Chalkboard Hand Sanitizer Containers

This idea came to me shortly after posting that I didn't have any ideas for Teacher Apreciation Day. It is sort of a combination between the hand sanitizer I posted about yesterday and my chalkboard soap dispenser I made last year. Honestly, the chalkboard sticker that I used combined with the water that gets splashed all over my bathroom and it wasn't long before my cute little soap dispenser was looking pretty sad. But there is no water involved in Hand Sanitizer and I did not use the chalkboard wallpaper so I am expecting these to hold up well!

Step 1: Empty hand sanitizer container, no need to rinse or anything since hand sanitizer will be going back in.

Step 2. Scrub off the label

Step 3. Spray paint with chalkboard paint, before I did this I was bummed that I only had green chalkboard paint and not black but I am sooooo thrilled with how they turned out! I painted these with about 4 coats letting dry for 20 minutes in between.

Step 4: Let dry for 24 hours (ok, so I let them dry for about 4 hours)

Step 5: Prime with chalk by rubbing it all over the container, then erase

Step 6: Write your message, tie a piece of chalk around the top, attach a tag that say "Hand Sanitizer" and you my friend are done!

(Message on the back)

                         (I espcecially loved this one that had square sides that I could write on)



My Sweeter than Chocolate Bunny!

While thrifting a few days back I found this very ordinary looking glass bunny for 99cents. I am a little low on Easter decorations so I put him in my cart. After a little paint I think he turned out pretty cute!

I spray painted him Espresso, applied a Crackle Medium and some white paint. So quick and so easy. A couple of points if you have not worked with a Crackle Medium before. You can use spray paint for the base but not for the overcoat. So I was fine in using brown spray paint underneath but it wouldn't have worked if I used white spray paint after the Crackle Medium. Another thing, sometimes people tend to rush the top step (just to see if the stuff works) well don't! It says to let dry so let it dry! And don't overbrush it, just brush your topcoat on and leave it alone. I have learned this the hard way! I let it set about 45 minutes with good results.

The whitish paint I used was Light Ivory by Americana, I use it all the time and buy tons of it. It is so close to white but it's not! LOVE IT!

I am still having a hard time believing it is spring even though the weather here is exceptionally gorgeous! Oh and here is the bunny before his transformation.

Wine Rack Transformation!

While thrifting last week I stumbled upon this little wine rack at our GoodWill Store. This is after his little makeover.

This is before....while he was still a lovely shade of orange wood.

Very simple transformation. A can of black matte spray paint (the cheap stuff from Wal-Mart, sprayed the whole thing, and then sanded and sanded. I actually sanded most of the spray paint off, well about half. Then I used a wet paper towel to rub red craft paint all over it. And wiped it back off. Just your basic distressing. It was fun, and easy and just the thing to sit on top of my wine rack.

My husband's comment about it made me LOL. He said "It looks like something you would see on The Black Pearl.  I am not sure if I should take that as a compliment or not! ;0)

So Lucky To Have Each Other!

Just a little reminder..........Rice Pad Bag Giveaway is tommorow! So if you have not left a comment here then you need to! Random.org will be picking a number in about 24 hours so get over there and enter. And if you are a follower make sure that you leave two comments so that you have two chances to win. Oh and I am so excited!  MakeItSparklyMama has reached 20 followers so that means that the giveaway will include both a Rice Pad Bag Heating Pad and A Rice Pad Bag Neck Warmer!

Now for the project I want to show you!

Yes, Indeed we are lucky to have each other! I am so blessed by my Family! And here is a little craft idea to showcase just that! My Mom was getting ready to burn these scrap 2x4's when she thought "Hey I bet Kelly could use those!", and she gave them to me, and I am so glad! They are pretty self explanatory but I will share with you how I did the lettering. First up I made a pattern on the computer. Sometimes it can be tricky to get a letter to print out just the way you want it, for instance I wanted my letters to take up almost the whole block, but if they were long enough than they were too wide.  Or vice versa. But I have a little trick to share,...

First Up: Open a Microsoft Publisher Blank Document

*** Insert A Text Box (It doesn't matter what size at this point)
***Type Your Letter for example I typed L (make it fit the box as best as you can)
***Right Click on the text box and "Save As Picture"
***Delete Text Box
***Click Insert, Picture, From File, then click on the name of the text box you just saved as a picture
***You can now crop your letter so that there is very little text box around it
***This will enable you to size your letter appropriately for your project, without having tons of white space around it.
***Now you can size your letter, stretching it any  way you want.

This tip really does make a difference when you want to stretch letters out, to be tall and skinny or short and wide.

