Paint a Plastic Dollar Store Vase with Nail Polish

First I have to tell you about the free arm knitting class I took last night at Michael’s. It was awesome.

I am was excited to finally learn how to arm knit and check out the infinity scarf that I made!

So much fun, and the instructor was wonderful and very patient! Once I got the hang of it, it was easy to do and very fast.  I can’t wait to make other things with arm knitting. You can be sure I will feature arm knitting projects in the future

 

Anyway, on to the other project I did this weekend….

I was wandering around the Dollar Store this weekend and I saw this plastic vase. It looks like it could be a cut crystal vase from a distance, I am talking about way distant, like a mile or so. But up close you can really tell that it is plastic. So I thought I would help  the vase out and give it sparkles and color.

Here is the vase in all its  glory.

And here is an up close to of the “cut crystal” part of the vase. I like the design and it is pretty enough to use.

Materials:

~ Vase you want to paint

~ Nail Polish. Any color will do. I used this copper color called DS Glow from OPI, I thought it was perfect for fall and the holidays. This vase will work for a variety of holidays, which is a good thing. But at a dollar for each vase you can make a new one for each holiday.

Instructions:

1. Paint a first coat over the parts you want colored.

2. Add a second coat, more if needed. I just added color in a few strategic parts on the vase. Now I know that my painting is not perfect, but I am convinced that it adds to the charm of the vase. Perfection can be overrated

3. Let dry then add flowers, candy, marbles,or anything else you thing would look good in your new vase.

I put mums in the vase for the fall.

Here is the vase with poinsettias in it rather than the mums. Ready for Christmas.

Update your handbags, purses, and clutches!

So I bought these really cheap handbags. It came in a set of 3 bags. There was a clutch, cross body bag and a handbag. They are fine on their own, but a little boring, so I decided to fix that.

With a little help from my clearance statement necklaces that I found at Walmart and a little glue I was able to update my purses and create a whole new look.

Here is the clutch. Love.

Here is the cross body bag. So cute!

And here is the handbag. Perfect!

 

It is easy to do, here is what you need

Materials:

~ handbag or purse that needs a little updating

~ glue that will work on metal (I used Aleene’s jewelry and metal glue)

~ Statement necklaces that you can take apart or jewelry or bling that you want to add to your purse.

 

Clutch instructions:

Here is the clutch looking all boring and sad because it didn’t have any embellishments on it.

 

Whoa! Too many embellishments! This statement necklace is certainly making a statement. I am not sure what that statement is, but it is making it. I decided to take it apart and only use 1 rose. I will use the rest in another project.

Much better. I think it looks great! BTW, don’t you love my red couch as a background color I think it adds awesomeness to the pictures.

 

Cross body bag instructions:

Once again a sad, boring cross body bag.

I added this necklace to the bag. Much better, I think. If you can’t find a necklace like this on it is easy to make with a jewel and different lengths of chain.

I think it looks ok, but I think it can look better.

Ah yes, this is it! If you can believe it I think it was looking a little plain towards the top

Hooray! This is what I am talking about! Perfect!

 

Handbag instructions:

Boring handbag.

Add a cute flower statement necklace

And tada you have a new hand bag!

As  you can see this project is pretty easy, but it adds so much to your purses and handbags. Just make sure you glue on everything really well and let it dry completely before you use it.

DIY Tangled T-shirt

Any trip to Disneyland requires  new t-shirts, right? I will use any excuse to make a Disney shirt!

I love Tangled, it is one my favorite movies. This meme describes me perfectly.

 

So what better way to show my love than to make a Tangled t-shirt.  Here I am wearing my shirt at California Adventure. You can barely make out my Steampunk Mickey ears. I will be doing a tutorial on those in the the next few weeks or so!

Materials

~ Pre washed t shirt

~ Tangled sun stencil. I got mine off the Disney Family Fun website (link here)

~ Fabric Paint

~ Freezer paper

~ Exacto knife

~ Cardboard

~ Iron on transfer paper

 

Instructions

1. Cut around the sun you want to make into a stencil for your t-shirt

2. Tape your sun to your freezer paper (I forgot to take picture of this step, so please as me questions if I am unclear) Cut out your sun like a stencil and then you will iron your freezer paper to your shirt. Place the shiny side down and cover with a cloth and iron the stencil into place.

 

3. Start filling in the sun with fabric paint. Protect the back of your shirt with cardboard. The glittery the better.

4. Let this dry over night. While this is drying you can move on to the next step.

4. Find a Flynn Rider wanted poster online. There are tons out there so find one that you like and will work for you

 

5. Print on iron on transfer paper

 

6. Iron the wanted poster according to the directions.

7. Let it cool completely and then you can rock your new shirt! 

Here are some pictures of the front of the shirt

      

And here is a picture of the back. It is surprisingly hard to take a picture of the back of your shirt.

