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SUMMER

DIY Paint Chip Statement Art

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Raise your hand if you can’t cross a hardware store without picking up a paint chip.

I see you.

After years of letting them pile up in a baggie, I decided it was time to break them out and make some art. I have done something similar a few times in the past, but never had a chance to photograph it step-by-step.

Until now…

Today you can see the full tutorial over at QueenLatifah.com! Hop on over and check it out.

Many thanks to my pals John and Noeleen for offering their living room for this project. It’s great to have friends with blank wall space and an open mind 🙂

School Supply Makeover with Tape

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Hot and bothered, August is known as the only month without holidays. What’s up with that?

As a kid that bugged me. Could they not come up with a holiday for August? Were they waiting for someone to die so they could be commemorated? Why would there be no big hoopla August holiday? As an adult, I’m over it. But, when you think of it, there are more important things to celebrate in August than any other month of the year. For example:

–Left Handers Day
–National Middle Child Day
-Davy Crocket’s birthday
–National Rootbeer Float Day 
-The 147th anniversary of Thomas Edison’s patent for his Kinetoscope
– Prime time television no longer sucks
– Back to school supplies are dirt cheap

Yeah, baby! August has a lot to celebrate.

As part of Michaels Makers back to school challenge, I decided to make over my school supplies using some awesome tapes with nifty colors and patterns. Because, honestly, even if I have long out-grown my Lisa Frank Trapper Keeper (YOU GUYS – IT WAS SO COOL!)…I am still using binders and notebooks on a daily basis. Why should they not be decked out and snazzed up? Who says adults have to miss out on the fun?

A couple weeks ago I bought a bunch of duck tape to make this desktop organizer using old cereal boxes (FYI: it came out pretty rad) and I have been on a tape kick ever since. You will find all sorts of tapes at Michael’s big honking duct tape in crazy patterns, colored masking tape, as well as tiny little rolls of washi tape. Mix them altogether and pair with your favorite school supply, you are ready to rock and roll!

Binders are super easy…


The edges can get a bit ragged so I cover them up with a single vertical line of gold tape on the inside. It lends a special touch and will increase durability for years to come.

If I was still in school, that inside flap is probably where I would tape down my class schedule. As I am not in school, this is where I would insert coupons for unglamorous things like mouthwash and tampons. So beat that, Lisa Frank!

And this is where I keep my pencils. All you need is a plastic baggie with a slide lock closure.

Tip: Getting the tape to stick to the bag nicely is much easier when you lay it on a flat surface.
Another Tip: You can add a 1″ flap of of heavy duty tape to the bottom of the bag, then punch three holes in it and keep it in your binder. COLOR ME NIFTY!

I’m  not sure what this is for but I made it out of the cardboard tube leftover after I finished off a roll of tape. Recyclin’. Haayy.

Are you looking for more tricked out school supplies? Check out Michaels’ Back to School Pinterest Boardto find project ideas to kick the year off in style!

Check out these creative ideas from some of the other Michael’s Makers.

 

Back to School Homework Caddy

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Well folks, it’s that time of year again: Polish your apples and sharpen your pencils. It’s time to get ready to go back to school!*

* Whoa. Did you hear the collective sigh of relieved parents all across the internet? Me too!

When I was coming up, the best part of back to school shopping was going to store to pick up school supplies. Pens, pencils, two-pocket folders, maybe even a Trapper Keeper. Remember those? Nowadays kids to everything on their fancy electrogizmos, but let me tell you, a childhood without a Trapper Keeper isn’t a real childhood.

But I digress. School supplies are still in demand and now is the time of year when an influx of papers, notebooks, textbooks and office supplies start parading across kitchen tables. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a spot to coral all that stuff together and out of the way? And wouldn’t it be nice if the kids could make it themselves? And it would look cool? Thought so.

To get inspired for this school year, I’m working with Michaels to help teachers and parents create DIY projects that will keep young students on track.  Michael’s is calling this their #Create2Educate campaign, and you can join in the fun. Details to follow below, but for now let’s take a look at how easy these are to make.

