If you’re like me, it’s tough to toss jars when you’re creative because you know they will come in handy for something! Last year I wrote an article for Hamptons Magazine and thought I’d share with you the project I made especially for them.

YOU’LL NEED:

• Jars in different sizes
• Yarn
• Masking tape
• White Krylon spray paint
• Fabric cut on the bias 1 1/2″ wide by 10″ per jar
• Tea lights

HERE’S HOW:

1. After your jars are sparkly clean, tightly wrap them with yarn in a crisscross pattern and tape the ends on the underside or the inside so they stay in place. Don’t place the tape on the outside of the jar where you will be painting.

2. Cover an area in newspaper and give the jars 3 light coats of white Krylon spray paint (waiting 5-10 minutes in between coats) and let dry.

3. Remove the yarn and wrap the tops with the bias fabric securing them with a knot. You could also use ribbon for the tops, it’s up to you.

4. Add your tea lights and set your table.

Here is a tutorial for creating and using your own fabric stamp. The fabric stamp I made was carved out of an eraser. The only supplies you’ll need are an eraser, craft knife and fabric paint. I used an owl charm to help create my design, you can use a stencil or free-hand a drawing to stamp.

Start with an eraser. I chose to cut the stamp in half since I was making a smaller stamp.

Sketch out your design with a pencil. I traced an owl charm on mine. I kept it fairly basic so that it would be easy to carve.

Using whatever knife or carving tools you have, start cutting away at the eraser. I found it easy to slice down around the design and then into the side of the eraser.

Continue working until you have cut out the whole design. Now start stamping! Do a few practice ones on paper to start. I chose to stamp on some fabric bags I had on hand but it was challenging to stamp on the uneven surface.

 You can leave it like that or do what I did next and trace around your design. I wanted to add details and let the whole piece pop a bit more.

Make these wee night light lanterns for the wee ones you know to help settle them to sleep, or to set a mood!

Craft Materials:

• Small boxes – lightbulbs or food packaging for example
• Marker or pencil
• Craft knife
• Cellophane or clear plastic
• White glue
• LED lights
• Craft Paint

How to Make the Night light Lanterns

Carefully pull the the packaging apart, so it is still in one piece, but will lie flat.

Draw your designs onto the packaging. I used the inside of the box so the paint would cover better.

Simple shapes are cool. You can see here I’ve used hearts, stars and small square and rectangle shapes like a building at night time.

Cut your designs with the craft knife and paint the surface of the box.

Cut cellophane to cover the cut out spaces and glue to the inside of the box.

Note about Lining the Boxes

For large designs, the spaces look better if they are lined with something like cellophane. For small designs, there is no need to line the boxes.

You could line the window spaces with colored cellophane.  Bend the existing folds of the box the opposite way than they were intended, so your box will keep its shape. Glue the side edges together. Fold the ends of the box back in.

Pop your lights in when you are ready!

A Note about LED Lights

The LED lights I used here are childrens’ finger laser lights. They are safe, small and have a switch – all enclosed in plastic housing. They are cheap – there are four in the set I got in colors white, blue, red and green.

Ideas for the Night light Lanterns

For little ones:

• Stack on top of each other for buildings.
• Change the nightlight Lanterns and / or the colored lights around each night as a pre-sleep activity.

There are more sophisticated uses for these things for grown ups.

• Set the scene for romantic dinners
• Use in the bathroom to have your bath with (Don’t forget the bubble bath!)
• Use in ‘your space’ for quiet contemplation or relaxation

Have fun with these and create your own ambiance! Happy crafting!

Stamps are great for motifs or words that you use often in your crafting projects. They all don’t have to be store bought. Your own customized foam stamps are easy to make. Start making your own stamp stash with this easy project. Use up your left over foam shapes. These really work and are re-useable.

Craft Materials

• foam shapes/letters
• white glue
• scissors
• polystyrene food tray

A good idea would be to make stamps of the child’s name and other family members names or for words that you will use often. Words that come to mind for this are ‘Joy, Love, Happiness, Cute’.

Making the Stamps

Sort out the shapes you want to make stamps from.

When making words turn the letters upside down and placing the letters from right to left and glue them onto some kind of base to make a mirror image.

I used a a polystyrene food tray for this. Find out more about foam meat trays.

