Mini Pallet Night Sky Painting

This week I wanted to show you "mini painting" ideas!

This project will also be taught as a class on April 14th from 5-7p at our HouseMart Ben Franklin Enchanted Lake location! The fee is $35 with all supplies included!


Supplies: 
at least 20 popsicle sticks
2 longer sticks
acrylic paint in white, black, assorted blues, purples, teals and pinks
1" wide rectangle nylon paintbrush
cup of water
hot glue / hot glue gun
black ribbon
silver Minc foil
Zig 2 way glue pen


First, hot glue your popsicle sticks to two longer sticks. I used 16, but feel free to experiment with different lengths and sizes! 

Next, paint your mini pallet with your assorted colors, starting from black and working down to purple, blue, and teal and pink.

Next, after your background is completely dry, sprinkle some watered down white paint using your paintbrush over the surface to create stars!

Then once your stars are dry, you can use your Zig glue pen, and Minc foil to make a few of the stars extra shiny!


 Then all you need to do is paint a silhouette of palm trees using black paint! 

Hot glue a bow and a ribbon to the top, and ta da!
A super cute night scene!

Have fun!

Bethany @Enchanted Lake


 

Mason Jar Mixed Media Decor

Happy Monday creative crafters! I've been having so much fun getting inspired to decorate mason jars, I thought I would share with you a few different techniques you can use to spruce up any jar or even vase or glass bowl! Today's project is mixed media! And all the supplies used can be found at any local House Mart Ben Franklin craft store!

Supplies:
vinyl
scissors
Montana Spray Paint in 2 different shades of pink
black oil based marker
black puffy paint / black BoBunny Perler pen

First, I cut out an oval from the vinyl sheet (contact paper) and placed it on the glass. Then I spray painted the whole thing in both colors of pink using the Montana brand.
Once the paint was dry, I peeled off the vinyl, outlined the oval with the black oil based marker, and squeezed out little dots around it using the puffy paint / BoBunny Perler pen!

Supplies:
crepe paper
matte Mod Podge
brush
holiday ribbon / red burlap ribbon
hot glue gun / hot glue sticks
Snow Tex textured paste
Holiday themed wood slice 

First coat entire surface with Mod Podge using your brush and wrap your crepe paper all the way around. I added an extra coat of Mod Podge on the outer surface to seal the paper and make it more translucent. Once dry (maybe 2 hours) hot glue your choice of holiday ribbon around the outside and hot glue your wood slice as your finishing touch (I used it to hide the ribbon ends.) Then I used a brush and Snow Tex paste to add more texture around the top of the jar. I even applied a little to the top of the wood slice and the top edges of the ribbons! This will take several hours to dry but it is oh so cute!

Supplies:
dark spray paint (I used dark purple)
Ceramcoat acrylic paint in the color lavender  
brush
Ceramcoat Crackle clear gel 

First paint the entire outer surface with the dark spray paint. Allow to fully dry, and then using your brush, apply the crackle gel to the entire outer surface with a generous coat and set aside to dry until tacky for 10-15 minutes. Then with a clean brush, "lay" strokes of lavender acrylic paint over the clear gel layer. As the paint dries, it will start to crackle! The thicker the paint strokes the wider the cracks! Be sure to only paint in one direction so your cracks will match each other.

Supplies:
sand colored stone spray
vinyl alphabet stickers
Design Master or Montana blue spray paint 

This process is very similar to the first process! Place your stickers on the glass, and then spray with first blue, and then your sandy stone spray! Because I sprayed the stone spray really really thickly, it had to dry for a few hours before I could remove the stickers without ripping or smudging. But how cool right? What a cute place to put your found seashells!

Supplies:
BoBunny Perler Pens in multiple colors 

This process uses minimal supplies, but definitely takes the most focus and patience! I started at the very top with dots, and then every third dot made a teardrop. Then every other teardrop I made a half circle. Use your shapes as a guide as well as a design! Keep building and adding detail. This process also takes about 1-2 hours to fully dry. 


So those are just a few mason jar ideas you can play and experiment with. Have fun and happy crafting!!

Bethany @EnchantedLake

Halloween Apothecary Jar

     Are you ready for some frightful fun?  Halloween is next month, and it's about time for us crafters to get started on our spooky decor for the holiday.  Today, I have the perfect project lined up so that you will be ready for some ghoulish fun... A Halloween Apothecary Jar!  

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Let's get started!