MATERIALS

  • 3-5 Empty cardboard cartons (leftover cereal, pasta, and granola bar boxes seem to work just great)
  • Duck Tape (have you seen the colors and patterns this stuff comes in these days?)
  • Scissors
  • Cardboard tubes (optional)

    Let’s get started…


INSTRUCTIONS

  •  Place your cardboard cartons side by side then tape the bottoms together. For this first step, you may find it helpful to employ a second pair of hands (one person to hold, one person to tape).
  • Trim the tops of the boxes off to the desired heights.
  • Keep wrapping the tape over and around the surface of the boxes and just inside the rim. You may wish to use a credit card or the back of a spoon to make sure the tape gets into every corner.
  • To convert the front pocket into a marker caddy, insert a few empty cardboard tubes trimmed to size. They will keep pens and pencils standing upright and accessible!

TIPS

  • Here I worked in stripes, but you may find it easier to work in an abstract ‘paper-mache’ style.
  • Surface wrinkles are part of the fun, but you will find them easy to disguise by choosing a patterned duck tape.

I just know you crafty peoples (and your kiddos) have a million great ideas up your sleeve. So get out there and show of them skillz. It’s back to school!

Yarn Tassel Knob Bobbles

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My recent yarn kick turned into a tassel kick which has now turned into a knob bobble kick. Now I want all of my door knobs to have jewelry. Yarn jewelry. Also, I’m sorta tired of wreaths and stuff so I’m thinking knob bobbles are a home trend I can get behind. Also, it’s fun to say – knob bobbles. Sounds like pirate speak. Arrr me hearties, hard to starboard and yarn tassel me knob bobbles.

Sorry guys, that’s probably porn speak for something I don’t know about.

I’m guessing everyone learned to make yarn tassle bookmarks for Mother’s Day as a kid, amiright? Some of us even took it a step farther and learned to make yarn dolls (overachievers!) but for those who need a refresher, here it is.

Pro tip: Things get much more exciting when you mix yarn with twine and string and such.


So that’s it. You just wind the yarn around the book about 50 times, tie it off, snip it in half, and bam – TWO tassels. You will feel so accomplished you’ll want to make a bunch more.

…and that’s good because if you make a few, you can tie them on to an old bracelet, wrap some more yearn around the bracelet, and make yourself a knob bobble.

…Or not. Leave your knobs naked. See if I care. You just see.

Or you can tie off solo tassels on odd knobs around the house.

Like this.

And this one looks like one of the objects that turned into French people in Beauty and the Beast.


Ouuuu. Fancy!

Warning: these are addictive.

They are great no-thinking-required craft to make while watching a movie or on long car trips. My plan is to let the tassels pile up for a few months then makes them into to knob bobbles for Christmas — a nifty little gift on its own, or tied onto the front of a package. Obviously, I see jungle bells in the mix. Stay tunned!

 

Mrs. Roper’s Revenge

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My 1970’s kick continues. First it was Mrs. Roper’s kaftans, now it’s her decor.

I don’t know about you, but woven wall hangings were all the rage when it was a kid. It was awesome. Somewhere along the line they went out of fashion and up until recently you’d find them dime-a-dozen at thrift stores. Now they are hot again and Mrs. Roper has her revenge!

For those of us who were not smart enough to see this cyclical resurrection coming, we must make our own wall hangings. I’m not exactly a macrame expert, so I rely on white cotton yarn and a whole lot of little jars of dye to generate results.

The bad news is my house is now overflowing with excess bundles of custom dyed yarn. The good news is, for about $10 and precious little effort, you can make your own nifty wall hanging. Catch my tutorial over on Ilovetocreate.com!

Fingerprint Painted Party Bucket

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In the great words of the mustache guy at my local gas station,”A party ain’t no party until someone buys a bag of ice.”

He also likes to tell me about his double adam’s apple and cooking eggs on the engine of his Dodge Durango. But I digress. Mustache guy has a point: there are very few things that create the benchmarks between regular old ‘hanging out’ and full on ‘summer entertaining’ – a cooler full of bagged ice and cold drinks is numero uno.

I mean, it just feels festive. It doesn’t matter if you’re entertaining 100 people, or it’s just you and the cat – if there’s a cooler with drinks, it’s a party. Oh, snap.

