Category: Gift

Chipboard Coaster Scrapbook

4/15/2020

This is a quick project that you can give as a gift with pictures already in it or left empty for the person to fill. They're super cute and itty bitty! Something fun and different to brighten up any day.

Supplies:

Scrapbook paper
Scissors
Pencil
Mod Podge and various glues
Ruler
Embellishments
Chipboard Coasters (available in bulk on Amazon)
Old paintbrush
Binder ring or other option
Sand paper
(I also used a drill but we'll get to why later)

1. The first step for this itty bitty project is gathering all your supplies because there's a lot of potential components. I like to gather everything up that way I have all the supplies necessary near me and ready to go. This is where I picked my color scheme for my scrapbook (I used scraps from my scrap bag) and came up with yellow, grey, and navy. Pretty! I also gathered a pile of random stickers and other embellishments (I had no idea what I would use!).

2. I then traced the coasters onto the backs of the scrapbook paper I would use for the main sheets so I could cut them out to size.

3. I decided the order of the pages that I wanted and laid them out on the coasters. Next, I glued the sheets onto the coasters using the Mod Podge and a paint brush. I did half at a time instead of trying to glue the whole sheet at once, that way I could be more aware of bubbles showing up.

4. Once you glue them all down, go back through and reinforce any loose corners that may be sticking up.

5. Trim any paper that is hanging over the edges and lightly sand the edges so that it molds to the coaster base.

6. Start to plan out your pages by laying out the pieces and parts that you want to include before you officially glue anything down!

7. Mod Podge dries pretty quick so this part of the project will go fast. You can use a hot glue gun for heavier/awkward objects to secure them to the boards.

8. Looks super cute, right?! Well, this is where I realized... oh crap... how do I hold it together?! I looked up some ideas and liked the nonrestrictive binder ring option. But, this meant there needed to be holes for the ring to pass through. I decided to use a drill as this was the only option we had to my knowledge that could accomplish this. I think if I had some sort of press that would have been the way to go! I drilled through and it slightly tore up my paper! Ugg not cool!

I am going to be doing this for an upcoming work program so decided to create holes in all 125 coasters... yay!... that way they are done ahead of time instead of afterwards. Still, I do not think this is the best option... it seems to tear through the chipboard (these are really flimsy chipboard!) and I encourage you to find a better way if possible :) It still turned out cute overall!

Fairy Lantern PB Jar

10/10/2019

I've done this fairy lantern craft before with glass jars and people loved it! They couldn't wait to take it home, show it off, and replicate it with kids/grandkids/friends. I left that night feeling really great about the program and that I helped people create something they fell in love with.

Time for some self-shaming. David, my boyfriend, and I eat a tonnnnn of peanut butter. Like, a tonnnnn, probably way more than we should to be honest. We've actually recently cut down on it but, boy oh boy, do we love us some PB.

On that note, I was getting anxiety over using up so many plastic containers. There had to be something I could use them for! With no plan in mind, I started soaking them, washing them, and de-labeling them meticulously one at a time with no purpose at the end of the tunnel.

Then, the fairy lanterns came into mind. I had done it before with glass and thought, well, why not give it a try... I have plenty more to use if it doesn't work! I gotta say it turned out pretty darn cute. I think it's decently disguised but if I were doing it for myself, or for a gift, I think I would choose to add a lot more moss and other items to disguise it even more. Anywho, the instructions are as follows, happy crafting!

Supplies:

Peanut Butter Jar washed and de-labeled
Tissue paper (I used white but I want to try pastels next)
Cut out fairy or other silhouette on thick paper
Mod Podge
Foam Brush
Glitter
Hot Glue Gun
Moss
Flowers
Paint - green, brown, black
Tape
Battery operated tealight

1. I used a half sheet of tissue paper to cover up the PB jar. Tear your piece off and crinkle it up into a ball. Coat a large area of your PB jar with Mod Podge using the foam brush. Carefully, unravel your tissue paper and lightly lay it into the glue. You don't want to flatten it out completely because you want the crinkle to stay in the paper. Continue to do this so the entire jar is covered in tissue paper.

2. Cut or tear the rest of the tissue paper to get rid of any overlap. Keep in mind, to have this area at the back of your lantern so that you cannot see the "seam line".

3. The bottom of your jar will become the top. Mod Podge the bottom and fold over the tissue paper at the end to cover this entire area.

Note: I did not cover the entire lip of the jar so that it can still be twisted shut if desired.

4. Next, I did the same thing with the lid of the jar. I knew I wanted to paint it and glue items to it so I thought covering it with tissue paper would create a nice textured layer for this purpose.

