Crafty - it's not as hard as it looks #AtoZChallenge

About two years ago my aunt, daughter and I started Crafty Saturdays.

So far we've done glass painting:

Diffuser necklaces to use with essential oils, or just for the fashion forward:

Shoe painting:

And various other stuff painting:

And creative use of stickers, frames, photos and scrapbook tools... ing:

We've also made rubber band bracelets and melty bead object and created houses out of Popsicle sticks, among other things. And let me be the first to say, I am not particularly talented. I just devoted a few hours a week to creating something crafty and not worry about laundry or cleaning the house or anything else. It has been great bonding time for us, and I have some wonderful things to show for that time too.

If this sounds like fun to you, you should totally go for it. Artistic ability isn't required, just the desire to create something and have fun doing it.

P is for Painting #AtoZChallenge

So... I paint. Not a lot and not super well, but I do paint :)

Sometimes I paint on glass - which is a lot of fun. It's also a great way to make gifts for friends and family and honestly, you don't really need artistic skill to do it. You can find patterns and even pre-made designs to help you plot out your project.

Sometimes I paint on canvas...

 

Bessie the Suspicious Cow

 

Happy as a Pig in Mud

For my love - those are stickers over my painting. I got the sticker on Amazon.

And sometimes I paint on the walls...

The most important thing about painting... have fun with it. It doesn't have to be "perfect" - mine certainly aren't. But they're fun and I enjoyed doing them. 

Happy Painting!

Crafty Saturdays - Glass Painting

Last year Angie, Pat and I started doing Crafty Saturdays. We've had a lot of fun with them!

Some of our first projects were glass painting. You can do so many things with glass paints, between the three of us we've made:

• Christmas ornaments
• Picture frames
• Glasses
• Vases
• Pencil cups
• Pictures

Many of these ended up as gifts - which made it even more fun. 

A lot of people asked how we made these projects - it's actually pretty simple and is not expensive.

We use Plaid paints. To get started, I recommend their book Glass Art: The Easy Way. You can get it on Amazon for about $4 used ($0.01, plus shipping). The book tells you exactly how to lay out the leading and create different paint effects. There are also several patterns in there that you can use for a wide variety of projects.

You can also pick up the paints on Amazon - individually or in packs. Michael's also carries them, and other craft stores may as well. The paints are a few dollars each, and are plenty big enough to use on many projects. 

Here are some of our projects:

This was for my friend Lisa - she had created the picture in the back, I recreated it on a glass.

This one always reminds me of Stephanie <3 td="">

I designed this one - it was my very first project. A Christmas present for my mother in law :)

A Christmas present for my step mom - more on these ones below.

One of my favorites - I just love his expression. 

Pat's kitchen cabinet doors.

This idea actually came straight out of the book I mentioned.

The process is very simple. 

Lay out the leading - either by tracking a picture under the glass or free handing it. 

These were inspired by an artist named Jean Paul

I purchased these canisters from Target - they worked great!

Then lay in the color, be sure not to add too much or it will run. For these, we swirled the colors.

Then let them dry. Finally, add Crystal Clear (it's another Plaid "color") around the edges of the leading to seal the paint. On these we also swirled Crystal Clear over the rest of the canisters to give them sort of a frosted finish. 

If you goof up, and we did a few times on these actually, you can simply score and peel off the portions that didn't work out and start over.