Cut around the shapes or words to make individual stamps.

Using the Stamps

Apply paint to stamp with pieces of kitchen sponge for quick, even coverage.

Cleaning the Stamps

Rinse under cold water and dab them dry, or just let them drip dry.

Further customization

Make your own shapes with stencil templates and foam sheets.

Find an image, silhouette you like and trace shapes with an old used-up ballpoint pen

Foam craft sheets are great for making your own shapes with. They are easy to cut with scissors. There are plenty free printables for shapes and outlines. Here’s a sheet of basic outlines to begin your own stamp stash collection with.

Download Foam Stamp Shapes Template

A heart, star, hand, bird, arrow, sun and moon. Finding other shapes is easy. Do an online search for silhouettes, shapes, outlines and stencils. You may need to resize them according to your needs.

Have fun with these… Happy Crafting!

Here’s something you could DIY as a Gift for anyone.

Material Needed:

• Fabric Paint
• A brush for painting ( I used a fine tipped brush)
• A T-shirt
• Cup of water for washing brush between colors

Time: About 20 minutes

Difficulty Level :Easy

Step 1: Place a sheet of paper or book inside the T shirt right beneath where you wish to draw. This helps prevent seeping of colors.

Step 2: Start with white paint. You can always add other colors on top of white, this gives a purer color. Or you could leave it as white.

Step 3: Draw freehand swirls and curved lines. Or you could try for straight lines, but these are harder to do at the start.

 Step 4: Wash your brush. Best to paint on a piece of paper or tissue to get rid of excess water.

Step 5: Choose a darker color similar to the T shirt color. I chose red.

Step 6: Paint some swirls or dots in red.

Inverted colors of the original for a different color combination.

Reminder:

Iron on reverse before washing.

I have used normal detergents and washed in normal machine wash(cold water) and the colors seem to last for quite a while.

For best colors, apply more than one coat of acrylic/fabric paint.

This Styrofoam glider is a fun weekend project to do with your kids. (Get them into crafting earlier!) Project includes a template for the glider. Easy to make and fun to decorate, plus you can see how far it will fly!

Supplies:

FloraCraft Foam: Four – Sheets, ½”x12″x12″

Other Materials:

• Acrylic Paint
• Dimensional Fabric Paint
• Toothpicks
• Glider Template

Tools:

• Design It: Foam Cutter or Serrated Knife
• Low-Temp Glue Gun and glue sticks
• Paint Brushes: wide flat brush and detailing brush
• Paper (for templates)
• Black Marker
• ½” Sequin Pins

Instructions

1. Print and enlarge the templates to size needed. Hint: You can use a photocopier to copy and enlarge templates.
2. Pin the templates to the sheets of foam and trace with black marker: one body, two wings, two tail wings and one tail fin.
3. Remove the templates and cut out the plane parts using the foam cutter.
4. Use the scrap pieces of foam like a sanding block to “sand” the square edges of the foam parts smooth, making it look more authentic.
5. Glue the parts together, inserting toothpicks between the parts for a more secure bond.
6. Paint desired colors and let dry completely.

I love the look of mercury glass. It’s perfect in almost every style of decor or season. It can be simple, elegant, romantic or modern depending entirely on what you do with it. It has only one problem. It can be prohibitively expensive. But not anymore. Turn any old glass jar into dazzling faux mercury glass with two simple ingredients (hint, one of them is water!)

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Glass jars, vases or bowls
• Water
• Mirror spray paint

1. Lightly mist the inside of your glass. If you have a wide mouth jar or a bowl, you may want to tape off the outside.

2. Spray a thin coat of Mirror paint into the inside of the jar or bottle. Allow the paint to drip down and coat the inside, you want the coat to be uneven.

3. Allow the paint to dry and then repeat until you have the level of mirror finish that you desire (2-3 coats is usually sufficient).

You can also use this technique on the outside of a jar candle to create a Mercury Glass Candle.

These pillar jars are perfect and pretty storage for all sorts of bits and bobs. Show off your buttons or beads in them, hold earrings and necklaces elegantly or make the ordinary extraordinary by storing everyday bathroom items in these pretty little containers.

