).

4. Allow the surface to dry completely.

5. Use the permanent marker to draw a rectangle that is as wide as the spoon, but slightly taller. Repeat on the opposite side.

6. Use your blade or knife to cut the sides and top of the hole and fold outward.

7. Insert spoon. Is there a small gap space above the spoon? Good. If not, go back and make the hole slightly taller. Keep in mind, larger bird seed will require a larger hole.

8. Tie two pieces of extra long twine around the lid.

And here we go! Fill with birdseed and hang in a prominent location for everyone to admire your ingenuity. The screw-on cap makes it easy to refill often. The birds (and the environment) will appreciate your efforts.

This is a sponsored post but all opinions shared are my own. Thank you to Califia Farms for inviting me to celebrate Earth Day with them. And thank YOU for supporting the brands that make this site possible.

You’ll find Califia Farms in Whole Foods nationwide, as well as major chains like Kroger, Safeway and many other grocery stores. You can use their store locator to find one nearest you! If you are interested in trying Califia Farms for free, visit their social media channels to participate in giveaway programs: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

Happy Earth Day!

Remix to Ignition: Big Blue

by aunt peaches 31 Comments

Bloggers like me frequently run into a problem. It’s called space. Or, lack of space. There are only so many times you can make over bedspreads when you only have one bed. This is when I start asking friends, “Didn’t you say you needed a new bedspread?” and they are like, “I never said anything of the sort. What are you saying, my bedspread is ugly!?” and then it goes silent for a minute. So awkward.

My friend Kiki has given me permission to gradually make over her place so long as it doesn’t look like, “that scene from A Beautiful Mind when she walks in the garage and all the walls are covered with crazy person paper.” Which is actually kind of weird because Kiki is a math whizz and it occurred to me that wall-to-wall math art would be the way to go. Sadly, she does not share this opinion. So I’m starting with a new take on an old project: Big Pinky. But now she’s called Big Blue.

For me, the easiest way to make a room look finished is to add a piece of over-sized anchor art work. The bigger the better. It doesn’t matter if the furniture and the curtains and lighting and all that are great, if the room is lacking in art I will sit in your living room and silently visualize what I want to hang on the wall (SEE WHAT A GREAT FRIEND I AM?). But I totally get that anchor artwork is hard. And expensive. Luckily there is this place called the thrift store, or for me, I don’t have to go to the thrift store because my sun porch looks like the set from Sanford and Son.

If you have been following the blog a couple of years you probably recognize this former thrift store painting turned ticket art from a previous life above my sink. I liked it there but the pink ticket stubs faded to a sad and stale shade of mauve-beige. It came down when I hung up the pudding molds and has been sitting on my sun porch ever since. Time for a remix to ignition.

Hot and fresh out the kitchen…

Bounce bounce bounce bounce…

Sorry. That’s a song. Back to the painting!

Simple method: I painted the whole thing gray then used a 1″ brush (same width as the ticket stub) to paint each stub a different color. This could have been really slow, or really fast. I went the fast route. Sloppy painting, no long-term vision. I made lots of repeating dashes in downward lines, on-off-on-off. Then moved on to another color. Then another. Then another. The color scheme is blue or green or gray with lots of blue undertones. At one point I added red, then decided I didn’t like it and painted over the red with blue — now there are just peeps of the red here and there and it’s all the more interesting. I’d say 50% of the paints came straight out of the bottle (just inexpensive craft paint, btw), and the other 50% came from a mixture of the last paint I used but mixed with a squirt of white. Or royal blue. Or navy. Just whatever was in easy reach. That’s the nice thing about doing this sort of ‘common core color’ painting, you really can’t go wrong. Eventually it will all blend and dance, so long as there is a common thread color, which is in this case, blue. Some years back I did a quasi-similar piece with 1,200 shades of yellow.

I’m not sharing this today as a DIY, so much as an example of how easy it is to make really interesting ‘nonsense’ art for your home. It will elevate the whole space and it’s seriously cathartic, or, it would be awesome as a group activity as well. You could knock one out in an afternoon, or leave it an less-frequented area of the house and add a few new dashes every day. Like one of those puzzles you leave out on the coffee table for a month. Let it grow with time. You certainly don’t need ticket stubs or even dashes. What about a painting made of nothing but dots, or squares, or stripes, or fingerprints?