Note: I did not cover the inside of the lid and afterwards, I wish I had. I can, of course, do this at any time but I wanted to point this out. I feel if you do not cover the inside, you can see the red of the lid on the outside. It isn't super noticeable, but I notice it.

5. While the lid is drying, I added my fairy on the inside of the jar. I adhered her with two pieces of rolled tape, one on her legs, and one on her wings. This is better than gluing her completely down. It creates a more natural shadow effect when the lantern is lit up at night!

6. Now that I know where my fairy is sitting, I added glitter to the outside of the jar. I didn't cover the entire thing, just enough to form a frame around where the fairy rests. I used a translucent glitter for this, brushing on Modpodge, then lightly adding the glitter. As the glitter dries, I tap it so that it sets into the glue more.

7. Here is where I painted my lid to camouflage it. I knew I would be adding moss later, but I didn't want any of the white tissue paper coming through! I sponged on a layer of green, then brown, then black with the foam brush, just enough to cover most of the white.

8. For the fun part! I used moss for a more stereotypical fairy lantern look and I am very glad I chose to do so. First, I added moss to the top of the jar. To do this, add a bit of hot glue, and tap in some moss. Careful with your fingers! This is high-finger-burning-time! Keep adding the glue and moss until you feel satisfied with the amount. I wanted to add enough to disguise the shape of the PB jar.

9. Next, add some flowers, leaves, whatever you'd like to dress up the top!

10. I did the same exact thing with the lid and even added a leaf here as well.

Note: I wanted to point out that I noticed the expiration date and other numbers was printed on the plastic and was totally showing through the tissue paper! Eww! I covered this up with yet another leaf and some more moss.

11. The last step is to add your battery operated candle! I purchased mine on Amazon. I chose a tea light that was a little taller than the typical light to accommodate the height on the lip of the jar.

Turn that beauty on and look at her glow!

Were using the PB Jar method at work for a mother-daughter craft program. This makes it even better that we are using plastic jars instead of glass in case we have any little ones attend! We are also including in the description that these are actually Peanut Butter jars and that if you have a peanut allergy we do not recommend attending just in case any residue is leftover.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Acorn Specimen Frame

8/26/2019

This is a pretty quick fall craft to spruce up your shelf space for the autumn weather or maybe a gift idea! The one I originally saw on Pinterest was very cute with bright fall colors. There are so many options with this type of craft, it's almost overwhelming. I thought about going with a subtle brown, tan, and white color combination at first. I thought it would be very elegant for Thanksgiving but somehow I ended up switching to more of a Halloween based theme with a distressed frame and distressed pages. The possibilities are endless but I hope you find one that you love!

Supplies:

Frame without glass
Acorns (real or fake)
Embellishments
Hot Glue Gun
Elmer's Glue or Mod Podge
Glitter, optional
Paintbrushes
Cardboard or back of picture frame
Decorative paper for background
Paint

1. Gather up all of your supplies so that you have them near and dear to your project space.

2. If you're like me, I had a few frames to choose from and was very stressed with all the options! Finally, I decided on something medium-sized and relatively simple in structure. I forgot to take a picture ahead of time, but I "distressed" my frame a bit by very lightly adding black in light strokes to make it seem old/give it some more depth to the frame.

3. The original post I saw for this project involved using cute polka dot scrapbook paper as a background. I was going to do this as well, but saw I had some old book pages lying around and thought that would be a much cooler effect! If you're using a piece of scrapbook paper make sure you glue/tape it on carefully, making sure there are no air bubbles forming on your background! For me, I added torn strips of book pages by gluing each piece one by one to the background. Keep adding and adding until your background is full.

4. While your background is setting/drying, this is a good time to decide what you're going to do with your acorns. I decided to paint mine a metallic gold. I used 3 "craft" acorns and 3 real acorns that I found in the woods just to try out the different types to see if there were any differences... there aren't (but if you use real ones make sure you "bake" them to get rid of all the little buggies in there!) You'll want to do a couple of coats.

There are many ways to do this. You could leave the acorns in their natural state, paint them, decorate them, wrap them with thread/yarn/twine, oooo!

5. Of course, I couldn't help myself... I had to add at least some glitter to this project! I chose half, and decorated 3 of the acorns with a gold glitter that went well with the gold paint. I did this by "painting" on Mod Podge and dipping it into the glitter jar. They were awfully hard to get back out of there but they looked real cute when they were done.

6. While my acorns were drying I also made the glued book pages look more distressed/eerie for a more Halloween look. I lightly brushed very little black and brown paint over the pages giving them that look which you can see in the following photo.

