Make Something (Metallic Gold)

Have you noticed the gold trend happening right now?

I certainly have. I bought a can of metallic gold spray paint and went to town. Crazy town.

Today I'm sharing a simple way to add some gold to your life without spending the big bucks.

1.  Steal a bowl out of your kitchen and add random dot stickers, making sure to wrap a few around the top lip of the bowl.

2. Spray 2 light coats of paint, letting the paint dry in between.

3. Pull off the dot stickers.

That's it. But I must warn you that you may want to grab more objects to spray gold. Like an empty glass jar. Or 3.

Just saying.

I couldn't bring myself to throw away the gold dots, so I added them to the back of my office chair. Which matches the desk legs that I painted gold. Which matches the letter "B" that I painted gold.

One can of spray paint has made me a very, very happy girl!

Now go make something!

Make Something (Map Letters)

 

I had a bit of fun recently with some giant chipboard letters, map pages, and modge-podge.

 



 

I bought the letters at Hobby Lobby, and ended up going BIG. Like HUGE. They were on sale, so I paid about $2 per letter. I had the Road Atlas from a while back. Picked it up at a Goodwill for around $1. And I always have podge on hand.

 



 

 

I picked out states that had some meaning for me. Arizona (of course), along with Washington, California, and Massachusetts.  Then I traced around the letters, and cut.

 



 

 

Next, a layer of podge to adhere the paper to the chipboard, smoothing out the crinkles and bubbles with my fingers. Then a final coat of the podge to seal the map and add some gloss.

 



 

 

After drying for a day, I added some removable sticky strips and slapped those puppies on the wall. In my kitchen. Why maps in the kitchen?

 



To go along with my globe collection, silly.

Easy Peasy. Just the way I like to get my craft on!

Now go make something and get a little glue on your fingers while you're at it!

Tutorial: Painting Shoes

How to Paint Shoes Yellow.

Please take notes.

1. Buy ugly oatmeal-colored canvas shoes on clearance for under $10.
2. Buy Tulip paint for fabric.
3. Paint shoes with a paintbrush. Only 1 coat needed.
4. Add polka dots to inside by dipping end of paintbrush in paint and dabbing onto shoe.
5. Let paint dry.
6. Pinch yourself. That was super easy! The hardest part was picking the paint color, wasn't it?

If you are a super savvy shopper, you could use a Michael's 40% off coupon, and pay $2.52 for paint.
Now that is a deal!

Do you have any super simple, but cute, craft projects that you want to share with me? You could leave a comment. Just saying.

Stamp Handcarving

Saw this shop, Creatiate, on Etsy. Go check it out. It is totally adorable.

And it made me remember that last March (yes, 5 months ago),  I bought some supplies to try making my own stamp.  But alas, the supplies never even made it out of the Aaron Brother's bag.

Well, I'm thinking that stumbling across this shop was a divine sign. That I should get up off my butt and go create. So, off I went.

First, what to design?  How about a shop logo? Or my initial? Or that chevron that first caught my eye?

See how hard it is to start a project when you can't even pick a simple design? Geesh.

I ended up going with a heart. I drew on the stamp material and then shaved out the areas around my stamp image. The kit came with a small and large tip for shaving. It was pretty simple.  Then it was time to test my stamp.

I decided I would rather have a double heart than a triple, so I just shaved off the outer heart and cleaned up the rest of the stamp a bit.

Nope, now I want a single heart. Shave off the outer heart and now one last test.

It's cute. Nothing fancy, but I like that it's my drawing. My imperfections.

Bottom line: It was super easy and I can see lots of potential. I'm totally going to make more. I think a camera will be next.

Have a happy Wednesday!

Desk Redo

Here's that project I teased you with yesterday. It's my craft desk.

I resurfaced the top of the desk. Saw the idea here  I picked up the multi roll pack of paper tape (1st photo) at Target (around $7) and added 2 rolls of colored duct tape from Lowe's (around $3.50 each). Then I taped, wrapping around the edges. The wider stripes are the duct tape. This took about an hour. Then I added a coat of glossy Mod Podge to help seal the tape. I let it dry overnight.

It turned out super cute. And super easy. And inexpensive. And it looks much better than the messy,old table surface. And I LOVE the pop of shiny color when I come into the room!

I have enough tape left over to resurface Emma's craft table. And maybe something else in the house!

Have a Happy Day! It's almost Friday!