Posts Tagged ‘Painting’
Clothespin Mirror Makeover
I’ve had this boring mirror sitting in my garage for about four years now. I had the best intentions when I rescued it from someone’s donate pile. It’s been shuffled around with every “garage-clean-up-day” since we got married. I finally decided to do something with it.
I’m somewhat pleased with the finished product, but wish I’d done a few things differently. Here are my steps (and personal recommendations for things I would change):
Basic supplies will be:
- Paint-I used two different colors but later wish I’d used the same for the mirror and pins. Just do what suits your fancy.
- Clothespins-I bought the cheap ones but later wish I’d splurged the extra dollar and gotten the nicer ones.
- Sandpaper-Any kind will do.
- Paintbrushes-I used the cheap-y sponge brushes…I ended up just throwing them away in the end because the clothespins ate them up so much.
- Glue-I used wood glue because that’s what we already had, but you can probably use any kind.
- A mirror-Mine had a wooden frame.
(Forgive the Hamilton Beach box in the background. I had to do this project in the living room while watching a movie and playing with the baby and it was my “table”. Go multi-tasking skills, go!)
Step 1: Sand down the frame (if wooden). My frame was wooden with some sort of varnish or glossy finish. I should have taken my time with it and sanded more, but I was in a bit of a hurry and didn’t. Wish I had, though…it makes a big difference when painting.
Step 2: Paint your clothespins. This is undoubtedly the most annoying step. I’m not a big painter and painting twenty-something little things with lots of angles and sides is, to me, annoying. Plus, the rough edges totally ate up my sponge paintbrushes. At the end of the evening, I just threw them away.
Step 3: Paint your mirror. Again, this will go a lot better if you take your time and do a good job of sanding the frame. Seriously. Trust me. My mirror has about EIGHT coats of paint on it. Also, I didn’t tape the edges of the mirror. A few years ago we bought a big mirror to hang over the bed (clean thoughts, please…it’s hanging at the top of the bed as our headboard). It was marked down because of a few scratches, but it was a really nice, heavy mirror. We decided to get it anyway and paint the whole frame. We taped the edges where the wood meets the mirror but didn’t realize that the paint would bleed and run under the tape in some places. So even when we pulled the tape off, we still had to go back and scrape it off. So…this time I didn’t tape at all. I painted it and didn’t worry about the edges. When the paint was dry, I scraped it off with a straight edge (mine was actually a plastic shim) and it looked very neat and clean. Go me!
Step 4: Position your clothespins on your mirror and glue them in place. Again, I used wood glue, but I’m sure any kind of glue will work. The ticket is to use just enough and not a huge glob because it will squish out the sides. (I swear I can still hear my elementary art teacher telling us, “A little will do. A lot…will not.” I ended up pointing my pins grab-y side out so that I could put pictures in them, but I kinda wish I’d put them the other way around. I also wish I’d put more pins on it since it looks kinda skimpy. But…it’s done and no longer being shuffled around in the garage.
Linking up to:
Tags: Crafts, decorating, Painting, Repurpose
Recycle Your Meat and Veggie Trays
My mom passed down many crafty ideas to my sister and I but one of our favorites is the meat/veggie tray turned paint tray. It is a great way to reuse those styrofoam trays that your raw meat or vegetables come in. I just clean them up with dish soap and water and then I put them away for using as paint trays when I work on my next project.
We are linking up to the following:
Painting with Bubbles
This week I have trapped my kids in the house and made them help me clean it. I have also carted them all around town to go grocery shopping, drop off library books and get the oil changed. This morning, I decided that we needed to do an art project for just the three of us! I dug into the recesses of my brain…the one that holds the former preschool teacher self and came up with Bubble Painting!
What You Need:
- Small trays or bowls
- food coloring or tempera paint
- paper
- straws
- water
- liquid dishwashing soap
Steps for Bubble Painting:
Mix a dollop (about the size of a quarter) of dishwashing soap, 1/2 cup of water and a few drops of food coloring or tempura paint together in a bowl or tray.
Using the straw, blow into the mixture to create bubbles.
Lay the paper over the top of the bubbles and let them pop onto the paper.
Let dry and then display the artwork!
A few things we learned along the way:
- Definitely remind your kids to blow out the straw, rather than use it to drink the soap!
- The more food coloring, the darker the bubbles will be. We thought we added enough, but when we started painting the color wasn’t really showing up. I think the tempura paint works the best but I didn’t have any and my kids are still a little young so I was worried about them sucking it up the straw!
- We had the most fun trying to pick the bubbles up on the paper. Then we would turn the paper over so we could watch the bubbles pop and see what design it left behind.
Happy bubble painting!
