Stamped Paint Designs

Here’s a quick little how-to for painting a simple stamped design, such as my dots, on a wall.

 

 

For the large dot,  I used a rubber stamp from a Stampin’ Up set.  It’s 1.25” in diameter.

 

 

I used this same stamp in Pinkerbelle’s previous rooms for the dot detail on the scallop.  Each time,  I used latex paint.  I found that rather than dipping the stamp in the paint, it worked best to use a small paint brush to apply the paint to the stamp before each application on the wall.

When stamping the wall, push the stamp straight down and pull straight back up.  Do not wiggle it.  The paint creates quite a bit of suction between the stamp and the wall, so finding the right technique can be a bit tricky.  I recommend starting behind a door.  For the two dot design, I went around the whole room with the large dot and then went back and did the small.

 

 

However, I made a discovery this time that worked very well.  I did not have a smaller dot stamp and I ended up making my own rather than buying one.  I picked up this package of foam stickers for a couple bucks at Walmart  (I got flowers because they did not have circles).

 

I trimmed off a couple of the petals and applied them to the back of another stamp.  I put one on top of the other just to give it a little more height off the wood block.  Now obviously if they had had circles in the right size I would have used that instead of going to the extra step of trimming the flowers.

 

 

What I discovered is that the foam stamp was easier to use.  I could just dip it in the paint, skipping the paintbrush step, and it applied and came back off the wall much more easily than the rubber stamp.  My guess is that because the foam is soft and has air pockets, it did not create suction like the rubber.  I had to be careful about breaking the suction of the rubber stamp, so it wouldn’t slide in the paint and distort the image.  Probably you will not understand what I’m saying just by reading this, but suffice to say that the small dots went much more quickly than the large.

If I ever do this again, I think I’ll just use foam stamps, either using a premade shape (in fact, the flowers would be cute), or cutting my own.  I do think a simple rather than intricate shape would work best.

You could use this technique to add some cute detail to your child’s room.  Using acrylic paint would give you lots of color options very inexpensively, and you could use scraps of wood for your stamp block.  Let me know if you try it!

Have a great weekend!

---

Safe Ornament Storage

I have an idea that most of us who haven't already done it will be taking down the Christmas decorations this weekend.  Up until now, I have always stored my Christmas ornaments in their original boxes, inside a Rubbermaid bin.  However, every year it was getting progressively less organized and the original boxes more banged up.  I know they sell ornament storage boxes, but I got looking online and found an interesting project from Martha Stewart.

She suggests making your own ornament storage box with cups. Since I already had the bins, I decided to give this a try.  Notice how Martha's is perfectly square and fits perfectly in the box, and is even color-coordinated.  Well, I'm not Martha.

I cut a piece of cardboard to fit the bottom of my bin, and hot glued cups to it.  Super easy, although the cups I used did not allow for a perfect fit, and I had to stagger them.  These are 16oz cups, and they had smaller ones, so maybe either just the smaller ones or a combination of the two would fit more snugly.  My bin allowed for a second layer of cups-on-cardboard.

Then I started wrapping my ornaments in tissue paper, and setting them in the cups.

Even though these pine cones were just 2/$1 at Dollar Tree, I really like them and would hate for them to get broken.  I think they are pretty secure in their little individual nests.

I was able to get a few extra cups on the top layer since the bin widens a bit at the top.  In total, there are 39 cups.  There's still some head room, so I will put in another piece of cardboard and store things on top of that.  Another Martha suggestion is to use egg cartons for smaller ornaments, and they would easily fit.

I think I will be pleasantly surprised when I get out the ornaments next year and find them so well organized!

Thrifty Gifty 2010 #2: Canning Jar Soap Dispenser

 

Lest anyone is mistaken, I need to say from the outset that most of my Thrifty Gifty ideas are not original with me.  So just think of me as your Thrifty Gifty dissemination center.  That being said, I saw this one in Country Living magazine.

You’ll need a mason jar with lid (preferably one of the old zinc lids), and a soap pump.  All of these are pretty common at thrift stores.  You might have a little trouble finding a zinc lid if you’re doing this last minute, but they are easy to find and don’t cost much on ebay.  The project takes about 2 minutes to make, so even if the lid arrived in the mail the night before the gift-giving event, you’d have time.

I bought this soap pump for $1 at Goodwill, just for the pump part.

I have several aqua Ball jars with zinc lids that I got for $1 each a while ago.  However, they are quart jars and too big for this project, I felt.  So I used a newer pint jar (also from the thrift store, about 25c) and one of the old lids.  The old lids fit the new jars!  Now that’s great planning on the part of the Ball jar co.

Drill a 1/2” hole in the middle of the lid. Trim the pump if needed. Put it all together.  Done.

Much nicer.  I don’t have a problem using dish soap for washing my hands, plus this is supposed to be the “hand renewal” kind.

