Hi Friends! Waiting for paint to dry is one of the most frustrating things about being a crafter or artist. I made these DIY drying boards to have a place to dry small crafts, beads, and ornaments that are painted or varnished on all sides. I recently made one for curing resin pieces and I will show you that today but all of my DIY drying racks are made the same way. My older ones have been used for a decade or more and hold up great! I hope you give this project a try, it is so useful!
Supplies:
Foam board or Styrofoam
Straight pins or toothpicks
Wax paper or aluminum foil
This might seem like a no-brainer but often the handiest ideas are! Happy crafting!
Hi friends! I had a lot of fun designing this acrylic painting project for you. I thought it would be sweet to paint these motifs on a paper mache mailbox that my friend Kathy gave me last year but you can paint it on any surface you like such as a canvas, slate, cigar box or even a greeting card. Here is what the finished project will look like:
You can download my free printable template here. I just realized that my scanner can scan something as a PDF so it will print out the correct size for you and hopefully be easier for you to print than a snapshot of a sketch. Today’s video includes step by step instructions for painting this “Letters to Santa” mailbox. Watch the video to see how!
You can win this bundle of brushes, or any set of your choice from our sponsor FABART! Just let me know in the comments if you want to win the brushes I used or another set from the store. Also you can save 20% on ANY of the brushes or interchangeable knitting needles in the FABART store too by using coupon code: KZCPG9ZE (Amazon Prime members get free 2 day shipping!) This is a great discount for buying holiday gifts or restocking your own brushes!
Skill level: Beginner
Time Needed: 1-2 hours
Skills learned: color mixing, brush strokes, brush care
Directions:
1. Base coat mailbox and let dry.
2. Cut apart the printable pattern and rub the back with a light-colored chalk. Place the image chalk side down on your surface and trace. This will transfer your design.
3. Using the chalk likes as a guide, paint your image.
4. Paint Santa’s Address on the flag side of the mailbox.
5. Freehand a candy cane stripe on the flag and lip of the front of the box.
6. Load a toothbrush with watery white paint and spatter it all over the mailbox if desired.
7. To protect the paint for years and years follow-up with your favorite water based sealer.
I hope you enjoyed this project and if you know anyone else who would like it please send them my way or share this project using one of the handy social media buttons at the end of this post. Don’t forget to comment for a chance to win a set of brushes or knitting needles, I will draw a name at random in one week! If you plan on ordering these brushes or anything else from the Fabart store be sure to use the coupon KZCPG9ZE for 20% off and the interchangeable brushes are back in stock! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! On Tuesday I had some friends over for a Gelli printing party, we all got together and made good use of my “collection” of Gelli Arts printing plates and had a pot luck lunch. Lorraine brought me these lovely flowers from her garden in a sweet little mason jar and of course I had to paint them!
I used Turner Acryl Gouache from Jerry’s Artarama (the place I bought most of my Gelli plates from because they had the best price) for the first time on this piece. I really enjoyed this paint and the kit I used is on sale for $24.99 if you want to snag it. You can also use regular acrylics but you might need an extra coat here and there because traditional acrylics tend to be more transparent. You can also use traditional Gouache (opaque watercolor) on paper but I would thin down the grey with water and not white for the background so it does not muddy your colors because traditional gouache will lift up when another layer is painted on top. Acrylic gouache dries in permanent layers like acrylics but with a uniform, matte finish. I hope this makes sense! Well, if not it should after you watch the video.
Video!
Here are the photos I took of the bouquet, I should have took them in Tuesday but I didn’t until I painted them Thursday, they held up quite nice, thanks Lorraine! Click on the photos to make them larger.
Yes, you have my permission to paint these and do what you like with your paintings:) I want to thank Jerry’s Artarama for sponsoring today’s tutorial, you can find the Turner Acryl Gouache and Creative Mark Canvas Panels on their website and while you are there you might want to pick up a couple Gelli Arts printing plates for a gelli print pot luck party, who knows, one of your guests might bring you lovely flowers:) Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi Friends! Boy, we should totally all go to the coast of Maine someday to paint, dont’cha think? Until that day comes you can paint this coastal Maine inspired scene with me.
I am using a Maine state shaped plaque from Unfinished Wood Co., They have cutouts for every state as well as beautiful monogram shapes in all sorts of cool themes including nautical (my fave!) They are even offering an awesome discount for all of my viewers, you can get 40% off your ENTIRE order with the coupon code thefrugalcrafter but hurry, the deal is only good for one week so order before 8/7/15 if you want to snag that deal, and it is a deal because at full price their wood is reasonable. Unfinished Wood Co. ships to USA and Canada. Now on to the tutorial!
Video!
Supplies:
Maine wooden cutout: Unfinished wood Co
Acrylic Paint (M Graham and Liquatex artist acrylics) in colors:
Ultramarine blue
Yellow Ocher
Sap Green
Titanium white
Burnt Sienna
Aliz. crimson
White gesso
Acrylic paint brushes & Palette knifes (use a cut up credit card if you don’t have palette knives)
Varnish (Minwax Polycrylic-gloss)
Tips-Prepping and finishing:
If you have never painted on wood before you will want to know this, make sure you seal the wood either with gesso or a waterbased wood sealer, it will make the paint blend and flow so much nicer, otherwise the acrylic will absorb into the wood, dry too quickly and you will need more paint. Also follow up with a varnish to unify the sheen and make it easy to clean as well as protect the surface of the paint. You can use water or oil based varnish but oil based tends to yellow. I like Minwax Polycrylic but Delta also make an affordable varnish. I hope you try out this painting, it was really fun to paint.
