Category: DIY

DIY: Decorative Pumpkin Jar

On By jackiblosblackisIn Crafting, DIYLeave a comment

You don’t have to do a pumpkin like me but I had this random thought in my head. I acted on it.

Supplies list:

  • Glass votive, vase, any container (mine is from the Dollar Tree)
  • Glitter (I would say lots and I got mine from the Dollar Tree)
  • Small glass beads (this is optional and from the Dollar Tree)
  • Brushes (from Dollarama)
  • Adhesive substance (Mod Podge or similar)
  • Something to mark the glass if you want to make a shape on it

So I just picked this up from the Dollar Tree. It’s not all that big but it’s perfect for this project.

This is the first pumpkin I had drawn on (with Craft Decor chalk writer boughten from the Dollar Tree). It’s rough looking as I was rubbing away excess off the surface. I want to note this like a mix of chalk and oil pastel. I personally won’t use it on a chalk board but works with glass projects.

This is the second pumpkin I drew. It is much bigger than the first and I think it works much better. I’ll be making the outside lines smaller and getting rid of the inside ones.

 I wanted to start with the beads first. I mixed them directly with the Mod Podge. I proceed to fill in the pumpkin. This isn’t very fun and if some one has a better/easier idea please let me know. I would have preferred the beads to be flat but I don’t mind it this way. Gives it a bit of depth.

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I then took the Mod Podge mixed with a fine green glitter to create the cut off stem. I made it quite thick that way it would pop out like the pumpkin.

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After the edges dried some I then took a few different shades of black glitter (one had quit a bit of a silver look to it. Oops!) mixed with Mod Podge. I was fairly lazy and did not want to do more then one layer. So this was done in one fairly thick layer. The glitter to glue ratio was higher than when I did the stem.

The down fall of doing a thick layer is that it is much harder to work with and it takes quite a long time to dry. I left it for nearly four days just to make sure it was safe to use.

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You can see here that the black is very silver. I wanted something more of a prominent black but I am happy with the way it turned out. This was taken after the top layer of glue dried and I could move it to somewhere safe to dry the rest of the way through.


I did not originally have a plan on how I wanted to use the vase, I just new I wanted to make it. I bought a bag of black sand from the Dollar Tree and have been using it as a make-up brush holder (my eyeliner is in there too). I really love this piece!

DIY: Weekly Menu Planner

On By jackiblosblackisIn Crafting, DIY, Food1 Comment

This first part is creating a chalk board which you could use for anything not just a menu planner. How ever in the end this is going to be a menu planner for the household.

Supply list for the chalk board portion:

  • Picture frame (size of your choosing)
  • Chalk board paint (got mine at the Dollar Tree)
  • Paint for the frame (acrylic paint from the Dollar Tree)
  • Paint brushes/sponge brushes (both that I use here are from Dollarama)

Optional supplies for chalk board portion:

  • Adhesive substance (I am using Modge Podge)
  • Glitter (from the Dollar Tree)
  • Anything you want to decorate it with really

Supplies for weekly menu portion:

  • Tape for the seperation of days
  • Letter stickers or cutouts for days of the week
  • Adhesive (I am using Modge Podge for extra stick for the letters)

   
We are going to start off with a picture frame (including glass) which I picked up at Dollarama. I chose the biggest size I could find as I need to fit 7 days on here.

 

After taking everything part I started to paint to paint the frame. This has been done in many thin coats (time consuming paint thin non-pours surfaces). In the top picture you can see on the righ the frame has three coats done on it and on the bottom the frame has two coats. After I had finished the third coat I let the frame dry for 5 hours. Another two coats then dry time of 4 hours. I did the final two coats and I started the glitter about 2 hours after. So in total there are 7 coats of paint on the frame.