 

My son and I on a ride at California Adventure

Annnnnnd he is done with the selfies, can you tell Ah teenage boys, they are fun!

But at least you can see the Steampunk Mickey ears better.

Paint Your Couch!? Say What?

I know what you are going to say, that is crazy! Painting your couch! There are better ways to update your couch. I will agree there might be better ways, but this is a great solution for my dingy, old couch that needed an update.

This couch is great, it has individual sections that can be moved if needed, and the ottomans can have the soft footstool side facing up or a hard table surface facing up. It is very versatile and we have enjoyed it for many years. The downside is that the couch is made of a light colored micro fiber that stains easily. over the years the couch has become a collection of stains. I have tried to remove them, but after awhile nothing would work. So I had the option of recovering the cushions or to paint them. I decided on painting because I thought it would be easier.

See stains (I am actually embarrassed to show you guys this stain, and I just couldn’t bring myself to showing you the bigger ones.) And this was just a small one…

Overall it was pretty easy, but time consuming.

Here is how I did it if you are interested in doing the same with your furniture.

Materials:

~ Fabric Spray paint. I used Simply Spray Fabric Paint in Sage green. For my couch I used 12 bottles, which was about $120. Not the cheapest solution, but cheaper than recovering all the cushions but cheaper than buying a new couch. I bought my paint from Amazon.

~ Furniture that you want to paint.

~ Plastic covering for your work area, and room for your items to dry

~ Rubber gloves

 

Some notes:

Before I evens started I watched a ton of YouTube videos on how to do this and I read all the instructions and I looked over the company website. I took my time getting to know the product and how to use it. Before doing this yourself I would recommend doing your own research and practicing before you do your entire couch.

You can see here that our couch was a very light beige color. It blended in with the walls and the floor and it was very boring. Not to mention dirty. I thought the green would make it more interesting and make our living room more inviting rather than bland. Lyle was skeptical, but he was on board with my experiment.

Here is a picture of beige town that was our living room.

I will tell  you that you should do it all at once rather than space it out over a few years….

Yes you read that correctly, I did this project over the span of 2 years. I am sure you all have had a project that you started and didn’t get back to for a while, well this project was one that took me a whole to get back to. I started it one weekend and got half of the couch done. I didn’t have any pictures of it because I was embarrassed that I didn’t finish in a timely manner    well eventually I decided to finish the project. Lyle was very patient and didn’t nag me toooooo much about the unfinished couch in our living room. But I did go back and finish. That is why the colors are a little different from cushion to cushion. The 2 year time span is evident. My technique changed a bit and some fading happened. Oh well, it is done and we are happy with the final result so that is all that matters.

 

Instructions:

1. Clean your furniture. You want to make sure you have a clean slate so the paint will adhere to the cushion.

2. Take your cushions to your work area. We put plastic all over in our garage so that I could work in there. The cushions could dry without being outside where dirt and leaves would blow on to the wet paint. And if it started to rain I could close the garage door and keep the cushions dry.

 

3.Put your gloves on. Spray a light coat on the cushion, then rub the paint into the fabric. I did this and I think it coated better.

          

4. Let it dry and spray and rub again. I did 3 coats, that seemed to get the best coverage. After the first 2 coats you will think to yourself “What on earth have I done? This looks like crap!” But hang in there, by the third coat everything looked better.

5. Let the whole thing dry over night then put it back on your couch.

 

 

Enjoy your “new” couch.  This project has been completely finished for over a year now and I can honestly say I still love the final result. The paint has stayed on the couch and doesn’t rub off on your clothes (this was a concern of Lyle’s) and it still looks good. At first the fabric was a little stiff and not as soft as it was before the paint, but over time the paint loosens up and the fabric becomes softer. It won’t ever be as soft as the original micro fiber, but it is getting better.

So, is painting your couch something you might do? What else do you think I should paint?

Most Popular Pin From Blog and and easy DIY for your calculator

 

Most Popular Pin

You get a two for one today!

I wanted to share with you on Throw Back Thursday one my most popular pins on Pinterest from my blog. I love seeing what is popular. But this is a fun one that I still love.

Drumroll please……

 

 

The most popular pin is the

No Soliciting sign!

   

Just a simple print out framed in a cute frame I got from Hobby Lobby and that is it.