Here’s what you need:

• Empty jam jars – labels removed
• Strong craft glue
• Candlesticks
• Spray paint

1. On a covered and well ventilated work surface, coat the candlesticks and lids in several thin layers of paint. It’s better to have lots of thin layers than one thick one!

2. Once the paint is dry add a generous layer of glue to the top of the candlestick and center the jar over it. Press firmly so that the glue adheres well. Allow the glue to dry.

3. Fill the jars, add the lids and set them somewhere to be admired!

I was cruising You Tube last week, and got totally sucked into watching videos on nail art. I believe art and creativity can be everywhere and anywhere. I was very impressed with the artists who chose something as small as finger nails! The videos made it look so easy, that I had to try it.

Here is the video I watched and followed along with:

I have to admit, my first few attempts were not as easy as she made it look. After a while I did get the hang of her technique of water marbling. My design is more subtle than hers, but I liked how it turned out!

The best tip I picked up from this You Tube Channel is using a paint brush to get off the excess nail polish. Just dip a narrow brush in nail polish remover and move the brush around your nail bed.

In January this year I was overjoyed when my niece gave birth to a little baby girl. There was a rush within the family to buy presents for this new addition and I saw many of them giving things like clothes and toys but I wanted to do do something a bit different. Something that marked her birth and would be a keepsake for her in years to come. So, I decided that I would paint her a canvas with her name and birth date on it.

I looked online for ideas and after much deliberation I decided that I would use an owl theme. I know from my card making that Owls are very on trend at the moment and so this seemed like a good choice. I created a mental picture of what I wanted it to look like and went out to a local craft shop to buy a canvas. I got a small square canvas and then I went to my local DIY store where I bought a number of paint tester pots. Acrylic paints soon add up in price and so this seemed like a great way to save some cash.

After all of this, I armed myself with a paintbrush and just went for it. I had only previously painted two canvases before this and so this seemed like quite a big task of myself. Eventually (after a few weeks of hard work!) I finished my picture. I used raised paints that come in a nozzled tube to add the writing and the rest of the picture is just done with my tester pots. I added the buttons on as eyes to make it a little more 3dimensional and interesting.

I hope to do much more painting as I really enjoyed the whole experience. Here are a couple of things I learned along the way:

• It is best to draw out the picture you see in your head and keep it next to you the whole time. I also kept a few example pictures that I found on the internet with me too.
• If you are going to mix your own colors then make sure that you have more than enough. There were a couple of times when I got into a bit of a panic because I thought that the color I had mixed would run out!
• Have a break in order to refocus. After sitting for a few hours you can get quite tired and a bit bleary eyed. I found that I painted much better when I had regular breaks and a chocolate biscuit!
• Practice writing in paint on a piece of paper first so that you get it right on the canvas!

My niece really liked the unique present and it will look great on her pink bedroom wall!

Easter always falls between March 22 and April 25. This year it’s April 24th. I’m looking forward to my annual chocolate bunny. Make this Contemporary Easter Egg Tree to deocrate your house for the Easter Bunny!

Materials

STYROFOAM Brand Foam:

DecoArt Textures:

Design Master Spray:

14″ lengths of sheer ribbon for each egg, coordinated colors
Twenty-four 1″ filigree accents
140 self-adhesive 3mm gem stones: Clear, Gold and Charcoal
Approx. 24″ tall, white wire tree
6″ length of 24 gauge wire
Paper shreds, gold
Twelve wood craft picks
Table knife, palette knife or texture tool
Glue gun and glue sticks
Scissors
1/2″ wide flat brush
Newspapers

Instructions

1. Apply texture. Cover work surface with newspapers. Insert craft picks into bottom end of each egg. (Note: after texturing each egg, insert into Styrofoam block to dry.) According to manufacturer’s instructions, apply each texture to one egg in each of the three sizes of eggs as follows:

• For stucco eggs: Use knife to apply one coat onto three eggs, moving knife back and forth to create stripes.
• For crackle eggs: Brush primer – sealer onto three eggs. Let dry. Use knife to apply smooth coat of crackle texture to eggs, like flat-frosting a cake. (Note: the thicker the application, the larger the cracks, the thinner the application, the finer the cracks.)
• For thick texture eggs: Use knife to apply one coat onto three eggs, moving knife on and off egg to create bumpy texture.
• For glass texture eggs: Use brush to apply two smooth coats of glass texture onto three eggs. Let dry between coats.