This one below feels very summery, but it’s a year rounder. Best part is that it’s easy to make, inexpensive, kid-friendly, and your peeps are going to be so impressed at the results. Zero artistic skills required. If you love color and messy fingers, you are going to love this project!


This is the first of many projects you will be seeing from me where you will find all the materials at your local Michael’s store. I am proud to tell everyone that I recently joined Michael’s craft stores as one of their Makers (woot woot!). This is an exciting opportunity for me and I hope you will join myself and the other Makers in the adventure ahead. I have been shopping at Michael’s craft stores since Jesus wore short pants, so this is like coming home for me. The idea that they want to partner with me because they want to reach out to YOU GUYS makes me smile. Gosh, they have great taste in audience, don’t they?

Okay. Back to the bucket!


This party bucket was inspired by this painted tub, one of the many projects you will fine on Michael’s website. This one uses a different technique for getting the paint to work, but you get the idea. Metal safe paint + sandpaper + bucket = awesome.


Materials

Instructions
1. Prep your aluminum bucket by sanding it thoroughly. The paint will not stick if you don’t rough up the surface properly, so really take a few minutes to rub it thoroughly. Move in circles to leave a sub-texture. Or not. Your call….

Next…

2. After squirting some paint onto a disposable plate, dip one finger in the paint and daub it on the bucket. Daub it. Like a finger print — just one single move then BOOP, it’s there. Go back for more paint and make another boop right next to it. Some will be bigger, some will be smaller. Some will be pointy, some will be curvy. Embrace it!

Tip: Pattern Making
For this project, I worked in clusters of 11 boops at a time. After one cluster went down, I laid down another 11 boops right next to it. And another, and another. Eventually the surface will cover and you’ll have to fill the gaps with more or less than 11 boops, but that’s cool.  Keeping most of the clusters consistent in volume helps create a pattern that will look very purposeful. Even if you are not comfortable with painting or basic principles of composition — it’s going to look great. 

Tip: Dry Thoroughly
Be sure to let your paint cure for 48 hours before you stock it full of ice. If you don’t, the sides of the tub will build up condensation and that could mess with your paint. I experimented with this a bit, so trust me…just give it a good 48 hours and then you’ll be set to party.  

Bonus Craft
When you are done painting your bucket and find extra paint on your palette, don’t throw it away! Use that paint to swipe doodle over a box or blank envelope. Michael’s sells blank white gift bags in quantity –  you could make a whole closet full of these. Collapsible boxes are great because you can hoard them all year and then you’ll be stocked for Christmas. 

Those skinny boxes in the middle are perfect for giving away cookies  – they are actually aluminum foil boxes that I store up under the sink. Do I sound like a hoarder? Yeah. You got me. But I got you come Christmas!

Lord, why are we talking about Christmas when it’s summertime and the gorgeous weather has barely even begun? Let’s go outside…


The party is on. You bring the bean dip, and text me when you are on the way. If I don’t see you there, have a great weekend!

BTW, check out some of the other inspiring projects coming from other Michael’s Makers and their brand new blog, The Glue String. If you decide to pick up some items while you are over there, use the promo code 50MEMORIES for 50% off one regular priced item. Free shipping on orders over $50.

Flamingo Cake Toppers for Under A Buck

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It’s official: Flamingos are The Unofficial Bird of 2014.

They are pink. They are rad. They are everywhere.

I’d like to think this is because of my 2013 flamingo Christmas tree (thanks again to all who participated in the exchange!) but I think the rightful origin of this trend is just good old fashioned common sense. Flamingos have always been the biggest badass bird running, it just took people a while to hop on the flamboyance wagon. (PS: A flock of flamingos is called a flamboyance) (PPS: here’s 20 more fun facts about flamingos in case you need to brush up)(don’t you get annoyed when bloggers use parenthetical statements side-by-side?)(I hate that!)

What was I saying? Oh cupcakes!

Do you need an easy, non-flammable, totally festive cake topper FOR UNDER A BUCK?

Yeah, you do.

You can buy a package of 18 of these awesome honeycomb flamingo drinking straws at Dollar Tree. For a dollar. One. One dollar. They also carry pineapple straws (The Unofficial Fruit of 2014), but the flamingo situation is off the hook! I went in for a can opener and came out with all kinds of flamingo themed goodies (see here). High snaps to Dollar Tree for delivering to flamingo crazies like me, but if you don’t have Dollar Tree stores in your area, you can also find some similar beauties here.

