Chalkboard wine glasses

This is my first post on a Christmas gift project idea for the year.  I am okay with posting this one because it is for a family member, not a friend.  You see, my family DOESN'T read my blog ;-)

My dad and his wife love hosting parties and they love wine, as does much of my family.  However, they always have the problem of who set their glass where, and am I drinking someone else's wine?  There have been many solutions to this problem, like wine glass charms, different glass styles, and the like, but when you are at a particularly GOOD party, and are half in the bag, its hard to remember if you were blue or green or if yours had that funny flourish thingy on the stem.  One thing you are unlikely to forget is your name, regardless of how drunk you are.  You get that at keggers with those little red cups and a sharpie, but that doesn't translate well to the world of wine.  I needed a real wine glass that was writable, preferably rewritable, and elegant.

So I set about making some glasses with chalkboard paint on them.  I was kind of unconvinced that it would come out well, but I figured with some goodwill glasses and the multi-surface paint I already had, it was worth a shot.  They came out pretty well!

I will say that I don't think the chalkboard paint will last forever, but I can totally scrape it off and reapply.  It wasn't a terribly labor intensive process, so I wouldn't mind spiffing them up every now and again.  I wouldn't recommend washing them in the dishwasher or leaving them to soak, but a gentle hand washing and drying seems like it wouldn't be a problem.

Supplies needed:
all surface or glass Chalkboard paint (I used Martha Stewart paint, available at Michael's)
paint brush
Wine glasses - go to the dollar store or goodwill and save yourself some money!
Xacto knife
contact paper (the kind you use to line shelves)
a nice pretty template (I used 2 for fun, found here and here)

Step 1:
Find your template and print it out.  Cut it out and use the inside piece to trace onto the contact paper as many times as needed for the number of glasses you are making. Make sure to leave enough space between tracings for a good solid border.  You will need at least half an inch (preferably more) around each template to mask off the glass.  Cut them out into individually rectangles.

Step 2:
Carefully cut out the middle of each template using your exacto knife.  Gently peel off the backing and adhere each one to the glasses, trying to keep the top aligned with the upper edge of the glass.  I found that using four fingers one on each corner, and pulling taut was the best way to keep the shape even.

Step 3:
Carefully apply the paint to the glass.  I used a natural bristle brush because it was what I had, but it royally sucked.  I think a synthetic brush would have worked better.  Mine left awful streaks.  Let it dry thoroughly between coats (at least an hour according to the bottle).  I used 4 coats.  I think a good rule of thumb is holding the glass up to the light with the painted part facing away from you.  When you can no longer see light through the painted part, you have sufficient coverage.

Step 4:
After letting the paint dry thoroughly overnight, its time to peel off the contact paper.  BE CAREFUL!  If you have ever painted anything and left the masking tape on, you know that the paint will peel up just as easily as the masking.  First, take your exacto knife and score around the edge of the shape.  Then, use the edge of the blade to gently push away the contact paper from one edge.  Cut out to the edge of the contact paper, and use that point to start peeling up the masking.

Score around the edge,

Pull away one small section and cut the template to the outside edge.

Then peel off carefully.

Step 5:

There will be some small spots where the paint bled under the masking.  Use the exacto blade to scrape off any excess and clean up the edges (sorry for the REALLY bad photo).  Next, rub chalk over the surface of the painted portion (to prime it and make it easier to write on), smooth it out with your finger, and write something clever.  Voila!  You're finished!

Pretty simple, right?  And at a dollar a glass and about $4 for the paint, its a pretty cheap gift, too!  I will stress, be careful about the scoring and peeling part.  I botched one of the glasses, but I figure its not that big a deal since they wont last forever anyway.  But just to make you feel better in case one of yours don't turn out either, here it is :-)

Crap.  Well, lesson learned.  Be careful. :-)

Cute photo frames

I found another fun use for paint and mod podge.  Since I have so much of the stuff lying around my "workshop" lately, I keep messing with it on new projects.  I have been busy getting ready for a craft fair as of late, and I haven't had time to blog about stuff.  So, here is a small, simple project to kick things off again. :-)  These would make great holiday gifts, btw...