2. Paint eggs. Spray stucco texture eggs stripes of Copper and Brilliant Silver, allowing colors to slightly run together. Return eggs to Styrofoam block to dry. Spray crackle eggs Antique Gold. Spray thick texture eggs Copper. Spray gloss texture eggs Brilliant Silver.

3. Attach accents and ribbon. Remove adhesive dot from filigree accents and discard. Thread 8″ ribbon length through filigree accent. (Tip: For ease in putting ribbon through filigree accent, fold 6″ wire length in half. Place center of ribbon length into folded end of wire. Thread cut ends of wire through hole – similar to using a needle and thread.) Remove wire and trim ribbon ends at bottom of filigree accent. Use glue gun to attach to top of egg. For bottom filigree accent, repeat, using 6″ ribbon length. Cut bottom loop with scissors so that four cut ends of ribbon extend out. Hot glue to bottom of egg.

4. Embellish eggs. Attach jewels into three cluster formations on silver eggs and randomly attach jewels to striped silver and copper eggs . Hang eggs onto wire tree. Place gold paper shreds at base of tree. (Note: If gold shreds unavailable, spray natural kraft color shreds with Antique Gold.)

I love those artfully etched glasses out there on the market. But I don’t love the price tag. So instead of forever drooling over something I’m not willing to spend my hard earned money on (not with kids in the house!) I’ve decided to make my own, and they couldn’t be simpler.

Here’s what you need:

• Contact paper
• Etching Cream
• Paintbrush
• Clear glasses
• Die cutter or digital cutter
• Rubber gloves

1. Using your cutter, cut out intricate and pretty shapes from the contact paper. Remove the cut section and keep the remaining stencil.

2. Peel the backing off of the stencil and apply to the glasses. Smooth out any bubbles carefully.

3. Apply a thick coat of etching cream and allow the cream to work according to the directions on the label.

4. Wearing your gloves, peel off the stencil and wash away the cream with warm water. Run the glasses through the dishwasher before using to remove any traces of etching cream.

As the weather turns from brisk to downright cold, our family spends a lot more time indoors during the winter than during the rest of the year. And with two young children and a small house, we spend a lot of time with small, easy to do crafts that keep our afternoons busy. This is one of those projects. If your kids are great with their scissor skills or you are going to do the cutting, you could use up some of your fabric scraps up with this project, but for little fingers, lightweight scrapbook paper is best.

Here’s what you need:

Scrapbook paper scraps
Woodcut people
Glue Stick
Pencil
Scissors
Markers

1. Trace around the tops, bottoms and head of your cutout people on different colors and patterns of papers.

2. Cut out, or have your child cut out, the “clothes” and “hair” for their puppets.

3. Using your glue stick, apply a thin coat of glue to the wood and smooth the “clothes” onto the wood.

4. Make faces to finish off your puppets and put on a show!

Still need to get those holiday thank you cards out? Want to include your kids in the process? Let them create the art for your cards and help print them too with this simple, kid friendly, block printing technique. Instead of using traditional block printing medium and carving tools, this process uses recycled styrofoam meat trays and ball point pens to create the blocks, making it the perfect family activity.

Here’s what you need:

Styrofoam trays

Scissors
Ball point pens (or knitting needles)
Block printing paint
Rubber Brayer
Cardstock cut and folded into cards
Scrap cardboard (or an extra tray)

1. Cut your trays into small, flat rectangles, discarding the sides.

2. Have your kids draw images onto the foam with the pens. Encourage them to use most or all of the space and not to focus on too many details that might get lost in the printing (family portraits are a great theme here!)

3. Squeeze a small amount of paint onto the cardboards and roll the brayer through several times until a thin coat of pain covered the entire surface of the roller.

4. Roll over the print with the loaded brayer. You want the paint to cover the surface without working down into the grooves of the drawing.

5. Lay your paper over the block and smooth with your fingers, being sure you get all the corners, Peel the paper away and allow it to dry.

I’m not sure why, but my kids have a thing about cuckoo clocks. They really like them. REALLY like them. And they have been asking for one for ages. While I love them to bits, I’m not about to deal with a real cuckoo clock singing it’s little heart out all day while I’m at home working and they are at school, so we’ve compromised and agreed that a pretend cuckoo clock will do until they have a house of their own. And since we couldn’t find a pretend cuckoo clock, we decided to make one!