The straws come multicolored in the pack. This one had five red and white straws so that’s what I used for the photos here. Because it makes pretty like that. I’m not going to say what happened to the other 13 blue/green/yellow and white straws from the package, but let’s just say there was onion dip and a gal named Margarita involved.

Flamingos and chocolate y’all: it’s a winner!

 

 

Two Tone Clothespin Mirror

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Last week I mentioned I started dyeing clothespins. It was weirdly cathartic. I haven’t had a lot of time for craftasticness the last couple of months so the act making stuff pretty by letting stuff sit in plastic cups rubbed me the right way. In fact, it rubbed me so right, I made 300 of them.

Three hundred.
Do you have a use for 300 clothespins?

Yep, no. Neither do I. SO let’s do what we do best and glue them a mirror and call it a day. K?

K!   


You won’t even believe how easy this is. You’ll make one and then it’s be so rad you’ll want to make ten and give them to everyone you know. Look at you!

The fun part is dyeing the clothespins — you’ll want to check out my tutorial over on Ilovetocreate.com for that. After you are done dyeing and drying, it’s nothing but ten minutes of hot glue glory, baby.



Notes…

*It took me 48 pegs to cover the frame of an 11″ mirror. Your needs will depend on the size and how far in you want the pegs to cover the mirror, but you get the picture.

*Hot glue is fine for most surfaces, but if your base is plastic or metal, consider using tile adhesive instead.

* To keep the pegs from bunching up, make sure each peg points to the exact center of the circle (think of the second dashes around the rim of a clock). This might mean that your pegs lay with tiny gaps in between. I’m fine with this but if your frame base is not so pretty, consider painting it first. 

*I laid my clothespins on their side with the tips pointing in. If you laid them flat and alternated their placement, you could turn this from a mirror into a memo board. Holla!

* Some folks commented after the first tutorial that they have a hard time reassembling the clothespins after they have been separated from the spring. I also found this difficult until I looked at a finished/ready-made/loaded clothespin as an example to figure out where the prongs and stuff went. However, if you are dyeing the pins just to get a frame situation like this, there really is no reason you need to bother with the spring at all; just lay the little peg-halves out side-by-side. Nobody will notice the spring is missing and it’ll still look super cool. We to be lazy AND awesome. Go you!
 

I can’t decide where to put it.

One last time: Pop over to I Love to Create to see how easy it is to dye clothespins. Let the fun begin!

Dinnerware Gone Rogue: How to Hang a Plate Wall

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By my calculations, based on my age and fondness for food, I have consumed somewhere in the arena of 37,230 meals. Minus that post-breakup month I ate nothing but ice cream and wine slushies (don’t you judge me), that comes to 37,200 occasions for plates. And if I had my druthers, I would have taken each one of those meals on a different piece of dinnerware; breakfast on a green plate, lunch on the orange. One day striped, one day leopard. Did you know it is a scientific fact that spaghetti tastes better on polka dots?

It’s true. I know these things.

My blue-and-white ceramics collection hit a growth spurt last year, but as much as I like old timey pieces, I have to divide my menagerie of china dinner plates into three different stacks; one for the everyday dishwasher-safe plates, one for more delicate hand-wash only plates, and one for really pretty plates that were too cheap to pass up but too loaded with lead-paint to eat off. With all that fuss, it’s kinda nice to have an all-occasion alternative. Enter: melamine…

See these plates? They are melamine. And not like the crappy picnic gear type of melamine that gets scratched and scuffed up in the dishwasher – I mean heavy-duty, all season, all occasion melamine. Gorgeous patterns – quality materials. When Q Squared told me they wanted to sponsor a post and send me a box of samples, I was excited to see them in person…then they arrived and I felt them in my hands…then I squealed for a sec…then I decided to test out the endurance by dropping them on the floor. And by dropping I mean throwing, but whatever, you can see for yourself.

Yeah. This ain’t your grandma’s china.

