DIY

Leaf Print Pillowcases

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!

DIY Pom Pom Garland Necklace

by aunt peaches 10 Comments

I have never met a pom pom I didn’t like. Big, small, round, floppy…doesn’t matter. If it vaguely resembles a pom pom or a tassel I will be on it like white on rice. True story: I met a woman at an event a couple weeks ago who was wearing a the raddest pom pom necklace and I instantly liked her. Thing was, after ten minutes of conversation it became clear that she was actually a dirtbag, like a really awful sort of human being, but because of her necklace, I still had to like her. Isn’t that bizarre? That is the power of pom poms. That is also why I went home and made a similar DIY version for myself.

If you saw my tassel necklaces from last summer you might already know how I made this. It could not be easier. Just a little embroidery floss and some beads and BAM. It’s ready to wear!

Materials
Embroidery Floss
Beads + Twine (You can also use a readymade necklace)

Instructions

1. Cut embroidery floss in half.
2. Tie off each bundle directly down the center, secure with a knot, and snip the ends.
3. String beads to the desired length (the necklace here is 25″)
4. Tie pom poms to the strand at random intervals.

The pom pom making can be done in about 15 minutes. The hard part here is stringing the beads, especially if you are like me and chose super small beads. If anyone knows a source for buying readymade wooden bead necklaces in bulk (like Mardi Gras necklaces but wooden), holler. I scoured the internet and could not find anything that did not require stringing or re-stringing. Can you tell how lazy I am by my resistance to string beads? Listen: the struggle is real.

And there you have it, and all-season, all-occasion, Rad As All Get Out, pom pom necklace. Enjoy!

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!

Hot Pink Geometry

by aunt peaches 4 Comments

Confession: It’s late January and I’m still not over Christmas. I don’t care if yesterday was MLK Day, I’m not past my yuletide cheer. The boxes have been put away for a couple weeks now but I set aside a few goodies to get me through the winter. Listen, a gal needs her sparkles!

I bought this chandelier (I call her “Mrs. Snow” because that isn’t creepy at all) three years ago. And as much as she makes my heart happy all by her sparky self, now seems as a good of a time as any to give her a modern makeover. Some hot pink geometric hemmili ornaments? Why the hell not.

When I made these ornaments last december for my funky junk tree, I assumed they would be hard to store and therby I might want to make enough to turn into a full scale himmeli (see the one I made in 2012) but then things took a different turn. As much as a love the geometric shapes on their own, I love them even more when mixed into something goofy and sparkled up.

To Make
Each ornament (lets call them that for now as I don’t know the correct geometric name) (feel fee ego chime in the comments if you know), requires 5 drinking straws and about two yards of fine gage wire. I have seem himmeli tutorials pop up all over the web the last couple years, and they are great, but they all use a needle and thread, which is awesome, but it will take you twice as long. Easily. Do yourself a favor and get some fine gage wire (mine here is a 28) you’ll thank me for that one.

I mentioned the part about tucking the wire tails inside if you want the shape to stand alone like mine. If you want to hang them from a tree or tie them together into a larger structure, go for it! Luckily, I didn’t have to tie anything onto the chandelier – I just slipped them over the bulbs and that was it. It may not look Christmas, but I can feel the Christmas, and that is enough to get me through January. That and Downtown Abbey.

Got the bug to make something awesome with straws? Here are the instructions for the decahedron himmeli I made in 2012. It’s a great way to kill an afternoon!

Painted Gift Bags

by aunt peaches 22 Comments

Remember that time when you had nothing else to do two weeks before Christmas and spent hours lovingly painting gift wrap for your friends and family?

No?

Hmmm….well, remember that time you freaked out because you were leaving town and instead of doing your work you went into a manic surge of creative energy and stayed up half the night painting gift wrap for friends and family?

WELL I DO.

Truth is, I don’t even have all that many gifts to wrap, I’m stockpiling in general. I keep my paper shopping bags under the sink (in a paper sorter, fyi) and then every time I’m about to rinse off a paint brush, which is more often that you’d think, (occupational hazard), I swipe the leftover paint over a bag or two. Then months later, when inspiration strikes, there is already a base for adding more color and pattern.

Most of the bags started out as paper shopping bags, but a couple are actual gift bags from the dollars store. This is how they start out…

This is how they finish…

The one on the left is called Christmas Leopard. I’m shocked they aren’t selling this pattern by the bolt. Someone, please, let’s get on this! Holiday animal prints could really be a thing. I have it on good authority that Santa loves leopard print. Also, Santa loves glitter. So you know we had to hit that.

Here is the process in action. If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen this one already…

These @crateandbarrel shopping bags never saw it coming.

A video posted by Peaches (@aunt_peaches) on Dec 12, 2014 at 10:14am PST

I also made some boxes, but boxes are bad for traveling, so these will be staying home. ‘Til next year little boxes!

And the bonus is, THEY LOOKS REALZ GOOD UNDER MY FLAMINGO TREE.

Stay tuned. More on the flamingo front later!

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