You’ll need:

• Unfinished wooded birdhouse or birdhouse kit (assembled)
• Dark brown wood stain
• Foam brushes
• Cardstock
• Markers
• Craft Sticks
• Red craft paint
• Small bird figurine
• Craft glue
• Craft knife
• Heavy cording or small link chain
• Two small decorative beads

1. Begin by staining the entire birdhouse and the finials or beads. Allow the stain to set for at least 24 hours before handling.

2. In the meantime, paint the craft sticks with two coats of red paint and cut 1 inch off each end. Keep all the rounded end pieces and two of the straight edged pieces.

3. Attach the craft sticks in layers along the roof to create shingles, starting with the bottom edge and moving up. Touch up any paint as needed.

4. Insert the bird into the opening and glue into place. Attach the two flat edged pieces of tongue depressor to either side to create “doors”

5. Cut a circle out of cardstock and punch a hole in the center. Draw on numbers and hands and slip over the post of the birdhouse. Glue into place.

6. Glue the beads to either end of the cording or chain and hang, slightly uncentered, from the bottom.

7. Hang on the wall and enjoy the fact that you have a cuckoo-less cuckoo clock!

A couple of months ago, my dear blogger friend, MizMollye, sent me these:

I have to admit to some befuddlement. What were they for? (Yes, you are allowed that snort of derision.) I lay them out and sorted them, and began to get some idea of usefulness.

They might be plain, but they were beginning to look very interesting.

It was when I decided to make some autumn tags that it finally hit me: Whatever those things were, they were great! And not in spite of their lack of color, but because of it. I painted three of them orange, and used them to bracket the tops of my tags: 

I topped them with silk leaves and buttons, and even stamped on them:

Well, after making the tags, I had to have more of those things. Of course, first I had to figure out what they were called, since they came in that box that said they were an album, which clearly they were not. (Did I jut hear another snort?) It did come to me: Chipboard! I started my quest at the brick & mortar stores near me, but found little. Everything they had was covered with glitter, and I wanted something more customizable.

I hit the real payday at CreateForLess.com. Here are just a few of the shapes I found:

(Two of those are sold out, but you can ask them to email you when they’re back in stock.)

There are, a quick search showed, 149 die cut shapes to be had there, not including alphabets and numbers. I feel a shopping excursion coming on!

I’d like to use the autumn tags, or Christmas tags later, as plate decorations at the Thanksgiving or Christmas table, a small gift for each guest.

And that sparks another idea: Tags quite often have “To:” and “From” on the back. In our family, we’ve always gone around the table at Thanksgiving, and each said what we’re grateful for that year. Why not have each guest fill in the blanks with who they are grateful to, and for what? Then put them in a basket, and draw one out at intervals during dinner, or during the day, to be read, for a day truly full of gratitude.

My children, who happily share a room despite being different ages and sexes, also share a useless closet that has, up to now, just been filled with junk. It’s not really tall enough for a true closet, it wraps around in a snail shell shape which makes storage difficult, and it has no light, so it’s pretty dark in there. The only thing that it’s been really handy for is a fort. And periodically they will pull out all the stuff that they have shoved in there when they are supposed to be cleaning their rooms and set up house inside. So we’ve decided to make it official, it is no longer the closet, it’s the fort. And being the children of two parents who are constantly renovating their house, they wanted some improvements. Beginning with the walls. Together they decided it needed to be a cottage, like something out of a story book. After some discussion (“No, I’m not going to wallpaper in there!”) We settled on stenciling. They chose the pattern and colors, I did the work (typical!). I remember stenciling with my mom years ago but hadn’t tackled a true stenciling project since, so if you are like me and needed some tips, here are the basics to stenciling!

You’ll need:

Stencils – there are so many to choose from these days!

Stencil Paint - *Note – craft paint won’t work here, trust me, I found that out the hard way!

Stencil brush or sponge

Masking tape

Pencil

1. Start by marking out your space. For this wall, we wanted to leave an opening in the stencil for a “window” that will be painted on next (with cows out in the grass and curtains it seems). Get a rough idea of how many repeats you’ll need both up and down and side to side so that your pattern is even.