I mean, your grandma’s china is awesome and all, but you probably have to be really delicate about it and only bring it out on special occasions, right? Yeah. This, this ain’t that. This stuff is meant to last. Indoors, outdoors, in between. You could be all rustic and stuff and camp with it. Look at you, being fancy and stuff in the wilderness. Get down, you. Get down!

Okay. So, since Q Squared was kind enough to send me these samples and offer a giveaway for y’all (more on that in a minutes) I thought it would be nice to show off the product since they all sorta mix-and-match without being matchy-matchy. Don’t you love that? I love that. It’s like Garanimals for dinnerware.  


Okay, now let’s talk about plate walls for a sec. Plate walls are awesome, but if you have ever tried to hang one you know they can get out of hand in a hurry. Will the hanger hold? Where do I put the nail? How do I get them hung up so they don’t look stupid?

Let’s break this down.

Will the hanger hold?
Yes. People have been hanging plates on the wall since caveman times (for real!) so I think you will be okay. You can buy individual spring-mount plate hangers at any craft or framing supply store (many dollar stores as well) but they are bulky and can get expensive. Instead, I like to buy these little adhesive hangers that stick to the back after activating the adhesive with a little water. They are inexpensive (maybe five for a dollar?) and if/when you decide you want the plates off the wall and back in circulation, you just soak them for an hour and the adhesive disappears. Nifty, right? Since these plates are melamine, which is non-porous, I am reinforcing the adhesive with a piece of duct tape, just to be safe. I’m not worried about them falling off the wall, but even if they did, no biggy, they don’t break. Winning. 

Where do I put the nail?
Salon walls (fancy name for art clusters) can be really frustrating to hang up. Some folks like to lay stuff out on the ground and make newspaper templates, and that’s nice, but way too fussy for me. I just like to start with the big pieces first, hang them, then fill in with smaller items as I see fit. Getting the nails in the right spot is the hard part, but luckily, I have a trick. All you need is— and you are going to love this – toothpaste.

Flip the piece around and dab some toothpaste on  the spot where the nail will go, then hold the piece against the wall exactly where you want to hang it. Then push. Hard. Hard enough that the toothpaste will come off on the wall – THAT SPOT is where you put the nail. After the nail is up you can wipe away the toothpaste with a wet sponge. Or not. It’s toothpaste – it ‘s not hurting anybody.

How do I get them hung up so they don’t look stupid?

A few things…

  1. Cluster. Unless you have 100 plates, don’t try to fill the whole wall, just create a composition in the middle of a wall, or anchored above a piece of furniture. Sometimes I see people scatter 10 plates on a giant wall and they all look kinda lonely; instead, try hanging them all together. Like a party. A plate party.
  2. Balance. For a random-yet-balanced formation, start with your biggest plate and hang it toward the bottom off-center of the area in question. Next grab two small plates and hang them immediately next door. Now you have a cluster of three and things look good in threes. Start another cluster of three nearby, then fill in the bridge and build out as you see fit. Spacing is your call, but I suggest trying to hang them between 3”-9” apart. More than that and the plate patterns won’t talk to each other, which makes for a lame party.
  3. Pattern. Do you have three red plates? Or two flowered blue plates? Space them apart. Our eyes are automatically trained to seek out patterns – spacing out items of similar shape and color will force the eye to travel. If all your plates are of a similar size and color, add some contrast. Here I added a few flat wicker baskets to the composition just as an easy way to add contrast to all the bright and vivid patterns with glossy surfaces. You could easily do the same with plain white plates, or some other visual “neutral.”   
  4. Relax. The great thing about a plate wall is that if you don’t like it, you can take them down and eat dinner.  Big whoop.

*sidebar: Where to hang things on a blank wall. Plates, art, hooks, whatever…
Do you get really intimidated by the thought of hanging thing sin the wrong place on the wall? Here is a tip; decide where you want to hang it, mark it with a pencil, then put a nail 10″ directly below that. Erase the pencil mark. Hang your picture. That’s it. If you think that’s too low, you’re wrong, it’s not. Nothing makes art look cheap and common like hanging it high up. And don’t follow some old rule about 5feet 8inches or whatever either — that’s crap. It’s all about proportion, and most of us proportion too damn high. Aim lower. You’re welcome. 