7. Lay out your acorns and see how you like them before you glue them. I used hot glue. Make sure you put enough on there and hold the acorn while it sets.

8. Lastly, I decided to add a little extra somethin' somethin' to the frame and hot glued a flower to the upper corner.

That's it, we're all done!

Wildflower Painting

7/5/2019

Who doesn't love wildflowers?! This is a fun, whimsical painting to do with friends during the spring or summer months, they'll love it!

Supplies:

Canvas/canvas board
Easel if desired
Acrylic paints (yellow, gold, green, black, white, blue, brown, fuchsia.. all the colors, just get all the colors!)
Sponges
Q-tips
Water cup
Paper towels
Paint brushes of various shapes (at least one pointy and one tiny one!)

1. Using a sponge, dab yellow and gold onto the canvas forming a marbled background. If preferred, let some of the white show. Accentuate gold at the edges for an authentic look.

3. Using a pointed brush, add grass stems randomly throughout the sponged background using various shades of green.

5. If desired, add tiny/light dabs of green into the white so that it looks more realistic as if some of the stems/grass were showing through.

7. Add some highlights to the blue by going over the petals and center lightly with white.

9. Next, create a variety of white daisy shapes throughout the foreground. Remember not all daisies are made the same! This may take a couple of coats to get a solid white layer.

11. For the last set of wildflowers, create “Red Clover” with fuchsia. Dab the paint into a rounded cluster with Q-tips. This may take a second coat to make it a nice solid layer.

13. Make the grass more realistic by using a pointy brush and sporadically adding “wisps” of grass over some of the flowers, seen below.

2. Rinse out sponge or use a new one for the grass background. Use 3 colors for grass: black, green, lighter green. Start with black, dabbing at the bottom for the deepest, shadowy parts. For each color you add, very lightly dab at the top to “fade”. Add green above the black, blending into the black as well. And lastly add the lighter green, blending into the previous colors.

4. Using a clean brush, paint a handful of “Queen Anne’s Lace” by dabbing white in elongated “UFO” shapes. Make sure to add a “bud butt” of green underneath some of them as if you were seeing the stem of the flower.

6. Next, create various shapes and sizes to represent blue “Flax” flowers with a lighter blue paint. Be sure to make them different from one another. Keep in mind, ones in the foreground will usually be larger than the background.

8. If desired, go back over the white with a little bit of blue with a skinny brush so that the white isn’t so stark. This also gives the flowers some more dimension.

10. I don’t particularly like how I did my daisies so feel free to do them however you wish!I added an orange center, rounding the top to make some look more realistic. I lightly brushed brown throughout giving the petals and added a tiny dusting of black in some areas as well. Again, as with the “Queen Anne’s Lace” add a “bud butt” to some of the daisies as if you could see underneath it.

12. Next, add a bit of black and white very lightly to the flower for some dimension. You could also use the green from the grass before, anything to give it a dark depth in between the fuchsia. Can be done with the Q-tip as well.

14. After adding some more grass in, it’s time for the really messy part!

If you don’t want bits of paint on you or possibly your clothes, you should probably avoid this step or work extremely slow and careful!

Using white paint, mix in a few drops of water to make the paint more fluid. Dab your brush into this new mixture and hold it over the painting. LIGHTLY hit/flick the paintbrush with your opposite hand, moving throughout the painting until satisfied. All done!

Strawberry Rocks

6/16/2019

Supplies:

"strawberry-shaped" rocks
acrylic paint (exterior if they will be outdoors)
- red, white, various greens, black
paint brushes (one tiny/pointy one!)
basket/bowl for rocks
fabric if desired for the container

When I saw posts on Pinterest regarding these rocks I thought they were adorable and felt like I had to do them for a program at work, which here I am, prepping to do just that! My goal was to travel around to local parks and search for the perfect "strawberry-shaped" rocks to use, however, doing them for a public program meant that I needed about 110 of these rare diamonds and lets be real... that did not happen. I love using up supplies from previous projects and a coworker of mine had left over "mexican river rocks" from a rock-painting program, so, this is what I ended up using, cool.

Taking a quick look at project photos on Pinterest, I saw that some showed that the rocks were painted white first.

"Nah, I don't need to do that" I thought to myself peering at the 110 rocks waiting on my cart. So I went ahead and painted the first couple with red... "huh... this doesn't look too good" I quickly realized. "Do I seriously have to paint these white?" I begrudgingly thought to myself.