 

You could give this with a basket of other kitchen items, like cute dishtowels and fancy ruffled rubber gloves (you could probably make those yourself, too).

Country Living used an vintage aqua jar, and I would have if I had a pint-sized one, though I think I would want white or clear dish soap for that.

And just because it doesn’t merit a post of its own:  a few months ago, you may remember, I won a gift certificate to CSN Stores.  I used it to get this pendant for over the sink to replace the boob light that was there.  Love it!  And if you think my sink area is always this tidy, I’ve got news for you.

Thrifty Gifty 2010 #1: Monster Pillow

All right, here we go!  I’m being a little less strict with myself for this year’s TG series.  If I want to skip a day and do a post about something else, I will.  My goal is at least 5 TG posts.  I pretty much had to go into therapy after last year’s series, and I’d like to avoid that burnout this year.  So let’s just have fun!  BTW, there are at least 15 TG posts from last year that would still work as gifts this year!

This wasn’t announced previously, but I’m going to do an impromptu linky party today.  Add a link to your post with your inexpensive homemade gift idea.  If you want to use a post from last year so as not to reveal this year’s gift, that’s fine.  I’ll also have another TG party next Monday.

Today’s idea is perfect for children of all ages.  The original idea came from an older Family Fun magazine.  Skippy saw it and wanted one, so I whipped one up for him.  Meet Germie (as named by S.), the monster pillow.  He’s cuddly, tactile, cute, and each one can be unique.  You could tuck treats or notes in the pocket, and use it when the tooth-fairy visits.



This was totally free for me because I found some old corduroy pants that had seen better days, a scrap of denim, my button stash, and used the stuffing from an unwanted throw pillow.  You could go buy fabric at the store, which would give you more choice, but cost more.  Or you could find usable clothing items at the thrift stores.  A bag of polyfil for stuffing would cost around $5, and be enough for quite a few of these.

I was really free-flowing with this and didn’t use a pattern or anything.  I just cut out a random shape, front and back.  Make sure to make it at least 1/2” bigger than you want it all the way around for the seam allowance. It’s easiest to cut them out at the same time, but you need lay the fabric layers right-sides together when you cut.  You just want to end up with two mirror-image pieces.

Note:  the following step needs to be done before you sew the front and back together.

For the pocket/mouth, cut out a big U-shape of a contrasting fabric.  Hem across the straight edge with the sewing machine.  Then pin it to the front of one of your body pieces.  I hand whip-stitched around the curved edge to attach it, but if you want to machine sew it, you can.



Now sew the eyes on.  I layered buttons.  If this is for a young child who might potentially choke on buttons, you could embroider the eyes.



Next, put your front and back together, with right sides together, and pin around the edges.  Sew all the way around, leaving about a 3” opening to that you can turn it right-side out and stuff.  It can be helpful to use a chopstick or something like that to get the stuffing in all the corners.  Once it’s stuffed, hand-stitch the opening closed.

I didn’t know I would be posting about this, so I don’t have any in-progress photos.  Family Fun still has their instructions available if you need further visuals.  (For reference, Germie is about 11” from top to bottom…naturally, you can make yours whatever size you want.)

You may very well be able to make a Germie pillow for free.  If you have to buy clothing articles at the thrift store, it will cost a few dollars, but you should be able to make more than one pillow out of an adult pair of pants.  Even if you go buy the materials at the fabric store, I think you could get two pillows out of 1/2 yard of fabric.  My point is, it’s cheap to make!



If you have an inexpensive handmade gift to share, I’d love for you to link up with the post!  I’ll leave it open for a few days, until Wed. Dec 8 at 11:59 pm.

You know the drill!

• you must link back to me in your post (I can’t find the button code, so if you want to include the button, use it like a photo, but still include my link)
• link to your specific party post, and not your general home page
• please be polite and visit several other participants and leave a nice comment
• I will delete entries that don’t link back to me or do not fit the party theme; I don’t want to be a meanie, but we gotta play fair

Fun Project: Print Your Own Wrapping Paper

A couple of weeks ago, Pinkerbelle had a birthday party to attend, and it wasn’t until the last minute that I realized I didn’t have any appropriate wrapping paper for the gift.  I did have a roll of plain white, but that seemed a little boring.

So, I got out some of my rubber stamps and ink, and let P. create a pattern on the white paper.  Because I’m a control freak, I guided her use of colors and stamps, otherwise it would have been a complete mish-mash.  Though I guess there’s nothing really wrong with that.

.

We did purple and green polka dots, with lavender “It’s Your Day” interspersed throughout.  I sold most of my stamps on ebay a few years ago, so I didn’t have too many available choices.

Nevertheless, tied up with a purple ribbon (didn’t take a photo), it made a cute package, and P. was proud of her work.