Materials:
Wood Photo Frame - preferably unfinished; check out local dollar stores
Paint(s) - can even be leftover wall paint for an economical craft
Paint brush
Stickers, scrapbooking paper, printed cliparts, rub on designs, or anything else you can think of
Mod Podge
Acrylic Sealer (optional)

1. Remove the backing and glass from the frame.  Set aside in a location it can stay for a while without getting lost or broken.  This project requires lots of dry time which can span a few days.

2. On some cardboard or newspaper, paint the front of the frame, the inside edge (near where the glass goes), and the outside edge, being careful not to smudge it with your fingers or paint it to your surface.  Let it dry for at least an hour, depending on the recommended dry time for your chosen paint.  Add a second and third coat as needed to get a good base coverage.  Don't skimp - you want vibrant colors!

3.  When the front is dry enough to flip the frame over without it sticking to the paper, paint a heavy coat on the back.  You don't really need to do this if you are crunched for time, but it will make your final product look more finished.  You shouldn't need to do additional coats on the back unless you really want it to look fancy from the back.

4.  Flip the frame over and add your decorations to the front.  Get creative and find images from old magazines, greeting cards, stickers (this is a great way to use up old stickers that are no longer sticky), bits of scrapbook paper, and print out cliparts from your printer.  I discovered when making baby blocks that inkjet printed paper does pretty well with mod podge - it doesn't run as much as people say.  I think the results are darn near perfect.  If decorations have their own adhesive, stick them right to the frame, otherwise use a thin layer of mod podge to glue them down.

The one on the left is a recycled greeting card!  Yay for eco friendly and FREE!  And cute, of course.

5.  Apply a generous coat (frame should look somewhat milky) of mod podge over the front and outside and inside edges of the frame.  Don't add too much to the edges or it will stick to the paper, but you want to wrap the layer of mod podge around more than the front panel alone so it seals completely and doesn't leave a visible line where you stopped applying it.  Set the frame somewhere to dry.

6. After about an hour or when the mod podge is no longer tacky, apply a second coat.  I recommend a third, but it is not imperative if you are on a time crunch.  Be careful not to leave deep brush strokes - the mod podge will dry clear, but you can still see some brush strokes in the final product, and careful application will help minimize this.

7.  You can also add an optional layer or 2 of acrylic sealer, but even I admittedly was in too much of a hurry to do it this time.  I will for next time, though!

Once the last layer of sealer or mod podge dries, you are done!  Pop a photo in, replace the glass and backing, and bask in your homemade beauty!

Bottom Line:

Frames: as little as $1 at the dollar tree, but Walmart has affordable ones for a bit more ($3-$5)

Paint: I used leftovers from other projects, but a small bottle averages $2

Mod podge: again, leftovers for me, but cost of a bottle is about $6
Decorations: Use what you have!  paint a design if nothing else!
Total cost = between $1-$13

Time = approx half an hour total work time, not including dry time; give yourself a full day to complete this if you plan to work straight through

Retail = starting at $8 for smaller ones, easily up to as much as $30!

Savings = $7-$17  Hooray!

Baby block and Martha Stewart

Back story: Some friends of ours recently gave birth to a new baby boy.  They asked hubby and me to be godparents for the little bundle.  Needless to say, we were ecstatic!  When I was a baby, my Nana made me this awesome cross stitched picture that hung on my wall my whole childhood.  It had my full name, my birth date and time, and my weight at birth.  I loved that thing, because who else knew the exact time they were born?  I am sure records like that are filed away for every baby, but I had an easily accessible record of it that I looked at all the time.  In that spirit, I decided to make a record for our godson.  But cross stitching requires me to find a pattern, and I really wanted something unique.  Enter Martha Stewart.