There is one exposed red patch in the upper right corner. I could tell you that is holds great symbolism, but mostly it’s because I’m lazy and didn’t see it. Now it’s what makes the whole thing special. I love that!

Have you ever made art for your home? I highly recommend it!

Gold Leaf Wooden Bowls

by aunt peaches 4 Comments

My gold-on-wood flatware has started me on a gold-on-wood craze all over the house, starting with these bowls I made last month. Wooden salad bowls are one of those things I grew up with but we rarely used because they needed to be hand washed. Sound familiar? Welp, if that is the case and I have to hand-wash these bowls anyway, why not fancify (<real word) the outside? There was a stack of gold leaf sitting in my craft room for ages, begging to be released into something fabulous. Bonus: they look really good as nest for golden Easter eggs.

I know you were worried about that too.

I find wooden salad bowls at thrift stores all the time, usually untouched (like these) or scraped up pretty badly (not these – but I’ll have another project for those soon!). Most will have some sort of oil finish, so if you do this with the gold leaf, it’s important to use an adhesive that will really stick. I have been using Mona Lisa brand since art school, but you can find other brands all over the place. Normally you can gold leaf with regular white glue, but because of the oil finish on the bowls, I wanted to stick to the real stuff for this project.

Materials

Wooden Bowls
Mona Lisa Gold Leaf Kit (surprisingly not that expensive)
Wide paint brush (best if it’s old/not precious)
Sealer (not pictured). In this case I am using Dishwasher Safe Mod Podge on the outside of the bowl. Even though theses bowls will always be hand-washed, I’ll take extra reinforcement wherever I can get it.

Instructions

1. Brush the bottom half of the bowl with gold leaf adhesive.

2. Let it dry until it turns from milky white to a super sticky clear (around 20 minutes).

3. Pick up gold leaf with clean (dry fingers). I like to tear the whole pack in half to make sheets smaller and easier to handle — your call.

4. Use a brush to smooth out the leaf – it will likely stick to the adhesive VERY easily.

5. Use a lint-free cloth to smooth over the whole bowl.

6. Finish the outside with a sealer. Do NOT cover the inside of the bowl (where the food goes) with any sealer that is not food-safe. Note, “non-toxic” and “food-safe” are not the same thing. Allow bowls to cure one week before using.

The trick to working with gold leaf is to keep expectations low. It’s not for those seeking perfection. Personally, I love that these bowls have blips and bald spots. No two are alike. They make the perfect landscape for my Easter table, or, just an everyday lunch salad.

Man, that is going to be a majorly glamorous salad!

Doodling: Aluminum Notebook Covers

by aunt peaches 10 Comments

Last week I was on the phone and got caught without a pen. That’s not unusual in the computer age but it make strings difficult for compulsive doodlers like me. Hard up for something to fidget with, I started picking at a glob of dried glue on the cover of my notebook and a small scrap of tin foil leftover from the previous evening’s dinner. I’m not sure where the idea hit me, but it somehow it became very obvious very quickly that the glue and the foil want dot hang out. A couple of brain synapses later…boom!

There was a roll of aluminum tape left over in my cupboard from these garden markers a couple of years ago. You look this stuff and assume it’s silver duct tape, but it’s not; it’s a thin ribbon of aluminum sheeting with an adhesive backing. It’s probably meant to use in contraction (you’ll find it at the hardware store for about $5) but by gosh it’s nifty for craft supplies!

With that in mind, I decided to take my notebook doodle to the next level…

Materials
Notebooks (binders would work great here too)
White Glue (I’m always a fan of Tacky Glue, especially the fast-dry variety)
Permanent markers or alcohol ink (water-based markers will not work here)

1. Doodle away in glue.
2. Let it dry.
3. Cover with strips of aluminum tape.
4. Use the tips of the markers to burnish the tape into the glue, drawing up the ridges of glue.
5. Keep going.
6. Enjoy

This was one of those projects that I like well enough, but I feel like it’s only the beginning. I’ll bet this could be an awesome base formula for all kinds of nifty things (read: I smell jewelry). Can you think of another nifty place to use this technique? Let me know!

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SUMMER