   
 I proceed with the glass and chalk board paint after putting the frame to the side. I used a foam brush while doing this. Reading the bottle it says to give the first coat 4 hours to dry throughly. I did 2 more coats of paint in opposite directions; allowing 4 hours to dry after each coat. Now I used an extremely cheap foam brush and am not excited about the ridges. If it doesn’t work out or I do this again I will be using a roller.

  
Now I glittered the flat sides of my frame. I mixed (lots) of a pale yellow glitter with Mod Podge to the consistency I liked. I mixed more than I needed since I wanted to make absolute sure I had enough for an even consistency on the frame. I for saw the colours blending together. Red would have popped hugely since green and red are contrasting. 

*Glue was still drying when I took the photo.

 

Before the addition of the planner stuff, I have a plain chalk board. It looks pretty good like this. Now onto the final step and finished product.

  

I made 6 marks splitting up the 7 days of the week (I only did this on one side but you should do it on both). Now I was going to use washi tape or craft tape but I found border stickers I liked much better. After carful placing the stickers I did one small coat of Mod Podge just to make sure I had a seal. I don’t want these to rub off when wiping the board. The letters are stickers as well and I used the same procedure as the seperation lines.

There we have it a weekly menu planner (or a weekly planner of any kind). 

I will update this post if there are any issues I come across when using it in the new year.

Organization: Stickers

On By jackiblosblackisIn Crafting, DIY, Organization, ScrapbookingLeave a comment

When I grabbed stuff to do the Christmas cards this year I found my sticker situation very stressful. In the beginning I did not have much of a system at all. I had a couple extra binders and put pocket folders in them. I preceded to label and sort the stickers into the folders. It was not very pretty but it worked me (better than a huge pile anyways). A year or so later Mom and I were going to garage sales and she pointed out a scrapbook accordion folder that was stuffed with stickers. I bought it of course.

Now over the last few years I have purchased stickers at cheap sale prices or at dollar stores. I than just threw them in on of the pockets of the accordion folder I now had. Now these stickers were about 80% organized before I bought them; so it could have been worse. For me though it was not my system and having two different spots just hasn’t worked out. 

   
 

I grabbed one of the large binders I had (was for the last university course I was in) and a bunch of page protectors I use for letters, cards, and miscalenous I receive from people. I’ve made make shift labels and taped them on with packing tape. There’s no garentee this will work out but at least I can take out the group I want and dump it out to see everything. The accordion folder hides the small sheets of stickers. So really what good is that? 

Not only that I needed another organizer for the specialty papers, print papers, and card stock I have. Seven years a go I had boughten an accourdion folder from Michaels (containing not so fancy print paper) in the regular scrapbooking page size. I have this filled to the brim. Everything works out in the end. 

  
In the end I used two binder and found more stickers that need to be put away properly. These binders are already bursting so I’ve got to finish up some of these projects and not buy anymore unless I have a current specific need for them.

What a Mess

On By jackiblosblackisIn Crafting, DIY, OrganizationLeave a comment

For the last couple weeks I have been using the kitchen table for all the craft stuff I’ve been using with projects. It’s driving me nuts but because these DIYs have such long periods of drying time I am doing them simultaneously. It has been fusterating not to have that area to do other things though. I am hoping to have everything put back a way before the new year though. 

Galaxy: The Secret Stipper

On By jackiblosblackisIn Crafting, DIY, Galaxy, Personal, PetsLeave a comment

This happened last week but it is still effecting my life. I had gone out to help my Mom with shopping. I was in the midst of doing some glitter ornaments (which is currently sitting as a draft since this incident). I had put the glitter out of her reach….or I thought I had.

   
   
I know the pictures are not the best at capturing glitter but there was 0.5 cups worth of fine glitter all over my house. I mean all over. Plus she wrecked the ornaments before I was able to take the ‘Look At Me’ final picture! 

I love glitter and if I had not been renting and she had not wrecked the ornaments I would be very happy about the mess. It’s slightly better every day but my landlord needs to come over at some point to finish some work on place. I don’t see him being to excited to be covered in glitter ha-ha.