Quick and Easy Painted Bunnies

Hello everyone,

It's been awhile. Sometimes I just need to step back. Take a break, breathe, have some "think" time. I've been extremely busy teaching this semester, and doing lots of my own writing as well. For a few weeks, I kept thinking, "I just can't do this blog thing anymore, it's just too much." Now, I think, for the moment, I want to continue. But my posts will be a little less frequent for the time being. Sanity throughout the semester is important. 

This project was a wild goose chase. I had this great idea that I would paint plastic bunnies shiny and gold and use them for crafts this spring. So I go looking for plastic bunnies and couldn't find them anywhere. I checked Target, Hobby Lobby, Michael's, etc, and couldn't find small plastic ones, only plus bunnies. Finally, I found some at Wal-mart, who knew, right? Then I went to paint them with my favorite gold paint, Liquid Leaf, but the bottle had self-sealed and I couldn't open it. I was about to give up on the bunnies when my sister suggested nail polish. Genius! So, the DIY was still on. Enjoy the pics! These cute little bunnies have so many possible projects waiting on them! I decorated a candle (see pic above), but there are so many more DIYs just waiting to happen!

1. Prep: I used white polish to paint over the bright pink and black details.

2. Painting the bunnies took about 2 coats each. I painted them neon yellow, pink, gold, and mint. (My current favorite colors!)

 3. Let them dry between coats!

Recycled Message Vase DIY

I'm happy to share with you today a recycle-themed DIY. There are several photos of vases and jars similar to this going around the internet (but I cannot seem to track down the original source) but mine involves glitter (of course!). I'm recycling an old bottle in this tutorial and giving it a beautiful purpose. See the tutorial below!

Supplies: 

An old bottle

Hot glue gun

Gold Liquid Leaf paint (or any acrylic paint)

Gold Glitter

Glue Stick

Sponge paint brush

1. Using your hot glue gun, write out a word on the bottle. I chose the word "free."

Here's an up close shot of mine: be sure to make your letters with lots of glue (volume) so it stands out against the bottle. Don't forget to rub off the hot glue stringies!

2. Sponge on gold leaf paint. It's really important to use a sponge brush so that the paint doesn't create streaks up and down the bottle. It also covers the hot glue better.

Here's a photo of the finished paint job: I really like the antique-y look gold leaf paint gives it.

3. Rub your glue stick over the word that you've glued on. Be sure to get glue only on your letters!

4. Sprinkle glitter over the glue. Using a paintbrush, brush away excess glitter. Let dry.

5. Fill with flowers and display!

Living Room Makeover

I'm so excited to share pictures of my living room makeover. I painted my couch mint green (one of my favorite colors!!) sewed some new pillows, made new wall art, and incorporated some of previous craft projects. Unfortunately...I managed to delete my "before" pictures. The only one I have to share with you is a photo of my cat asleep on my couch, just so you can see how wild (awful) the cover for this sofa really was. 

Really crazy, huh? Anyway, there were just too many colors in that pattern, it was so overwhelming. I gave my living room a pastel-themed makeover, (pastels are super in right now, aren't they?) mainly coral and mint, gold and silver. See the pics below.

I am in love with the minty-ness of my couch. Plus, it's now much more durable thanks to the paint. In case you're wondering, I mixed regular interior semi-gloss paint with textile medium, which turns regular paint into "fabric paint." It's going to be super easy to keep clean, dirt just wipes right off. I also think that with a solid colored couch, it will be much easier to change trends/designs now. FYI, this is an IKEA Klippan Sofa. 

See how I did the chair restyle here. Want to make your own tribal baskets? See the tutorial here. Confetti art? Tutorial here. Also, keep an eye out for a tutorial on how to make your own geometric art soon!

Adventures in Nail Art Part II: Accent Nails

 Here's a fun and quick way to jazz up your wardrobe: accessorize your nails! This is so much fun to do to match your nails to your outfit or to experiment with nail art in small (one nail!) doses. Enjoy the step-by-step tutorial.

 Here are the colors I used, in case you are wondering: steel gray, metallic gold, and gold glitter of course (my favorite color!).

This is the second part of a series of tutorials in simple nail art. To learn how to make polka dots, see this post! 

Confetti Art DIY

Supplies:

Canvas of some sort (I actually used a recycled foam board)

Adhesive metallic paper or vinyl (I used both!)

Adhesive glitter paper or vinyl

Notes: I used my Cricut Expression to cut perfectly uniform dots. If you don't have a die-cutting machine, you could certainly use a circle punch. Also, if your paper or is not adhesive, you could attach each circle with permanent, double-sided tape. 

Liquid Leaf Painted Glassware DIY

I've been wanting to do this project for awhile now, I've been super-inspired by painting geometric patterns on things. I'm not much of a freehand artist, and I can't draw a stick person to save my life. But patterns...patterns I can do. And who doesn't want to feel successful at their project design? So, I like sticking to patterns. Enjoy the tutorial below

Using washi tape, mark off a design on the glass. I chose to paint triangles onto one glass, and geometric shapes on another to make it look like pieces of glass. It's important to make sure you stick the tape down really well so that the paint doesn't seep through and mess up your designs. The Liquid Leaf paint is kind of thin, so you will probably have to paint more than one coat.

I would recommend that these dry overnight before peeling off the washi tape. I really like how modern-feeling these turned out. And of course, painting anything gold makes me happy. 

It's important to note that you should handwash these-I imagine that the dishwasher would strip the paint right off. Also, if you find that the lines of your designs aren't perfectly clean (the paint seeped through), once the paint is completely dry you can take a craft knife and scrape the excess paint right off. 

DIY Paper Christmas Tree

 My Christmas tree this year is pretty unusual. Last year my tree was black and silver and green, the year before was Star Trek themed I believe. But this year, I had a feeling if I put up a real tree, every day would be 6 month old kitten vs. Christmas tree and the cat would win. That being said, I still wanted something....So, I made a cat-proof tree. I love how it turned out. See the pics and instructions below if you've got a pet that is the mortal enemy of any holiday decorations!

1. You will need to cut 10 circles (or whatever shape you like) in green patterned papers. I used my Cricut, but you could easily cut by hand. The bottom row is 10 inches, and the remaining circles are 9 inches.

2. Cut a large rectangle for the tree trunk and a star for the topper (my star is 7 inches). 

3. Highlight your topper by running a glue stick along the edges and dipping in glitter.

4. Adhere to the wall with a tape, sticky-tack, etc. 

5. Pile the presents underneath!

This week I was totally inspired by these pendants by How About Orange. I love them! I love the idea of a color blocked shape...

So then I got to thinking, what about glitter blocked instead of color blocked?!? So, here's the final result. Totally cute. I also used layered, pre-cut foam hearts to make the pendants, instead of layers of cardstock, which saved lots of time and gluing effort.

I think these would make super cute stocking-stuffers or gifts, in any shape!