2. Once you know where your pattern is going and what your spacing will be, tape your stencil in place at your starting point . For my spacing, it worked best to start in the center.

3. Tape off the parts of the stencil you are not painting in the first layer. Yes, you can try to avoid them with your brush, but taping off the unused parts makes life easier and the process faster.

4. Dab the end of your brush into the stencil paint. It’s very thick and slightly waxy, almost like lipstick, so you don’t need a lot. Blot as needed on a paper towel.

5. Apply the paint in a swirling motion onto the stencil, turning the brush in small circles to apply the paint evenly.

6. Work the entire surface in one color and then allow the paint to dry overnight before proceeding to the next color, being sure to remove any tape and clean your stencils between layers.

7. Remember that you don’t have to use all parts to the stencils, and you can combine different stencils to make a more complex pattern. Try a few ideas out on paper (or your wall if you’re really bold – or have leftover wall paint) and have fun!

Do you ever miss happy mail? You know, going to the mailbox and pulling out something other than a bill or piece of advertising? I sure do, and I know for certain I’m not the only one, with email so dominant, this year I decided my treats for Halloween were going to be something that would bring a smile at the mailbox. I’m sending postcards!

As I was cleaning up my craft table the other day, I noticed that some foam letters had arranged themselves in a group that looked very like the beginning of a skeleton. Ooh, I thought. Could you make an entire skeleton using them? The answer was YES, and in a few minutes I’d created a skeleton stamp.

If you’d like to make one, too, you’ll need:

Foam alphabet stickers, all caps, about 3/4″-1″ tall:

• 1 Q
• 2 E’s
• 2 P’s
• 4 L’s                      
• 2 I’s
• The centers from 2 O’s

A backing/support for your skeleton. I used the lid from a whipped topping container, which was translucent.

Arrange your letters something like this:

The original thought was to add a hat, but I decided to leave it off.

As you can see, only two of the letters need to be reversed–one E, and one P–to form the left sides of the ribcage and hip bones. Those two you will glue to your support piece, rather than using the sticker’s adhesive.

Cut tiny triangles from the O centers to create fingers.

You can play with the positioning of the arms, legs, and head, until you find a pose you like. Keep in mind that if you’re arranging the stickers with the adhesive side down, your stamp will be a mirror image of what you see. If you want to see it as it will stamp, turn the letters face down. Once you’ve created the pose you want, peel off the protective papers and stick the letters to the support/base, starting with the head, and working down. For the two letters that you’ll glue, make sure they’re exactly where you want them before you remove the papers; otherwise, they’ll stick to your fingers when you try to move them and not let go! (And yes, that IS the voice of experience, lol.) Once the glue on those two letters is dry, you can pat a little talcum powder on them, which will take away the stickiness.

You now have a skeleton stamp to play with!

To make a postcard using my new stamp, I took some cardstock I thought had that “Halloween feeling”, and cut it to postcard size. (USPS allows a maximum size of 6″ X 4.25″, and a minimum size of 5″ X 3.5″, or 15.2cm X 10.8cm and 12.7cm X 8.9cm)

Then I stamped the skeleton on it, using three of my new word stamps to say “Happy Boo Day”. The first time, I used black ink for everything, but then decided I’d like the skeleton better white, after all. I took a stiff bristle brush and painted on white craft paint, and over-stamped the original skeleton. (You have to love a stamp base you can see through!)

Of course, after that, I had to see what it would look like if I just used the white, without the black underneath:

Personally, I like it better with the black under it, as the skeleton seems to show up better.

Last step: Turn your new postcard over and divide it in half so you have one side for the address, and the other for a brief message. You can simply draw a vertical line, or use another stamp:

For another easy card, cut a postcard-size piece of cardstock that pumpkins would look good against. I chose one that looked kind of “vine-y”. Now cut three or four circles of pumpkin-Design paper or cardstock. Arrange them on the card in a pleasing arrangement. Placing the larger disks near the bottom of the card, with the smaller ones nearer the top will give a sense of distance, as your mind interprets “smaller” as farther away, and “higher” as being the far horizon.

