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Showing posts from September, 2014

Spray Painted Plastic Flower Pot Refresh

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I'm still crazy busy with school this semester.  So here's another quick project.  I grabbed a couple of sad looking flower pots that were the same shape and size but were two different colors and totally beaten up.  I took the drain tray off the bottoms and washed dirt off of the pots. Next I grabbed a few cardboard boxes and a can of black spray paint and went out onto the deck and gave them several coats.  Thin coats work the best on plastic, so don't be discouraged if it doesn't look like it's covering right away, just let it dry and keep on putting coats on until it's a good solid color. Since it's fall here, I picked up some matching mums to plant in my newly refreshed flower pots, but the local Home Depot was pretty picked over and these sad plants look a bit like weeds right now. Hopefully with a little TLC I'll have have some flowers that look as nice as my newly painted pots!

Alcohol Ink Terra Cotta Pot

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The Fall semester is in full swing.  I have a full load of classes and papers are coming in, so what's the best medicine? Why a quick craft of course! Back when I was painting my ombre terra cotta pots , I found one that I had painted silver (by hand with craft paint), but it was beginning to chip and look a little sad in places, so I grabbed some silver spray paint and gave it a good coat to shine things up. After my pot was painted, I set out my craft mat and grabbed my alcohol inks . I didn't want to overwhelm the pot with color, and I didn't know how well the ink would work on this surface, so I decided to just color the rim of the pot and see how it looked. I picked out some bright complimentary colors and dotted them on to my applicator.  Then I applied them around the rim and onto the top edge of the pot.  To avoid the colors getting muddied and mixing, I grabbed a second piece of felt and dabbed on some colors to brighten and fill in what I h

Fall Pen Bouquet

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Last week I posted about making some ombre painted terra cotta pots .  In a quest to find something useful to use them for (since they are kinda small for putting plants in for any length of time), I decided to make a pen bouquet. I have made these in the past.  They make great gifts for administrative assistants, receptionists, or anyone who works someplace where people steal your pens, but they are so cute, inexpensive, and easy to make, that you can easily make one for your own desk at home too. You'll need: silk flowers a wire snipper stick pens with caps removed green floral tape a pot gems or river rocks Start by cutting your silk flowers off of their bunches. I used a pliers that had a wire cutter built in, but anything capable of cutting wire should work. Leave a stem (at least a couple of inches long, but no longer than your pens) and if they have leaves, remove them or push them up to the flower's base. My flowers had the kind of leaves th

Craft Update: Mod Podge Dyed Mason Jars

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Last year I tried my hand at a project that was floating around the internet-- dying mason jars different colors using food coloring and Mod Podge.  It worked pretty well.  I was able to dye a jar a lovely shade of purple by mixing food coloring with Mod Podge and swirling it around and letting it dry, but over the past year, the color has been slowly changing.  By this summer, it has turned into a lovely shade of teal--all of the red food coloring has faded away.  I'm not sure if the HyVee food coloring I used is to blame, or if it's a liquid food coloring problem.  The jar is still pretty, even though it's a completely different color, but I thought I'd share this bizarre transformation with you all.  Anyone else try this project and have something similar happen?

Ombre Terra Cotta Pots

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I was digging through my old flower pots looking for something to plant some seedlings I had been growing in, and also looking for a new project, when I stumbled onto some small terra cotta pots.  I decided to spray paint them some bright colors, but I didn't know how to make them special or unique.  I decided to try an ombre effect with the spray paint. Like most of my projects, I had no idea how it would turn out. I started by placing my pot inside a cardboard box. I sprayed one with a base color of bright purple and the other with a base color of orange (almost the same color as the terra cotta, but a bit brighter). I gave them each their own box since I was spraying them such different colors. After a couple light coats with the pots turned over, I flipped them and painted the rim and just around the top of edge of the container.  I knew that whatever I used them for, I probably wouldn't need the bottom inside to be well coated, so I focused on the top an

Craft Update: Gerber Daisy Wreath

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Back in May I made a wreath out of some daisies that I dyed with alcohol ink to make a cute summer wreath.  It's been hanging on my front door for most of the summer and has faded to more end of summer hues.  I thought I'd post some before (on the left) and after the summer (on the right) photos so folks could see how the alcohol ink fades in the sun.  The pictures aren't all that different, but in person, the hues have become a bit more muddied in color and lighter as they were set in with the sun.  Overall it did pretty well considering I have had it hanging in the sun (although on the north side of our house) for 4 months pretty much non-stop. 

Alcohol Ink Trivets

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I found out that 6x6 porcelain tiles only cost 48 cents at Home Depot, so I had to buy a couple and alcohol ink them up. I laid out all of my alcohol inking stuff on a craft mat and got to work.  For this first one, I played around with bright colors and a can of air. I started out with all similar colors and then decided to spice things up a bit. I had a ton of fun using the bright colors and watching how the air can moved the ink around.  When using the canned air the ink dries super quick and makes the ink easy to work with--no need to wait for a layer to dry before adding more ink. I layered on lots of brights to fill the tile and jazz things up a bit. After I was satisfied with all of the colors, I tried my hand at making a landscape.  It was much harder than I thought it would be. I tilted the tile and used rubbing alcohol to lighten up and remove in areas. I used a q-tip dipped in alcohol to clear off the area for the sun and then applied my brightest