Upcycling DIY home decor, woodworking and Crafts
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I found this lovely lavendar bath salt DIY tutorial at utry.it, and I just had to share it with you! I can think of several friends and relatives that would love to get this as a gift. Whip some up to have on hand for birthdays or Valentine’s Day gifts!
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I was blessed to receive a box of craft supplies from DecoArt, including some fun glass markers that I used on dollar store mugs for this Valentine’s Day craft. The project couldn’t be simpler or cheaper, and leaves you with some adorable, hand doodled, custom love mugs to gift your sweeties on this fast approaching day!
Rubbing Alcohol
Lint free cloth
Plain Coffee Mugs
DecoArt Glass Markers
Oven (optional)
Clean glass with rubbing alcohol
Shake markers well, depress tip on scrap paper until ink flows
Decorate Mugs as desired
Between 4-8 hours of paint application, bake mugs in oven preheated to 375° for 40 min for dishwasher safe finish.
I told you it was simple! Check out more fantastic ideas and products from DecoArt by keeping up with them on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
*Disclaimer: I received free product to try for this project. All opinions are honest and mine!
Well hello there! I’m Amy from Mod Podge Rocks. I’ve never been a big Valentine’s Day person until I did a Aqua Valentine series last year . . . in which I threw hearts on their head by turning them blue. It made for a more interesting Valentine’s Day in terms of crafting, and I’ve loved making projects for February 14th ever since.
This year I made a project that I made for Valentine’s Day but you can use all year round. It’s not “obvious” Valentine’s Day but that is why I like it! I actually used woodgrain (aka faux bois) tissue paper that I got from Target on clearance for $.99 – it was leftover from Christmas. Add some Sparkle Mod Podge, Dimensional Magic and a red candle and you have instant home decor. Here’s how I made it.
Gather These Supplies
$1 candle tray from the dollar store
Mod Podge Satin
Mod Podge Sparkle
Mod Podge Dimensional Magic
Tissue paper
Pencil
Paintbrush
Scissors
Here’s the dish straight from the dollar store – soak it to get the tag off of the bottom.
Spread out the tissue paper (try to find the non-wrinkliest area possible) and place the dish face down. Trace with a pencil.
Cut out the circle and keep trimming until it fits inside the dish. I had to trim and fit several times.
Spread a layer of Mod Podge Satin down into your dish. You can use Matte or Gloss too – it really doesn’t matter. The reason I didn’t use the Sparkle is because I didn’t want any texture between the tissue paper and the glass (which the glitter particles can cause). If you don’t care, you can use the Sparkle Mod Podge to apply the tissue paper too.
Put the tissue paper into the glass dish and very carefully smooth down with the paint brush. Tissue paper is very fragile. Let it dry for 15 – 20 minutes and then spread Sparkle Mod Podge over the top.
Add Dimensional Magic to the top, inside the lip of the glass dish. It’s going to take overnight to dry because of the amount of Dimensional Magic.
I love this look! Love that it’s white and red woodgrain, so I can use it for Valentine’s Day, but I can also keep it out all year round. I also love that it only cost me a few dollars to make!
Come visit me at Mod Podge Rocks for daily decoupage ideas – also visit me at Facebook, Pinterest, Google Plus or follow my RSS feed for more!
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Need some earrings to show your Valentine’s Day spirit? Give these recycled Coke can heart earrings a try. They are super cheap to create, and your friends will be amazed that they came from a can. You can used a paper punch or a die cut machine for the heart shape. The embossing can be done with a die cut machine or embossing folder and rolling pin, like I showed you in my recycled can heart bezel pendant tutorial.
Aluminum can
4 4mm jump rings
Earring wires
Metal hole punch
Texture embossing folder
ICE resin
Vintaj relief block
Red acrylic paint and sponge brush
Metal primer
2 pairs of flat nose jewelry pliers
See recycled can heart bezel pendant for more details on preparing the can.
I showed you in the heart bezel pendant tutorial (linked above) how you can emboss without an embossing machine. Emboss first, then cut shape (aren’t you proud, Amy?)!
To dome the resin, pour in middle and pull out to edges with toothpick or needle tool. Don’t pour too much. You can always add more resin if needed. Having resin run over the edges of your piece is no fun. Seriously.
When resin is dry, paint the other side of the earring and hole punch for jump ring placement.
