With a tweet and a whistle and a song in her heart, our next DIY Talent Parade participant is gliding….wait, no make that flying down the street! Whoa, well, I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that this talented gal is part avian. That’s right, I have the beautiful and exotic (because she’s from the Netherlands,) Marianne also known to her readers as Songbird.

Marianne, is truly a sweet and graceful creature. And she loves to surround herself with beauty wherever she nests. I secretly dream of flying across the ocean to be a guest in her home one day.

Her home is purely dreamy!

At Songbird Blog, you can learn all types of romantic decorating and decor tips. In addition to her top 7 tips for spraypainting.

Well, she’s swooping down with some beautiful silver strands flying behind her, so focus your attention skyward. Read more

How was your weekend everyone? I had a truly fabulous weekend surrounded by some seriously creative and talented bloggers. I was in Salt Lake City, Utah attending the SNAP 2012 conference. Sadly, there was one blogger who is equally as creative and talented that couldn’t make it this year. (But, we’re going to have to tie her up and make her come next year!) This fabulously talented lady is none other than Colleen also known to the blog world as Mural Maker.

head shot

Colleen and I have never met, but we’ve bonded online because we have similar fine art backgrounds. Colleen is equally willing to share her talents and help empower others to paint just like she does (with step by step photographic tutorials.)

Ooo, ooo, ooo, I think I see her marching up the parade path right now. She has a paint brushes in hand and WOW, look at her toss that spinning artist’s palette in the air like a pizza pie. Now that takes talent! The crowd is excited. The colorful paints are beginning to fly. So, settle back and enjoy the show. Read more

The holidays are at full throttle speed and my boys couldn’t be more excited. Myself? I still haven’t decorated the house — in fact — truth be told I let Pretty Handsome Guy and the boys bring in the tree and decorate it. But, I did want to get into the holiday spirit so I poured a little eggnog into my coffee (Dee-lish-ious!!!) and sat down to make a humorous holiday shirt for my eager little ones.

If you’ve ever used silk screens before you know how wonderful they are for making duplicates. Team t-shirts, family reunion shirts, signs, banners, gift bags, pillows and linens are only a few things that you could silk screen. But, getting fine details and creating a screen that has text on it was usually reserved for the professionals who had the proper equipment. Well, those days are gone! Plaid has developed a DIY silk screen kit that allows you to create a screen using any black and white design printed on your home computer using regular printer paper. No transparencies and no need to reverse your image! Plus, for those of us eco-conscious crafters, the simply screen inks are acrylic and non-toxic! The  Simply Screen kit retails for $39.99 and you can purchase the refill screen pack for $19.99. The kit can be found at Hobby Lobby or online at shop.plaidonline.com.

Plaid was kind enough to send me a kit to try. And thankfully, several bloggers (especially Crafts by Amanda and Mrs.Greene), worked out the kinks and shared their knowledge. Gotta love that creative blogger network ;-).

This video will give you all the tips and tricks you need to know to get a perfect screen exposure when creating a Simply Screen silk screen:

If you have trouble viewing the video, here are the steps to create the screen:

1. Print out your black and white design on regular printer/copier paper. Touch up any white spots with a sharpie marker.
2. Remove one screen from the black plastic envelope. Cut the screen down to size (leave at least 2″ on all sides of the design.) Put the unused screen back into the black plastic bag.
3. Peel the backing off the screen.
4. Flip it over and lay the sticky side onto your image.
5. Use the squeegee to firmly press down on the screen and to affix it to the design.
6. Turn the image and screen over so the screen is on the bottom. Lay it onto the bottom of the Simply Screen box.
7. Lay a piece of plexiglass or glass on top of the screen and printout.
8. Close the lid, turn on the light, and set your timer for approximately 25 minutes.
9. Turn off the light, remove the screen and immerse it in tepid water for 30 seconds. Gently rub the design with a sponge.
10. Continue rubbing both sides of the design until there is no blue emulsion in the graphic areas. The graphic should be a clean see-through image.
11. Dry your screen and follow the directions below to make your screen prints.

 

Printing Using your Silk Screen:

Now that you have learned how to create the screen, printing with it couldn’t be easier! This is truly the fun part.

Start by taping your fabric to a piece of cardboard or foam board. If you are printing shirts, pillow cases, or anything that is double thickness, put the cardboard directly behind the layer you are printing on to protect from any ink bleeding through.

Position the screen where you would like the image to appear.

Tape the screen down with masking or painter’s tape.

Run a thick line of Simply Screen silk screen ink at the top of your image.

Hold the squeegee at a 45° angle against the screen.

Press down firmly and pull the squeegee towards you. Focus on pressing the ink through the screen and scraping it off the screen at the same time.

Immediately remove your screen being careful not to get any ink on anything when you lift. Lay it down on the next item  you want to silk screen. (It is a good idea to clean the screen after every third impression, as the ink starts to stick around the edges and the image quality will decline.)

Let the ink dry.

Heat set the image with a hot iron. Wash on cold and air dry to protect your image.

I think this is the perfect kit for making holiday gifts! I’m on a big sew your own gift bag kick and I think I’ll make some more bags and screen print a graphic on it for gifts.