Disclaimer: I loathe Martha Stewart.  She is irritating and self righteous and never shuts up.  As off-putting as she is, however, I love the creativity of the guests on her show.  If she ever actually let them talk, we may learn how to do something!  I cannot stand watching the show, but I recently discovered that all the projects they do on the show they have written instructions for on the website.  It even has video clips from the show so you can see it being done!  Which means I can FAST FORWARD through Martha, or even choose not to watch her at all, while still getting all the great craft tutorials!  Hooray!  A while back she had a guest who made baby blocks out of a block of wood, paint, paper, and mod podge.  Hers came out all vintage-y and in my opinion, hideous.  I loved the idea, however, and decided that was perfect for my baptism project.

In case you were unaware, blocks have 6 sides, so I needed 6 sides worth of content for the block.  I was certain I wanted 1. Baby's Full Name, 2. Baby's Birth Date (would have put time, too but the parents didn't know), and 3. Baby's Weight and Length at Birth.  I also had a few ideas for optional panels like 4. Baby's Parents' Full Names and Big Brother's Full Name, 5. Baby's Baptism Date (Since this is a godparent gift)
6. Godparents' names, 7. Bible verse for Baptism, 8. Birthplace, 9. Photo of him at birth or family photo.

So I have a lot of ideas...  Maybe I should make 2 blocks...

Items Needed:
1 (or 2!) Small Wooden Blocks - you can make them out of a 4x4 if you want, or buy at Michaels
Fine Sandpaper
Paint in a color(s) of your choice
Paint Brushes

Optional (you will need at least some of these, but which is up to you):
Paint Pens
Stickers
Scrapbooking or other decorative paper
Shellac spray
Mod Podge

Step 1:
Sand the edges and corners of the wooden block lightly with the sandpaper.  This helps keep sharp pointy things away from baby.  Rough up sides just a little if very smooth so paint will stick well.  Wipe off all sawdust with a rag (or on your jeans as I did...).

Step 2:
Paint the block.  You can paint each side a different color or paint the whole thing one color, or any combo thereof.  Just be aware that this step will take some time because you must let the block dry before painting the bottom.  You can skip this step or use a stain if you prefer the natural look of wood.  Just use shellac to topcoat to protect the wood.

Step 3:
Decorate the block however you like.  Use stickers, paper, draw with the paint pens, do what you feel!  I used a printer to print out all the info in a pretty font on some scrapbook paper which I cut to size.  I also cut out his initial in cool paper to put on the "top" of the block.  However, I had ideas to put on stickers, cutouts of animals, use paint pens to "doodle" on the sides, and many other things.

Step 4:
Coat the block with a clear shellac or mod podge to seal it. You can choose not to put a topcoat on the block depending on what you have decided to do to it (if all you did was paint, it probably doesn't need a top coat).  Just make sure whatever is used is NON TOXIC.  Although these aren't meant as toys necessarily, they will probably end up in baby's mouth just like everything else and not every sealant is safe for them (shellac and mod podge are both non toxic).  Make sure the surface you dry your block on is not made of paper or cardboard or it will end up with bits of paper stuck to it.  I put mine on the mod podge container to dry.  As with the paint, you can't do all sides at once so leave some extra time.

upside down and NOT touching the paper!  Its on the mod podge lid. I later realized I had to put the lid back on the container, which I did with some difficulty... :-)

Bottom Line:
1 4"x4" (or any size, really) wooden block (from Michael's) = $3.50
small bottle of craft paint (I reused from the fabric painting project) = ~$2
2 sheets of scrapbook paper (didn't use it all, also leftovers) = $.40
Pack of Paint pens = $5
Fine grain sandpaper = $2
Mod podge (I used what I already had) = $6
Shellac spray = $5

Total time = less than 2 hours, not including dry time
Total cost (will depend on which of the above things you use) = about $20 startup, but for just materials you need, about $5.

I loved this project and totally want to do more.  I think I will try ordering some smaller blocks from a shop I found on Etsy.  Those look easier to handle by little hands.  I want to do non personalized ones with alphabet themes or bright colors for learning.  Maybe I will make some to sell at an upcoming craft fair?