So, I took a shot at the next one with a nice single coat of white acrylic paint. After it dried, I put the first coat of red over it and WOW, what a difference! You can see in the below photo the ones I painted first laying in the background on newspaper vs. the new beautifully vibrant rock in my hand.

Thankfully, we have people who work with us who are often looking for "odd" jobs to do in down time.... well.... I think painting 110 rocks white is the perfect job to do for that! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I thought 5 rocks would be a good amount for this project which ended up working well for dry times as you make your way through each rock and each layer of paint.

So, paint all rocks white, then paint all rocks red. I put 2 coats of red on top so it's a nice even layer.

After the red has dried, you are ready to start your leaves. I was very unsure of how to do this. Do I make them realistic? Do I make them whimsical? Do I blend? all ran through my mind. I decided to go for a more "cartoonish" look, I guess. And started with a base solid layer of dark green.

When I got done with all 5, I started laughing because they totally looked like tomatoes! I set them up on the post-it notes so they could dry without touching anything. Here is also where I found out how slippery these things became with the paint! So be careful and hold on to 'em.

After my dark green dried, I went over it in a smaller reflection with light green. Then, I added a dot of the dark green in the center to represent where the stem would technically be. I'm not gonna lie... I hated this... still hate it. I do not like the way this came out but got even more stressed out the more I tried to "fix" it. I found it best to just leave it as is and move on full steam ahead!

Next, will be your act of patience. Using a tiny pointy brush, paint "raindrop" shaped black "dots" all over your rocks to represent the strawberry seeds. And do this with every... single... rock!

Now, go over every... single... dot.... on every... single... rock... with a tiny white "raindrop"/"dot". You could also change this up and be more realistic by making the seeds a golden yellow or changing the look of some so they're not all exactly the same. But I didn't have time for that and was shooting for a simple, easy project for my participants!

Lastly, put them in a cute bowl, basket, container, whatever! I found farmer market style containers at our local craft store. They came in a pack of six so were super affordable! I also put a piece of fabric in to drape over the sides before I put the rocks in and wa-la, Adorable summer decor!

Tic-Tac-Toe

4/4/2019

It's been a whole month since I have posted a project. Time is flying by... sometimes it feels too incredibly fast! I have been doing a lot of projects for other people so I don't have much to post, but, my next up-coming project at the library is a DIY Tic-Tac-Toe board. I thought this idea would be perfect since spring is (supposedly) here. I don't have specific steps for this, as you can make it whatever you want! But here is the list of supplies I used and my end product!

Supplies:

Wood slice (can be bought at your local craft store but I had my uncle cut me some slices from his wood pile instead! - if you do this, make sure you dry them out first!)
Patio/outdoor paint (Amazon has a great set!)
Paintbrushes of various types
Playing pieces (flat rocks are great - heavy so they won't blow away and they're free!)
Glitter if glitter is preferred... which to me it always is!

I got the original idea on Pinterest on the AttaGirlSays blog! I am encouraging my class to paint whatever they would like for their tic-tac-toe board and have a collage of photos to provide them some ideas.

I went with a galaxy/space theme for mine, but, I would love to do like a big daisy for the base/board and then lady bugs and bumblebees for the pieces! Maybe next time!

Have fun and happy spring!

American Flag Tapestry

3/4/2019

I created this quick craft project to tie into a book discussion at work. But this so easy, anyone can do it and it's very quick as long as you are making a smaller size. I also think this would be awesome in an extra large size as well!

Supplies:

Base form (I used a piece of driftwood!)
Twine
Yarn
Ribbons
Fabric

1. Gather your supplies all in one space so you are ready to go!
a. If you are using fabric, I would cut your strips at this time as well

2. Use blue pieces to represent the blue star part of the flag (I saw some online that used white beads throughout to represent the stars!) and alternate your red and white for the stripes.

3. Tie your strips on using the Larkshead Knot technique below. This is a great way to add your elements because you get two components out of one.
a. You can also tie them however you wish. Try tying little pieces together of different types/textures to give your flag more variety.

4. Create a piece for hanging. I did this by wrapping 3 pieces of twine around the one end, braiding it, and tying it off on the other side.

5. That's it! Feel free to add whatever types of elements you have lying around! Perfect decoration for the most rustic folks you know!

Wood Photo Transfer

2/9/2019

I had always wanted to do this but all the methods I looked at seemed unrealistic and lengthy. Thanks to CreativeBug (which is offered through the Cuyahoga County Library system for free) I was able to discover a quick, super easy way to complete this craft!

I only have the end result photos and not the progress photos but, seriously, I don't think you'll need them because it's sooooo easy!