Thanks to Unfinished Wood Co. for sponsoring today’s project, if you check them out be sure to use the coupon code thefrugalcrafter to get 40% off your entire order until August 7th, oh and let me know what you got, there are so many cool designs that I am curious to know what your favorites are, I can’t wait to paint my monogrammed anchor! It’s a project for the “She Shed” my backyard bungalow that I have been puttering away at, of course by the time I get it done they’ll be snow on the ground LOL! So many projects, so little time! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi Friends! I hope you had a nice weekend! I have been getting a lot of R & R after the holiday! It is nice to have nothing on the agenda and to just relax with family. Today I want to share a wine bottle topper I painted in acrylics, watch the video:
You can paint this motif on canvas, wood or whatever you like using acrylics or oils. If you want to see how I painted the other side of the topper the free tutorial is here, and the wine glass tutorial is here. They are easy motifs to paint on anything. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
You totally just sang that didn’t you? I could not resist, sorry! I was changing my fall decorations over to Christmas decorations the other day and was just about to toss my gourds into the woods when I noticed that one had completely dried out! It must have been because it was over my fireplace so the heat dried it instead of it rotting. I thought it would make a great surface to paint on. I was right!
This project is super easy to paint and don’t worry if you don’t have a dried out gourd lying around, you can use a burnt out light bulb or Christmas ball for this. You will also need acrylic paint, felt, a pom-pom, red sequins, a green paper scrap and scissors.
Pretty easy huh? If you can think of any other things that can be substituted for the gourd leave a comment, it will be helpful to other readers that may not have the same supplies! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Hi friends! I have teamed up with a wonderful company, Uproot Wines, to bring you this easy and elegant project:
Today I am going to show you how to paint a wine bottle topper (you can find the template here) and in a couple of days I will show you how to paint the matching wine glasses. I designed the project so anyone could paint it with only a few supplies and no previous painting experience. You will need a 1/4″ angular or flat brush and a #1 round brush and a few colors of acrylic paint. I chose paint colors to match the label of the 2013 Grenache.
I was inspired by the Uproot Wine bottle label which is reminiscent of a paint color palette. In the picture below you can see how the label reflects the amount of flavors in the wine. This makes it possible for newbies and experienced wine lovers to choose a bottle they will enjoy. We are all different so our taste in wine will be too!
If you are tempted to try a bottle from Uproot Wines be sure to use the coupon code frugal to save 15% on your order, don’t wait because the deal is only good through 12/31/14. Be sure to check back in a few days to see how I painted the wine glasses! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Happy Friday folks! Every once in a while I get asked to paint something for somebody. A neighbor asked me if I could paint a potato barrel for her, she said she liked birds and sunflowers and she wanted it primitive and rustic. The rest was up to me, this is what I came up with:
The process for this was simple. I sketched on a design with a white chalk pencil so that any stray lines or mistakes could be erased with water. Then I painted the design with acrylic paints. I find that when I work in acrylics I do better if I paint for a while, then go away. This barrel had a lot of “oh my, this is terrible! What have I done?” moments. When I come back I can see what is needed, what is working and what is not and what needs to be added. The goldfinch and wheat stalks did not get added til the end but without them it would have been really dull. I did this piece in 3 sittings.
It is quite different from when I work in watercolors. I don’t feel as “at ease” with acrylics but I needed this to be durable outside and dry in a reasonable amount of time and acrylics are perfect for that. I also tend to fret about my work when I am painting for someone else, especially on something that belongs to someone because I don’t want to ruin anything that another person cherishes. Luckily she likes the barrel!
If you fancy a bit of painting all of my tutorials are 40% off now through Saturday along with everything else at Lindsay’s stamp Stuff. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
Howdy folks! Woah Nellie is it cold today! Looks like it will warm up a bit tomorrow just in time to get 1 or 2 feet of snow, ahhh, Maine weather, I think I will stay inside and craft! Here is a box I painted a while back and then stamped with a homemade honeycomb stamp I made with Sculpey bake and bend clay. I used it last week to create flexible molds with and I have to say my mind is spinning with all of the creative possibilities of this stuff.
Here’s how I painted the box with acrylic paint:
Paint the box light green. Let dry
Mix cream with glazing medium and paint over the green then press plastic wrap in the wet glaze and smoosh the wrap around to create cool texture. Let dry.
Tear some paper and tape it to the box to mask off an area that will be honeycomb.
Use a sponge to dab yellow ocher, cream and brown in the masked off areas. Let dry.
Use a sponge brush or make-up wedge to apply brown paint to the rubber stamp (watch the video to learn how to make the stamp) and stamp in the yellow areas.
Remove the paper mask and use a small round brush to outline the yellow honeycomb sections.
Use a liner brush and watery brown paint to paint the lettering on the box. Let dry.
Mix some brown with glaze medium and sponge around the edges and corners to antique it.
Cut bees (Anna Griffin I think) from pattern paper and decoupage on with water-based varnish or decoupage medium and give the whole box a coat of varnish while you are at it.
Don’t forget to paint the inside of the box for a professional look!
Tip: Lay a piece of waxed paper between the top and bottom of the box when closed for the first week after it is painted so they won’t stick together, this gives the paint a chance to fully cure.
Now, on to the stamp making video!
If you have any questions just leave a comment and I will get right back to you! Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!
The Frugal Crafter Blog 