You will need

Glass jar

Black Chalky Finish

Acrylic Paint (Assorted Colors) 

Brown Paint or Distress Ink

Brown or Black Paint Marker or Felt Pen

Scissors

Glue Gun

Cardstock

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Step 1: Take the top off your jar if it comes with one. Squirt some hot glue onto the rim of the jar and let it run down the sides.  Don't let it run too much!

Step 2(not pictured): After your glue is dry, paint the entire jar with the black chalky finish.  It doesn't have to be perfect!  Remember, it's old and distressed.  Unless you want to sand it later, let your dry brush to all the work.  Leave some pockets of glass visible.  Streaks?  Who cares! Also, keep in mind that you want to leave the glue gun "leaks" on the rim of your jar as clear as you can.

Step 3: Draw/write your label onto your cardstock and cut it out.  I recommend using a brown or black pen to stick to the vintage look. 

Step 4: Crumble up your label.  Yup.  Do it.  This will make it look more old and distressed because of the added texture.

 

Step 5: Now you want to unfold your label again and then weather your label with some brown paint.  Use a dry brush and very little paint.  Mod Podge this label onto your jar and let dry.

Step 6: Distress your jar even further by using your dry brush and some green paint to add more detail to the leaks. You can make it more dimensional by adding gold to your leaks.  I decided to streak just a little bit of the green and gold onto the rest of the jar as well.  It's okay if you go over the label a little bit too, as long as you stick to the borders.

 Step 7: This part is optional, but hot-gluing some moss onto the sides and top of your jar will add a really creepy and Witch-y look.

Also, if you have a cork that fits your jar, or if you're lucky and your jar already cam with one, you can make it look dingier by lightly staining it brown to make it darker.  After that, hot glue bits of moss onto it and glue it back onto your jar!

     All you Potterheads out there, make some noise!  Apothecary jars are that perfect mix of creepy, dark, mysterious, magical and fascinating.  What's cooler feeling like you have all the different ingredients around you to make a potion or conduct a spell?  Now, you can!  Create your own apothecary and potion jars this Halloween for some magical decor!  Then, you can invite friends and family to "Come sit for a spell.." (Ba dum TSS!)  

As always, have FUN and see you next week!

Erika @ PC

Mermaid Scale Frame

Get ready for a whole lot of purple!

Instead of the usual teal and pink combination that we usually associate with 

the mermaid, I'm putting another enchanting hue in the spotlight.

Over the past few months, mermaids have been EVERYWHERE.

(We even have a mermaid birthday party as this month's Pinspiration Station theme

at our Pearl City Store!)  So, what I've decided to make this week was a

 mermaid-themed gift that was simple to make, 

and REALLY affordable.  It's also a great summer project to do with your kids.

This project, my fellow crafters, is a Mermaid Scale Frame!

 

 

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 Let's get started!

***  Supplies Needed  ***

SPC Wooden Frame

4 inch Wooden Letter

Ceramcoat Acrylic Paint*

1 inch Flat Acrylic Paintbrush

Hot Glue Gun or Wood Glue

Paint Pen*

*use color(s) desired

 The colors I used for my frame were multiple shades of purple, teal and white.

The exact names are Passion Purple, Lavender, GP Purple, White and Coastal Waters.

(The last color mentioned was actually a Delta Americana acrylic paint, which basically just dries to

a Satin finish instead of matte like Ceramcoat.)

I made a scalloped, "scale" pattern starting from the bottom of my frame.  

Every time I painted the next layer of scales up, I made sure to overlap the previous one. 

This is where you can have fun with the colors.  Even if you have only four or five colors,

you can mix them up to make new shades or even add depth to your scales.  For example,

I blended a little of the dark GP Purple into the lighter Passion purple shade to get a nice shadow effect.  After letting your scales dry, you can even add some detail by dotting on dark paint over the light-colored scales and vice versa.  

 

I then painted the wooden letter and added pearl detailing using a BoBunny Pearl Pen.

This is basically a puffy paint for hard crafts and scrapbooking.  It works on wood, paper and clay

and dries to a pearlized finish.  After this, I glued the 'M' to the top right corner of my frame!

To personalize it even more, you can even write the name of your friend, mom, sister or whoever the 

receiver of this amazing gift is on your frame with a paint pen.  I used a black fine tip Montana marker.  That wraps up this project!  As always, don't hesitate to change it up and make it your own.

Have fun with it and enjoy!

See you all next week!

