Toddler Photo Frame Mat

By Cate | October 5, 2012 - 7:00 am | DIY, gifts

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m always looking for meaningful gift ideas. Last week EB and I came up with this project, and it took less than a half hour to pull together (including the trip to the store)!

I sat her down in front of a piece of paper taped to the table. I brought out my trusty ol’ watercolor palette and removed all but the green and blue colors. This way, as messy as she got, at least the colors would look good when they ran together. I gave her a wet brush, and let her go to work. Meanwhile, I took a bunch of photos of her painting.

So serious!

The beauty of watercolors is that they wash right out of clothes, should things get messy.

We left the masterpiece to dry, then we hopped in the car and headed to a shop to print out the photo and pick up a frame. (It’s best to get one that comes with a mat.)

Then while EB napped, I put things together. First I took the frame apart and measured the width of the sides of the mat. I cut the watercolor into 4 strips of that width.

I used a 45* angle and my ruler to cut the corners.

I glued them right on top of the mat, free-handed her name and age, and put it all together.

It’s a priceless piece of meaningful art, sure to be loved and admired for all time!

Linking up to Serenity Now.

Stamp Your Glass [Acrylic Paint on Glass] [DIY Dish Soap Dispenser]

By Cate | September 17, 2012 - 7:00 am | crafting, DIY, gifts, kitchen

5 Comments

Happy Monday dear readers! I’m so glad you stopped by today to see what I’ve got cookin’. It’s actually glass (acrylic paint on glass)! I’ll be painting soap pumps, but this is also a great tutorial on how to paint wine glasses, or any other glass, as a matter of fact.

I like to have a streamlined kitchen and counter top whenever possible, so occasionally I’ll evaluate what we have sitting on the counter and try to pare things down and tidy it up. It can be tough with a little one and all of her culinary accoutrements, so, you gotta pick your battles!

I nixed the dish soap and hand soap containers, and used some cute hand-pumps from Target for those products. I stamped on letters to label them.

Let me show you how…

First I picked up some acrylic paint made for glass. I also got out my inexpensive letter stamps.

I used a small paint brush to swipe the paint onto the letter stamp, being careful to keep the paint on the letter.

I then carefully applied the stamp to the glass.

The stamps can be slippery with the paint, so just work very slow and deliberately. If your stamp does slide and smudge the paint, just wipe it off the glass and try again. I had to do this a few times.

You can see that the paint doesn’t transfer perfectly. There are some areas that didn’t take the paint at all. But, I love it that way. It reminds me of an old antique typewriter (font).

Next, just follow the directions on your paint bottle. Mine had me leave the paint to dry for a while. Then I popped the glass in the oven to set the paint permanently.

(Note the pretty white “milk glass” on the left.)

Well, I learned the hard way that white glass wasn’t meant to be heated in the oven. Check out what happened…

It got a little toasted. Oops! I happened to have an extra glass that fit these pumps, so I re-made the “dishes” jar. The one I used the second time around had a very slight blue tint before I baked it, and it came out quite green. But, the color doesn’t bother me much. It feels kind of vintage.

It’s a simple project, but keeps things clean and fresh looking.

(To learn about my grass drying rack, click here.)

This is such an easy project and so versatile! Just imagine the possibilities…wine glasses, vases, candle holders or hurricanes, Christmas ornaments, etc. The paint even works on ceramics…coffee mugs, platters, etc. The paint comes in many colors, and you could use any stamps in your collection!

So, I know I’m not the only one opposed to the product labels and plastic pumps. What do you guys do to keep your sink and counter top fresh and streamlined?

Repurpose Extra Floor Tiles

By Cate | February 1, 2012 - 12:00 pm | DIY, gifts

11 Comments

White Rabbit and happy February 1st to everyone! Do you guys “play” white rabbit? Say it to someone else (before they say it to you) on the first day of the month, and you’ll have good luck.

In the spirit of Tiffany’s No Spend Challenge, I found a use for some leftover tiles we had lying around.

These are leftover from our porch project. They are 18×18″ travertine tiles we found a great deal on at Home Depot. We had also purchased some flagstone to test out. We decided against that, but the sample worked great for this project.

I simply drew out 3.5″ squares, and Frank made the cuts.

You can get tile pencils that have a waxy “lead” and won’t rinse off, but we didn’t have one on hand. Frank could make out my lines and it worked OK. But, you may want to grab one of those tile pencils.

I did pick up a pack of felt pads. $2.99 = total money spent on this project.

The bottom side of the travertine is mottled, and the top is polished. I liked the mottled look for this project, and I thought those holes might help absorb condensation from a cold glass.

These little coasters didn’t need a whole pad on each corner, so I cut each one into fourths.

Then I just peeled and stuck them to the corners.

I love the variations in the flagstone. Isn’t it pretty?

Here they are, all stacked up.

I think these would make a great hostess gift. I googled around and found some similar coasters for $15-$20 for four. That makes my $2.99/20 = $0.15 each a pretty good deal! While you’ve got the tile saw going, you could easily make trivets this way, too.