If you like my “Happy Holly Dave” design, feel free to download the printable pdf file and use it for your own personal use.

Or you could also download an earlier incarnation of the design with three reindeer!

Hope you all have a Happy Holly Dave! LOL!

 

 

Disclosure: This post has been sponsored by Plaid Simply Screen. I was sent a Simply Screen Kit and paid a small fee in return for writing a post about my experience using their product. The ideas and opinions are strictly my own. I will never let any compensation (monetary or free product) keep me from giving you (the reader) a straight up and honest review.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been fighting a losing battle lately. I have begged, yelled, and threatened my boys to stop putting stickers and tape on the walls.

I think my youngest one upped me, he put tape and stickers on his door! I had given up the battle until I came across this magnetic chalkboard from Less-Than-Perfect Life of Bliss:

 

And this burlap bulletin board from Between Blue & Yellow:

 

Those two boards got me thinking. If I married the two ideas, I could have a magnetic fabric display board! Luckily I have a stash of old picture frames in the attic. I grabbed the biggest one I had and painted it black and within a few hours I had a magnetic display board for my son’s door!

Here is how to create your own:

Materials:


  • Painter’s Drop Cloth
  • Contrasting Decorative Fabric
  • Double sided fusible interfacing
  • Scissors
  • Sheet metal flat sheet* ($10 in duct work aisle of Lowe’s or Home Depot)
  • Duct Tape
  • Sharpie Marker
  • Tin snips
  • Gloves
  • Picture frame
  • Double sided foam tape (optional)
  • Strong magnets

*Be sure to bring a magnet to test the sheet metal. Some of them aren’t magnetic.

 

Instructions for making the magnetic frame:

Start by measuring the opening in the back of your frame. Mark those measurements on the sheet metal using a sharpie marker.

Using tin snips, cut the sheet metal. Believe it or not, this was very easy, but gloves are a must because the edges are sharp.

Cut out the drop cloth about two inches larger than the sheet metal. Trim the corners off the fabric.

Fold the edges over and secure with Duct Tape.

Did you know that Scotch has a whole line of Duct Tape? There are five different kinds, and they each have a different use! REALLY! See for yourself.

I didn’t know about them either until they sent me these to try out. I haven’t used them yet, but I will be soon. And I promise to tell you what I honestly think. Until then, I wonder how I could make them into a cool vase.

 

Instructions for Applique Monogram:

To add an applique to the fabric, print out a large letter from your computer. Then fuse a square of fabric (large enough to fit the letter onto) to the double sided fusible interfacing. Follow the instructions on the interfacing package.

Pin the printout on top of the fabric and cut it out.

Peel the back off the interfacing …

…and iron it onto your fabric covered sheet metal.

Make sure the letter is securely fused to the drop cloth.

Insert the board into the frame.

Secure the board into the frame by using a staple gun and stapling at an angle into the frame.

Add a wire or hanger to the back of your frame.

Hang the frame on the wall, door, or wherever you like. Because I was hanging the display frame onto the door (and because 4 year olds are notorious for slamming their doors), I added some double stick foam tape to the back side of the frame.

YES, I know what I said, but Mommies are allowed to use tape ;-).

I used some of the glass bead magnets we made last summer and now my son can put up his artwork and stickers without incurring the wrath of Mommy!

Now that is what I call one handsome art display!


Looking for some more creative ideas for displaying your child’s artwork? Check out my article on Parentables today: 8 Great Ways to Display Your Child’s Artwork.












Sunprints | Pretty Handy Girl

A few years ago while I was trying to entertain my toddler, we made sun prints on a hot summer day.

What! You’ve never heard of sunprints? Well, you really need to get your crafty hands on this hot product. Visit the Sunprints.org website to see all the details, plus a gallery of sunprint artwork!

Okay, don’t feel bad. I never saw it either until I happened upon this pack at our art museum gift shop. I bought some in the hopes of filling an hour of some weekday while waiting patiently for my hubby to come home.

As nature lovers, we collected grass, leaves, and even weeds from our yard. Then we had a blast laying the leaves on top of the sunprint paper. After 2-5 minutes of exposure, we dipped the paper in cold water. It was fun watching the paper turn blue and the silhouetted images appear before our eyes. (Okay, I won’t pretend that we didn’t enjoy playing in the bucket of cool water too!)

Several of them turned out so nice that I decided to frame them as art. Not only did I like the graphic look of the images, but the soft blue colors really appealed to me. I became so attached to the colors in the artwork that we painted our whole master bedroom the light color of the sunprints.

 

 Mimosa tree

 

Clover

 

Some weed in our garden

I found it a bit difficult to find the perfect square floating frames. Instead, I found regular square frames at Target for $19.99 a piece, and decided to buy them on the spot.  When I got home I had a brilliant idea on how to fake the floating glass frame look.

After we painted the room, I took some mat board and rolled the wall color on the mats. (It works best to use a mat that is somewhat close to the color of your walls.)

When the boards dried, I used my logan mat cutter and created custom mats.

Can you tell they are matted vs. floating? Maybe if you look close, otherwise, they appear to float in the frame!

So, you are accomplished at hanging three pictures so they are equal distance and the same height, right? If not, check back for my post on how to hang pictures to perfection.