Use pliers to open jump ring and attach it to another jump ring and an ear wire. Close, then open end ring an attach to heart.
That’s it!
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It was time to update my 11×14 frame trio that gets switched out to correspond with the holidays. I created this red/pink/white ombre Valentine’s love themed printable set to share with you. I love how it came out! For just $1 a print at my local Office Depot, updating the decor can be done without breaking the bank. Just right click the thumbnail to pull up the full res version. Save to your computer or flash drive to print. I have mine done at Office Depot on regular printer paper. The image is 11×14 inches, which they will print on 11z17 in paper. Just cut off the excess for your 11×14 frame. You could have them crop it to 8×10 if that is your preferred frame size as well.
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Cupid’s arrow hit me in the decorate muscle, and I’ve been making paper hearts zealously ever since. I stacked and strung some paper hearts and scrapbook embellishments together for this pink, red and white Valentine’s Day heart garland. It is quick, easy to make, and I am digging it. See how to make your own…
Red, white and pink cardstock paper hearts
Valentine’s day themed scrapbooking embellishements (I got felt sticker hearts and pop up hearts at Michael’s)
Paper Doilies
Glue dots or other adhesive
Hole punch
Twine or other string
Scissors
Adhere smaller heart embellishments onto larger cardstock hearts.
Create enough layered hearts to make your garland the length needed for its intended space.
Take a leftover scrap bigger background heart, fold in half and hole punch on outer edge (both sides at same time in same spot since folded in half) where you want to thread for hanging.
Unfold and use as template for placement of holes in layered hearts by lining up on back of layered heart and using holes as guide for hole puncher.
Lay out the hearts and move them around until you are happy with the order.
String and hang!
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This is my second project adapted from Stephanie Ackerman’s Doodle Too Class (a class that totally rocks my socks off, btw). I made four houses to represent each place John and I have lived in over the course of our marriage. I will show you how I added text, and provide you a printable of the phrase. I am not going to show you the details of the process creating the scene, because I want you to take Stephanie’s class for that. In general, you just Mod Podge shapes cut from scrapbook paper onto a background created with acrylic paint.
Once your background is fairly complete, at least having the main elements in place, scan it into your computer, open in Photoshop and play with various fonts and phrases. When you are happy with your text, print it and transfer to the original background as shown. You can print my text below to use for your piece if you would like. Just right click it to pull up the full res version and print that.
This is what my text looked like over the scanned image. I turned off the background layer of my art and printed just the black text on white paper for the transfer.
The Ott light is super helpful and awesome for transferring text and for seeing what the heck is going on in my mixed media art!
Pitt Artist pen, size small
Pen-touch White Pen
After I was happy with the text and the outlining of my shapes, I applied a coat of my favorite Mod Podge ever. It is an antique finish and it is so cool. I use to glaze my final pieces to pull the layers together with an antique tone. Then when that dried I would seal. Now I do it in one step with Mod Podge antique, and it turns out exactly how I love it. Thank you Plaid!
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If you are looking to get festive for Valentine’s Day, and decorate quickly for little cost, this is the project for you! I made it to the dollar store yesterday for the first time in way too long (ok, since Christmas), and found myself in a wonderland of pink, red, LOVE and hearts. I noticed some fun Valentine’s Day gift bags, and the wheels started turning. It occurred to me that I could frame them for a lovely mantel, cupid style. I grabbed three bags, 2 frames. For that $5 + some items I already had, and about 10 minutes of my time, I created a lovetastic scene. So can you!
Frames (one I had on hand, the other 2 are from Dollar Tree), bags from dollar store, scissors
Cut area of bag to fit frame and insert. The end!
For the smaller frame, I removed the 3D heart that was on one side of the gift bag and placed it on the outside of the frame for depth and interest.
The little pink and red heart scatter are from Dollar Tree too.
Not bad for under $10, huh? I have the other sides of the bags to create with too!
IF you want to see more Dollar Store Valentine’s day projects, or want to share your own, be sure to visit the Dollar Store Themed Valentine’s Day Link Up hosted by Fox Hollow Cottage and Debbidoo’s! Click the thumbnail below…
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What to do with all of those broken crayon shards? Laura at House of Joyful Noise created these gorgeous crayon hearts, just perfect for Valentine’s Day festivities. I personally would keep them up all the time. Head over for Laura’s detailed step by step photo tutorial and create your own window love.