    I probably shouldn’t call these unbreakable. If you ran over one with a truck, or threw one off a highrise, it would probably break. But that would be at least 10 quality minutes of cathartic release, and a helluva lot cheaper than therapy. So it’s still a total bargain. 

    Also. You see that leaf platter? I’m crazy about it. You could serve scrambled eggs and cat food on that thing and it would still look sassy. Now that’s quality! Shop around and see what you like. Bonus 20% off discount when you use the promo code AuntPeaches.  

    The folks at Q Squared want to give you this awesome piece – the enormous Montecito red platter and three coordinating appetizer plates. I don’t know if you can tell, but the platter is huge. You could easily serve a turkey on there, or layout one bad mamajama of a crudité veggie platter. It also looks really good with my regular blue and white china, and with a black and white stripe napkins. Just sayin.

    To enter the giveaway leave a comment below answering the following question;

    What is the best meal you ever ate?* (brownie points for anyone who can remember anything about the plate it was served upon).

    Comments close Friday, March 21, 2014, 5pm CST. Comments are now closed. Winner chosen at random. If your email is not linked to your profile, please mention it in your comment as well just to be safe. One entry per person, please.

    When you are done, hop on over to see what’s cooking at Q Sqaured, or better yet, take a moment to like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter or Instagram.

    Reverse Stenciling with Rubber Cement

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    Some women have a thing for shoes – I have a thing for cheap art. Thrift store art. I buy anything in a nice looking frame. If it’s under $5 and it’s in a nice frame, it comes home with me. This is how I end up with a basement that looks like the island of misfit frames. They just sit there looking at me all, FILL ME NOW! HANG ME UP! And I’m all, Y’all. Chill.

    I know there are plenty of crafty folks who would take the frame and paint some abstract art piece just to match a sofa, and that’s cool, but I think it’s nice to honor the integrity of the original piece. Find a way to layer new and old, straight and squiggled, tradition and non-conformity. Can you dig that?

    Plus it’s just a really fun way to kill and afternoon and break out the stencils. When was the last time you hung out with stencils anyway? 

    –That’s right. Too damn long.


    That geisha lady didn’t know what hit her. Last time she was hanging on a wall it was in some granny dinning room with linen napkins and a china cabinet….next thing she woke up in crazy town with a glittered giraffe and a chandelier of disco balls.


    The best part of this technique is, you can’t mess this up. No really. You can’t. You mess it up, just go and mess it up more until you get tired. Then slap some gold on there and call it a day. Bam.

    AND! You don’t need much to get on the party train…

    Materials:

    • One old piece of thrift store art (removed from frame)
    • Stencil (this polka dot one courtesy of Mod Podge Rocks – check out her new line)
    • Rubber cement and rubber cement eraser (fingers will work if needed)
    • Watercolors
    • Brush/ water


    1. Lay your stencil randomly on the surface of the artwork and brush on the rubber cement (same as you would paint). Wait a few seconds and peel away the stencil. Repeat as you see fit, covering the surface of the art. Or not. You could do a little, you could do a lot. You are the decision maker here. Exciting!

    2. After all the rubber cement is dry (heavy bits may take a minute or two) paint the entire canvas with a thin layer of watercolor paint (acrylic works too — just not oil based paint). I like watercolor because I can layer a few different colors then tilt the canvas so it gets these nifty drip marks, but that’s your call. You do you.

    3. When the paint is 100% dry (not even a teensy bit damp – 100% dry or it’ll rip) rub the eraser over any area that has been stenciled  and watch the magic unfurl!


    Areas covered with the rubber cement will remain unpainted, revealing a pattern of old, unexposed art peeing through the new layer of paint. Yeah. It’s pretty rad.

    Pro Tip: Look for artwork on porous paper. Nothing fancy, but gloss coated paper will probably not take to paint as well. Look for older, more absorbent paper.

    Pro tip: When you are all done, don’t try to wash the rubber cement off the stencil, just let it dry then rub it off with your fingers. It’ll look like boogers and your hands will look all zombie like, but that’s half the fun!

    Disclosure: The stencil featured in this project is came to me courtesy of the designer, my pal Amy at Mod Podge Rocks. She just launched a whole line of nifty things at Michael’s. Because she’s cool like that. I was gawking at them at last weekend — check ’em out!