Paint Sample Art

I have really been inspired by a lot of awesome paint sample art I have seen by posts like these (give examples). Here is my hand at making some easy art to place in an 8x10 frame (or larger with a border).

I snipped off about 1cm of the paint sample where the name of the paint was and I then cut a ton of triangles, initially at random and then at the end to fit. Just glue on with a glue stick and say hello to your new art.

Some art projects had all the chips right next to each other, creating a type of mosaic art. However I chose to have the slight spaces in between because it is just a lot easier to work with, less tedious and I like how it the spaces in a way ties the art together and makes it look clean, not messy.

Are you inspired for some paint sample art? Go steal some paint samples from Home Depot or Lowes (the more the better) and craft away. Send me your creations!

Tin Can DIY

So my latest discovery while stumbling pinterest has been how useful cans are. They are easy to reuse, multi-functional and can create a lot of cute and fun crafts. I have been in desperate need of a run to Hobby Lobby, so this was a perfect way to give me my craft fix.

I did not use a specific tutorial, because it is pretty self-explanatory. Just modge podge some fabric onto a tin. Bam. Your done.

Now one thing some tutorials did is modge podged both the underside and overtop of the fabric, while others did not even use modge podge and used a fabric adhesive spray. As you can see with the silky purple fabric, the tin came out a bit bumpy and not exactly how I imagined it, which was a little disappointing since I love that fabric. Off to the recycling bin.

The other fabric (a stretchy cotton) came out great, except you can see the glue line a bit in the back and I really do not want to modge podge overtop of the fabric to preserve the softness.
I am also contemplating tying a couple strings of hemp chord or burlap around to give it some extra flair.

Now time to find some of my sharpies to put in these cute cans. My rating of the craft is that it’s a great easy fix, but not something I am eager to do again since it comes out less than ideal. I may try using just scrapbooking paper next time if I do! I will let ya’ll know.

As for today, I am off to my job and to hopefully get a couple more crafts done before I head back to college! Plus a Chipotle fix. That is a necessity.

Stained Mason Jars

I had some mason jars I washed and saved for a while after finishing up some canned goods and really wanted to try this craft (see the original tutorial at u-createcrafts). I love the clean, polished look, how you still see the beauty of the jar and especially how easy the recreation seemed!

The other day I tried one pin I found where you put paint on the inside of a mason jar, but I am not really happy with how it turned out. I used a dark forest green which looks nice, but as far as usefulness, I am tentative to put anything in the jar in order to not wreck the paint.

Anywho, onto the stained jar tutorial/review!

What you need: 

• Mason Jars (or any jar will do - as you see I used both a mason jar and a regular canning jar)
• Mod Podge
• Food Coloring
• Paper plates
• Wax Paper

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and get 2 cookie sheets ready by placing a sheet of wax paper over. Mix 2 Tablespoons of water and 4 Tablespoons of Mod Podge and your desired amount of food coloring to a paper plate and mix well. 

Tips:

•  It will be watery, so do not be worried about that
• You may get a few clumps here or there of Mod Podge that has already dried and cannot be mixed in - just make sure you scoop it out or be careful when pouring the mixture into your jar so that you do not get any clumps in
• B careful with the amount of food coloring you add. Less is more.

Next pour the mixture into your jars, coat evenly with a thin layer and pour remaining mixture back out.   Then place your jars upside down on one of the cookie sheets and place in the oven for 3 minutes.

After 3 minutes take the jars out and wipe the rims well with a paper towel (tip - get one slightly damp and the other dry to make your life a little easier). Then place jars right side up on the unused cookie sheet for 30-40 minutes. 

Tips:

• My reasoning behind having two cookie sheets is I found that a lot of the excess mixture made the wax paper pretty messy the fist time you take the jars out of the oven, so in order to prevent any of the mixture getting on the outside of your glass it is just best to have a clean cookie sheet ready to go.

Boom! After 30-40 minutes passes, you can take your jars out and be like "Man. I am so crafty".

Mine turned out a little streaky because I think I had my mixture on a little too thick, but otherwise I love them! I actually think the streaks add a bit of character to the jars. I am definitely going to tie some cute ribbon or rope around the middle or the small jar to spice it up even more.

Overall it was a great and definitely easy tutorial that took me less than an hour to do. Plus there was not much trial and error involved which was also a plus.

What are your favorite mason jar crafts? Let me know in the comments!

New Direction

Hey ya'll! The hiatus I recently posted about basically continued throughout summer. Frankly, I was frustrated with the whole blogging sphere. There are just so many directions I can take and so many things I can do, I was just beyond overwhelmed with what I actually wanted for my blog. So with that, and a definite lack of time, I dropped the whole idea of blogging.

However, after a recent chat with my sorority big (who just did some incredible mission work in the Balkans! Check it out here) and talk of all the crafts I have been making from pinterest, so inspired me. Make a blog on reviews of crafts!

So I am taking my love of crafting and now incorporating it into my love of writing. We all see so many awesome crafts from pinterest, but either a)don't have the initiative to try them or b)try them and they do not turn out as well as we would have liked. I want to tell you all my favorite crafts, the trials and errors and mistakes I make in order to just help you all out!

Don't worry, I will still be posting random posts on my life, food, travels, etc. But I am really feeling the whole pinterest review idea. So get ready ya'll!