Supplies:

Photo printed on copy paper on a LAZER printer!!!
Wood plaque/surface
Mod Podge
Foam Brush
Warm water
Sponge (if desired)
Burnisher (hard flat edge surface like a gift card)

1. Print your photo out on regular ol' copy paper on a LAZER printer. It can be in black and white or color. Cut away any excess paper.

2. Paint on a nice solid layer of Mod Podge on your wood piece (You don't want too much that it's goopy and sliding off the sides but enough to see a white layer).

3. Flip your printed photo into the Mod Podge, ink side down and smooth out to remove any air bubbles.

4. Take your burnisher/flat edge and rub the paper with some effort. This helps get rid of any extra air pockets and gets the ink nice and set into the Mod Podge.

5. Wait for the Mod Podge to COMPLETELY dry.

6. Fill a cup with warm water or just let the faucet lightly run (feels pretty wasteful though!). Wet either your fingers, or a sponge, and begin to lightly saturate the photo. DO NOT soak the photo!

7. Start lightly rubbing the paper in circular motions. The paper will begin to turn into a pulp and will slowly roll off the wood surface.

8. As the wood dries you may see some paper areas you missed. Just go back over these in the same fashion by wetting your fingers and rubbing the area in a circular motion.

9. After you're done, you can coat the wood with a finishing agent, paint the sides, decorate with embellishments, etc.

Really cute gift idea, especially for family photos!

Note: "They" do make photo transfer solutions specifically for this type of project. Even Mod Podge makes a specific Mod Podge for it as well. You can also use a gel medium technique but that takes days to set! I don't see the point in buying extra (expensive) supplies when beautiful, simple Mod Podge works just as good!

Here are my 3 transfers below:

Animal Pop Art

1/31/2019

I don't know about you, but this winter weather has got me down in the dumps and tired as all heck! I need something to brighten up these dark days and this is the perfect painting to help me out.

Supplies:

Bright paint colors
White and black paint
Paint tray
Paint brushes (make sure you have a skinny one for the hair!)
Pencil
Scissors
Black and white copied photo
Original photo for reference
Canvas (square is fun to use)

1. Copy and enlarge your animal's photo to a similar size of the canvas/surface being used

2. Trace the outline of the image on the canvas and sketch in prominent areas for reference

3. Paint the background of the canvas (can be done before or after but most videos I watched did this first)

4. Start painting the darkest areas of the animal(shadows) with the darkest color of your color choices. I did blue and green hues so chose a dark blue color to start with

5. Fill in other areas with the next darkest color and move from there to the lightest of colors

6. Remember: This DOES NOT have to be realistic, it can be completely random/abstract, that's the whole point of pop art!

7. Keep building layer upon layer to add depth and character to your image

8. To finish off your design, make sure you highlight the eyes and nose of your animal to make it “pop” – this is created by adding white to the areas (ie. a wet nose, shiny eyes, stuck out tongue)

9. Lastly, create a single-color outline around your animal to make it “pop”. This is the prominent emphasis you see in Pop Art and what makes the subject stand out. Usually this is black or white but, feel free to make it whatever color you wish!

You have officially created your pop art animal! Enjoy!

Fabric Flower

1/3/2019

Do you have a bunch of scrap fabric that you don't know what to do with? This is the perfect craft to use 'em up!

Supplies Needed:

Needle
Thread
Fabric
Scissors

1. Cut 8 3"x3" pieces out of your fabric (or various fabrics)

2. Fold each piece in half and then in half again...

3. While holding the fold of each piece, cut the corner into a rough looking heart shape (I went ahead and did all 8 pieces so they were ready for me and I felt like that really sped the process along!)

4. Thread your needle with thread (you don't use very much). Pick up your first piece of fabric. Holding it at its corner, sew through the corners a few times. DO NOT knot the thread after.

5. Grab your next piece of fabric, and thread your needle through that piece and your original piece a couple of times. Again, DO NOT knot the thread afterwards.

6. Keep repeating this process until all 8 pieces are sewed together.

7. NOW, you may tie your thread off to keep all of the pieces together.

8. As you let go of the corners, you'll see how all of the pieces are now together, but... it needs a little help becoming a flower. Begin "fluffing" up your pieces and spreading them outward. Oooo look at that flower grow! And just like that, your flower is formed and ready for whatever you wish to use it for!

(Side note: the fabric I used are actually pieces of my Papaw's flannel shirts - he passed a couple of years ago. I plan to use my flowers for wedding decorations/bouquets whenever that happens... cough, cough! ...That way he'll be with us on our special day.)