I have done this a few times in the past; once when Firstborn was a preschooler, I let him run the wheels of his toy cars in paint and roll them across brown mailing paper.  It was perfect for his little car-loving friend’s birthday gift.  Another time I used a 1/2” paint brush and blue paint to paint a gingham design on white paper for a small baby shower gift.

It’s fun and unique.  It would be a great little project for the kids to design wrapping paper for a few special Christmas gifts.  You could use ideas similar to mine, make potato stamps, hand prints, finger print characters a la Ed Emberley… the possibilities are endless.

Have fun!

What I Did With the Frame

So, I got this huge frame at a consignment store for $2.50.  I took out the picture and painted the frame Heirloom White.  (I actually don’t think the artwork is too bad, but I was looking for a frame, not artwork.)



I cut a big old bulletin board to fit and covered that with burlap, then Craig attached it to the frame (okay, well he did the cutting too).  Now I have a big awesome bulletin board for school schedules and lunch menus, etc.



The kids’ school went to a system this year of labeling the days A-E instead of Mon-Fri.  That way if there’s a day off, they just pick up where they left off instead of skipping Art or whatever.  The problem is, each child has a different class on each day, and we never know what day it is.  So I printed out A-E and will keep moving the purple push-pin over, and hopefully that will keep us on track.



This is part of my information hallway just inside the garage door.  One of my first blog projects was the magnetic chalkboard that hangs on the other side.  It’s also made out of a old frame ; see this post for info on that project.



 
 

I’m linking this up with CSI Project’s Ballard Designs Challenge.

My corkboard is a pretty good replica of Ballard’s Madison Corkboard, at $199 plus shipping, plus $15 oversized fee for the one closest in size to mine.

Monogrammed (Thrift Store) Vases

 I originally posted this project back in December as part of my Thrifty Gifty series.  I'm reviving it today for the CSI Project.

For this one you will need vases or other glassware. Naturally, I got mine at the thrift store for about $1 each. You will also need Frosted Glass Spray; I used Rustoleum.

I used a craft knife to cut my letters out of contact paper.  It would be easier to use premade stickers, but I didn't have any at the time.

Cover any parts of the vase that you do not want frosted.  Spray lightly a few times, let it dry, and carefully peel off the stickers. Fabulousness!

Wanna see it again? Yes, I think you do.  For the vase with the H, I used the same method in negative (cut the letter out of the contact paper and then stick the sheet of paper to the vase and spray).

If you look closely, you can see that a little bit of the frost peeled up with the sticker on the bar of the A. Be really careful, and maybe even use your craft knife to slice along the edge of the sticker before you peel it up.

I think mine are a pretty good facsimile of these from Pottery Barn, except instead of $19-$44, I spent under $2 each.

The spray says you can handwash with liquid soap and water, but don’t use the dishwasher. The frost comes off with acetone, and I was able to scrape it with my fingernail so it’s definitely “for display only”. But it looks good!

Pottery Barn Knock-Off Party!!

I now host a Pottery Barn, Ballard Designs, Restoration Hardware Knock-Off  Party every last Thursday of the month.  See this post for more details.  I hope you will join me!

It’s time to par-tay!! Those of you with Pottery Barn taste but a thrift store budget are invited to link up with your handmade Pottery Barn knock-offs. Use an old post if you have to, but I know there’s a lot of you out there who, like me, use the PB catalog as a source of inspiration rather than a shopping guide.

My project for today was inspired by a trip to the actual store, but I couldn’t find it in the catalog or online. Fortunately, I had my camera with me (is that allowed? I wasn’t really sure, so I used it surreptitiously).
These moss topiaries were all over the store, both round and cone shaped.



They had a burlap-and-twine wrapped base. I didn’t look at the price, since at the time I didn’t know this would be my project, but I’m guessing they were more than the $2-$3 I spent.



First stop: Dollar Tree, where I picked up floral foam blocks and a couple of packages of moss. DT only sells teeny-tiny foam balls, and a big one even at Walmart is nearly $3, so I had to shape these myself, because I’m so cheap frugal.



After cutting of the corners and edges with a knife, I used a file to shape.



I originally thought I would just coat the foam with ModPodge and roll it in the moss, but that didn’t work very well at all. I ended up using spray adhesive to pack the moss on.



Then I had Craig cut some chunks of wood for me and drill a hole in them. Because I’m such a procrastinator, he did it last night while he really wanted to be watching “24”, and it was getting late and I needed to get this post up, so I only got two finished.



After adding a twig from the back yard, and wrapping the base in burlap, I was finished, and now I have a little touch of nature for my home.



Now, I’m dying to see what fabulousness you came up with!
1. Enter the link to your specific PB Knock-off post, not your blog homepage.
2. Please use my button in your post (code is on my top right sidebar). If you use the code, the button will link back to my blog; if you don’t use the code, you will also need to include a link back to me.
3. Please visit the other party participants and leave them a comment.
4. Please put your link in the comments section as well, just in case.
(I'm also going to link up with DIY Day at Kimba's)