Erika @ PC

Distress Stain Postcard

Hi, Everyone!

 

Today, I'm going to show you how to do a really simple technique that involves the elusive Distress Stain inks that we have in our scrapbooking sections.  They're a product that something that kind gets looked over often and I wanted to start bringing them back into the "Crafter's Spotlight". 

I'll start off small.  5 x 7 inch to be exact.

 

I chose stains in Frayed Burlap, Stormy Sky and Weathered Wool.  I also have a .08 tip Micron pen for some hand-lettering. 

 

 

 I taped down a 5 x 7" watercolor postcard to my table with masking tape to keep the paper from bowing too much.  I put a wash down just to get the paper wet.  This is just so that the distress stains, which are water-based and can therefore be handled like watercolors, will flow freely without forming a harsh edge when dry.  Just make sure that your brush is sopping wet before doing so.  I then brushed on a little bit of Frayed Burlap. 

 

 

What I wanted to achieve was a somewhat tie-died look.  Soft edges and colorful patches that sort of "bloom" on your paper.  So, use a lot, but not too much water.  You'll see amazing colors flow out of each ink and they will just get more amazing as they dry like this little patch of Stormy Sky. So cool!

After the paper was completely dry, I added a little saying in Micron pen at the bottom right hand corner.  And that's all she wrote!  This is a very versatile technique that's great mixed media scrapbookers and watercolor artists.  It's a beginner technique that is great for making quick postcards to send to family overseas.  And as always, a quirky saying will make it 100 times more personal and cute.

 

Have fun!

Erika @ PC

Chewie Valentine

Hi, Crafters!

Can you guys believe that Valentine's Day is two weeks away?  So fast!

We've all been getting into the Love Day spirit at our stores; writing love notes on the tile floors with acrylic markers, painting up some of our new wood palettes in rosy colors and 

Mod Podging some Valentine's scrapbook paper onto our new Snippets chipboard heart shapes!  Today, I'll show you how to make a really cute and simple Valentine inspired by our favorite Wookie.

Supplies Needed

Snippets Heart Lock & Key Chipboard set

Brown Eyelash Yarn 

Black Paint

Light Green Paint 

Brown and Silver Cardstock Scraps

Scissors

Hot Glue Gun

All you need to do is hot glue an end of yarn to the bottom of the heart-shaped chipboard and wrap continuously until the entire heart is covered in yarn.  A few dabs of hot glue here and there while wrapping will help keep things secure.  Once that's done, cut a 1/2" x 3 1/2" strip out of the brown paper and hot glue small squares of silver paper onto it.  Hot glue it onto the Chewie heart.  After this, you can leave it as it is, or make a little Lightsaber out of the key.  I chose to make mine green like Yoda's, but you can always make it blue, red, purple or red as well.

That's all there is to it!

Have fun and see you all next week!

Erika@PC

Christmas Tree Toy Car Display

Good Day, Crafters!

If you're like me and you have a younger brother who loved to collect

 toy cars as a kid, or even still collects them now, I have a great project that is

 perfect for them.  It's simple and turns out to be a

really cute display once it's finished.

 

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Supplies Needed

Hot Wheels Toy Car

Hot Glue Gun

Twine (not pictured)

Hearty Clay-White

White Acrylic Paint

Mod Podge

Paint

Powdered Snow

Wood Slice

 

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Let's Get Started!

 

 

First, plug in your hot glue gun so that it can heat up.   Then, paint

 one side of your wood slice white.  It doesn't have to be perfect and reach the edges.

Let dry.
 

 

 

Next, shape some of the clay into hill-like shapes.  Let them dry and then hot glue them onto the disc to create a small landscape.  Make sure that there is still enough room for your toy car to fit!

 

After that, brush a thick layer of Mod Podge over your entire landscape and sprinkle on some powdered snow.

 

Next, hot glue your pine trees to the scene. 

 

For this next step, you're gonna need about 10 inches of twine.  Put a drop of hot glue on top of your car to help secure your mini tree for tying. 

 

 

Wrap the twine around the car and the tree and tie it off underneath the car.  Cut off any excess twine. Add a drop of hot glue on the bottom of each wheel to stick your scene and you're done!

 

These are really cute as a small decoration on a coffee table or even as a small centerpiece.  If you're

able to find a small toy car that can fit the tiny Home for the Holidays trees that are about 1 inch tall, you could even make it into an ornament by adding an extra loop of twine at the top!

 

As always, have fun!

Erika @ PC