It always amuses me when the pizza guy wants to take a picture of the sign. It usually works and it has held up well over the years. Keep on pinning, I love to see what you guys pin. If you want to follow me or any of my boards on Pinterest you can follow me at https://www.pinterest.com/linsam/

Now I can’t just leave you with that throw back, I need to show you a DIY as well

 

DIY Rhinestone Calculator

I was wandering around Hobby Lobby the other day and I saw a very cute pink rhinestone calculator. I loved it, but I thought to myself that “Hey! you have a calculator and rhinestones, why don’t you make it yourself instead of buying a new one?” So that is what I did.

It was easy to do and the side benefit is that no one takes it off my desk anymore and if they do take it, it is easy to find and for me to take it back.

Materials:

~ calculator (mine was an old one that I have had forever. ) Since my calculator is tan I went with tan colored rhinestones that I had at my house. I wanted this to be a cheap DIY with materials that I had on hand. Maybe not as cute as the pink one I saw, but cute anyway.

~ Rhinestones (I got my package from the dollar store.)

~ E-6000 (of course, I think I am a little obsessed with this glue….)

~ Something to clean the calculator

~ sandpaper or something to rough up the surface.

Instructions:

This is a very straight forward project.  Just sand, clean, and glue. So here we go:

1. I sanded my calculator because I thought it would be easier with a sight rougher surface. Just a light sanding will do.

2. Clean. I used a wipe and cleaned every crook and nanny, I don’t think my calculator had been this clean since I bought it.

3. Start gluing. I used these awesome syringes that I bought from Amazon (here is the link) You don’t to use the syringe, but I find it makes it easier and more precise to apply the glue. This is especially important when you are trying to glue tiny rhinestones.

I know you can still see the blue Texas Instruments logo and model number, but that is ok for me, it really doesn’t bother me. But if it bothers you then I would use smaller rhinestones and try and fill it in more. Or you could paint over the blue part to match the rest of the calculator before you added the rhinestones, then it wouldn’t be as noticeable. Lots of options for what ever look you are going for.

  

 

4. Let dry before using.

That is it. I am well on my way to blinging up my entire desk. I wonder what should be next on my list. Suggestions?

   

What office supplies have you enhanced?

DIY Mickey Messenger Bag

When we went to Disneyland I decided that I “needed”  a new bag to hold my wallet and essentials. I didn’t want it too big, just big enough to carry what I needed for the day. Of course I decided that I needed this bag the day before we left. And of course I wanted to use a product that I have never used before. Nothing can go wrong with this scenario, right?? wrong! All kinds of things happened and and few tries later I ended up with a new bag. It only took me 3 times as long, but it did get done  

 

I will give you the instructions on how you should do it  and I will even tell you what not to do, haha!

Materials:

~ messenger bag

~ stencil of what you want to create

~ Graphite paper

~ rhinestones

~ fabric paint

~ E-6000 glue

~ Silver Sharpie

 

Instructions:

1. Pick out the messenger bag you want to decorate. I found this black on at Hobby Lobby, and I used a coupon so it wasn’t too expensive. Much cheaper than anything I would find at Disney in their stores . It worked very well, except with all the decoration the flap was a little heavy and when I snapped it the flap would fold weird. So I just never snapped the flap and let it hang, and that worked out just fine.

 

    

2. Print out what you what to put on your bag, I found a Mickey head silhouette and the quote. I downloaded a free Disney font and typed the quote in a word processing program and printed it at home. (here is the first problem I had. Instead of the stencil I cut out the Mickey shaped with  glitter iron on transfer paper. then I tried to iron it onto the bag.  It didn’t iron on well and was pealing up. I decided to try again, so I picked off the first one and made a new Mickey head and ironed it on again. Once again it did not work. So I picked off what I could and went on to plan B.  I am going to have to figure out what I did wrong. Do you guys have any thought or suggestions?)

3. Place your stencil and quote on the bag.

 

4. Cut out some graphite, big enough to put under the quote. Trace the quote onto the bag and the graphite paper will transfer the quote onto the bag. The graphite paper I had was hard to read, but manageable

    

5. Trace the words with a silver Sharpie. I traced it about 3 times. A fabric marker would work as well.

6. I used Stickles in 2 colors to fill in the stencil. This is another example of a project not working as well as I thought. Stickles are not really good for fabric. We all know this, but if you remember I was doing this the night before we left so I had to use what I had on hand and that was Stickles. I put 2 coats of Stickles on then put a coat of E-6000 glue over the top to seal it in. It worked ok and held up for the week, but I think it would have been better with fabric paint.

7. Once your Mickey is on and your quote is good to go then add Rhinestones all over. Originally I planned on the bag with no rhinestones, but it was a little too plain for my tastes and I added the sparkle.

 

That is it. It held up all week with only a few rhinestones falling off, but that is not bad considering all the problems I had along the way.

What ideas do you have for a bag?

What problems have you had with your crafting projects and how did you fix them?