Painting

What a week!  Hubby and I have had a terrible cold and I haven't had the time or the energy to post.  I did a despicable thing and BOUGHT a gift for someone last week as I was too sick and lackluster to make something.  I should be ashamed.  But it happens to the best of us once in a while, doesn't it?  Besides, it was a wedding for hubby's friends and I never know how much they will appreciate the handmade approach.  Sometimes they think its me being cheap (which it partially is, I will admit, but far from my main motivation) instead of me trying to be anti-consumerism and make them something beautiful and useful.  So this post got sidetracked pretty quickly.  My point was, nothing got done last week and I didn't have time to post what we did the weekend BEFORE. :-)

So, Hubby and I decided to dive right in and paint the nursery (which is still half my craft room, sorry baby).  It involved moving all the furniture and its overflowing contents (craft room, remember?) out and back in in the space of 2 days.  Yikes.  We had long ago picked out the colors and so we bought paint late that week to spur us into action.  Much to my dismay, hubby picked expensive paint, but oh well.  Its his way of nesting I suppose.  We used Benjamin Moore Aura paint in Key Lime and Lemon Meringue.  Sounds delicious.

First, we moved out all the contents of everything, then the actual furniture.  We also had to take all the hardware etc off the walls, which took a good long time in itself.  I was in charge of outlet and switchplate covers (read: easy).  Hubby did the shelving, curtains, and TV mount.  I had already taken out the guest bed, but we had to move out the mattress and box spring.  We decided to keep them since we plan to use it again in a few years and mattresses are an expensive investment!  So we bought plastic sheeting used for drop cloths and wrapped them up with duct tape.  Into the garage they went.  The only thing we couldn't move was a huge desk that required disassembling and taking off doors to move.  We used it as our "painting table" and left it in the center of the room.  As for everything else, what a mess in our living room!

Then, we decided to vacuum the walls with a shop vac rather than wash them.  I have always washed walls with water and a little ammonia in the past to make sure the paint sticks and there are no major goopy/greasy spots or anything, but since this was flat paint (not semigloss) and since hubby's place is practically spotless, I opted for the quick and easy solution.  Took care of all those nasty spiders and their homes, too.

Then, we masked.  and masked.  and masked.  We used a whole huge roll of painter's tape (the blue stuff) to go around all the doors and closet doors, air vents, ceilings, baseboards, and the huge window.  Just a note from me to you, I like leaving my tape sticking out on the baseboards instead of folding it down.  It catches drips when it sticks out.  everywhere else doesn't really matter, but because its on the ground, molding tends to get the worst of the drips.  it also allows a little margin to shove your dropcloths under.  We got a great little cosco stepladder that totally came in handy.  It was well worth the $50 at Ace.  Hubby did all the high painting while I did the low because he was afraid of me being on the stepladder.  Course, I did all the ceiling masking, but whatever makes him happy...  The paint wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good.

Green and Yellow meet. Coincidentally, also Packer colors. Indoctrination begins early in this house.

Since we didn't finish till about 12:30 that morning, the next day we came in to take a look.  We had gone thin in a few spots because the lighting was so bad, but all in all, it looked pretty darn good!  We had planned to do a second coat, but since it already looked pretty good, we decided it wasn't worth the effort for such a small gain in aesthetics.  The spots we went thin on were really low or really high on the wall anyway, and would either be hard to see from the floor or covered with furniture. So we stuck a fork in it!

We yanked off all the masking, put the hardware back on the walls, and cleaned up all the little spills and such.  We finally got to assemble our crib and put it in there as well.  Since I got it on craigs list and we had been storing it in the garage for a few months, it was dirty, so I spent a good long time cleaning the heck out of it.  I was a little obsessed, but hey, its my future offspring we are talking about here!  By this point, I was absolutely wiped out, and poor dear Hubby got stuck putting all the furniture and contents back in the room by himself.

Here is how it looks now.  Since we were sick I haven't put everything back in its proper place and we have nothing on the walls yet (including the shelves that used to be up because I want to move them, I just don't know where yet).  It still looks pretty good, though.  A little disheveled, but that will change with time (and then revert once baby is born no doubt).

Now to replace those curtains...