Once you’ve decided on your placement, you can pencil in jack o’ lantern faces on each of them, and then black in the features. Glue them in place on the card and write or stamp, “Oooooooooooh” in a curvy line across the card. Last step is to turn the card over and divide it in half as you did the other one.

Someday I will have the time and patience to embroider some cute flour sacking tea towels for my kitchen. I love the way they look and that you can vary them for the season, but alas, bad eyes and impatience has kept me away from most embroidery projects. That doesn’t mean, however, that I can’t have some fun tea towels this fall. A little freezer paper and paint and voila, cute, acorn towels to hang off my stove or drape over rising bread for those chilly fall evenings.

Here’s what you need!

Acorn Stencil
Freezer Paper
Fabric Paint
Foam Brushes
Flour sacking tea towels
Scissors
Craft knife
Iron

1. Cut a piece of freezer paper to 8 1/2″ x 11″ and print the template directly onto the paper (plastic side down).

2. Cut out the stencil carefully with your craft knife.

3. Iron on the stencil, centered near the bottom of your tea towel.

4. Sponge on yoru fabric paint, making sure you get paint all the way to the edges. Allow the paint to dry.

5. Peel off the stencil and heat set the paint with your iron.

Collage, in both “hard copy” and digital forms is very popular right now, and I’m a fan of both. It’s relaxing, almost zen-like to sit with my materials, arranging, re-arranging, and layering them. Digitally, I love the fact that you can create what are basically transparent layers, which is mostly not an option with “real” images and materials.

Except that it is, at least with printed items. You can make decals, and it’s really quite easy to do it. I’m familiar with two products you can use, Liquitex Gloss Medium, and Omni-Gel. The process is the same with both products.

You’ll need:

Omni-Gel OR Liquitex Gloss Medium
Soft paint brush
Printed images—almost any will work, except for inkjet or photographs
A dish that is larger than your print(s)
Water

So first decide what images you want to use. Cut them out, leaving a generous edge around any that you want to completely cover the collage surface. Protect your work surface with plastic wrap, which will let you peel the finished decals/transfers off when they’ve dried, and lay the images print side up on it. Paint each image with a coat of the medium, allowing the medium to extend beyond the paper just a bit, and let dry. I usually just squeeze a drop or two of medium on the image and spread it around.

When the medium is dry, spread on another layer. If you’ve painted with up-and-down strokes on the first layer, make the second layer’s strokes go side-to-side. Let that layer dry, and paint on a third layer, again with brush strokes that go in a different direction than the layer before.

Three layers of medium is generally enough; I sometimes do four, but it probably isn’t necessary.  You’ll now have what looks and feels like a picture coated with a plastic sheet.

When the last layer is thoroughly dry, peel your images off the plastic and soak them in the dish of water. (If an image resists being peeled off, you can cut right at the edge of the paper, and slip your finger between the picture and the plastic.) Don’t worry if the transfer medium turns a little milky while soaking.

Soak the pictures until the paper is good and wet, but not more than twenty minutes, then take each one out of the water and lay it face-down on a clean, smooth surface—a plate works well.

Rub the paper with your fingers, and it will roll up and come away from the transfer.

Rub until ALL the paper is gone. You’ll know you’re finished when you don’t feel any fuzziness at all, and the transfer is completely transparent.

You now have a decal!

To use it, just paint the back with more of the transfer medium, and apply it wherever you like on your project. Make sure your fingers are absolutely clean—any little bit of anything will imbed itself and show later!

One of the things I love about the finished decal is that it’s stretchy. You can cover uneven surfaces, or pull the image around the edges of a plaque, and smooth it out completely, as you can see from the little project below:

To make it, I used three images I’d turned into decals—the background trees (scrapbooking paper), the blue bird (cut from a magazine), and the bit of music (from an old music book). As you can see, the plaque I used had a crenellated edge, and a raised circle about 1/2″. The transfer stretched over every irregularity and clung there. On the back, I just squished the gathered edge down and used a bit more medium to glue them in place.

You can also use the transfer medium to create pendants. The first image in this post doesn’t give you scale, but each piece is a half-globe in shape, with a transfer stretched over it. The half-globes were molded in measuring spoons—1/4 teaspoon, 1/2 teaspoon, and 1 teaspoon—so they’re quite a nice size to glue on a bail and put on a necklace or bracelet.