I printed my letters and saying out and then used carbon paper to transfer them over. The only thing I can say is use tape. Especially if your letters are a tight fit! I traced my letters out not being too careful. I wanted my project to have a freehanded look but I didn't want to actually freehand it! After the letters were traced, I thinned some green paint with a little water and just filled in the letters. So easy! I gave them 2 coats. You will notice that my letters look old, like maybe I just chopped up an old fence post and wrote out my letters. This is how I do that look, and I know there are gobs of posts about this in blogland and on the internet but my way is a little diferent. I am too lazy to use stain. I don't like drying time I don't like worrying about things being perfect so I use Old English furniture polish. I just sanded the edges and swiped the blocks with a rag dipped in the polish. It gives them a lovely patina!

Originally I was going to stick wire in the tops of these to attach pictures of my family, and I still might but I love them as is for now!

Thanks for looking!
Kelly

A little shamrock love!

Ok, I told myself I wouldn't post any St. Patty's Day Ideas until my Valentines Day Roses had wilted. But honestly I just can't wait. To me, every holiday is worth celebrating in style, after all, if I have an excuse to eat treats, decorate and spoil my kids a little why not take it. Ok I really do all that every day but if it is a holiday at least I have a reason! So here is my first St. Patty's offering -

This really is a EASY project, if you have some of these -

leftover hearts from V-Day, please tell me I am not the only one who didn't get all their projects done!

and one of these -

a dollar store frame, or a frame you just about threw away because you broke the glass.

And some of this............

I didn't have any black spraypaint so I had to use craft paint on the frame, sad right?

and I painted my hearts green, with a darker green shading around the outside

I ended up distressing the frame, it was red painted wood originally, I painted it black, and then sanded it in spots, and then I swiped some green paint on in spots with a wet paper towel. I love how this turned out, I love it so much I might sleep with it under my pillow tonight! LOL! It looks like something my Irish ancestors had!

I also added some ruffled up fabric to the top and bottom of the frame backing, and used matching fabric to hang the frame on, I just hotglued it on the back. Then I glued a painted wooden circle to the middle of my Shamrock to hide where the corners didn't come together perfectly.  I still thought it needed a little something more so I added some "stitching" around the edges with a black pen.

And a little something more, some black pen "veins" in the Shamrock leaves.

What do you do for St. Patricks Day? I make green pancakes and green milk  for the kids at breakfast, hide golden coins, and the leprechaun usually leaves them a little something if their rooms are clean. Ya know just one more "magic person" to motivate those kids to clean their rooms.

Garden Stakes - A Burst Of Color

My brain must always be thinking of crafting! I was in the hardware store the other night and saw these wooden wedges. At a buck fifty I just couldn't leave them there. I had no idea what I was going to do with them but just had to take them home!

Before the night was up I knew what I wanted to do with them. I have the gardening bug BADLY! And yet it is still February and there is still a high chance that we will have snow. But I created these garden stakes so that when the time is right I will have some pretty little markers for my garden. And after all the browns, grays, and blues that have been around lately, and I am talking about my living room AND the weather outside I was sooo excited for the bright colors that I painted these.

As you can clearly see from the photos they are imperfect but to me they are perfectly imperfect! Now I just need to spray them like a gazillion times with a clear sealer and admire them till it is time for them to go into the garden. They were super simple to make, I basepainted the wedges first and then I cut a wine cork so that it was flat and used that as a sponge for the white circles. Sometimes I had to dab it a couple times to get a nice circle. And then added the little details with paint. Now I am no artist but I think my little veggies turned out pretty cute! Finally I just added the plant names with a black sharpie! Fun!

Cute and Cheap Valentines Project!

Gah! I am soooo in love with this project. When I purchased the little hearts I had what I was going to do with them in mind but it turned out so much CUTER than I ever imagined! It is so stinkin' adorable. I asked hubby what he thought and he said "You made that, nah, it looks professional" Not too sure if I should be proud or upset with his lack of confidence. Hahaha. This project was also CHEAP. I used two packs of these hearts that I bought at JoAnn's in their $1 section. They originally look like the message hearts but I don't really like those or like pastels in my house so I did something different.

What you need for this project:

Wooden Hearts
Skewers or Pieces of Thin Dowel
Block of Wood (I used a spare chunk of 2x4) mine is 5" long
Paint (Red, Black and White is what I used)
Spray Adhesive
Glitter
Sharpie Marker
Drill and A Glue Gun

First I painted the hearts, for my project, I used 7 hearts, 3 red, 3 white and 2 black.  Between each coat I outlined the words that were pre-printed on my hearts. If your hearts don't have words just freehand sweet little sayings. I also painted my skewers and my block of wood black.

I sprayed each heart with spray adhesive and then sprinkled them with silver glitter. A couple of tips, I use the back of a magazine underneath my glitter projects. It is the perfect weight to pick up curl the edges and dump the excess glitter back in the container. I also use a sticky lint remover whenever I am using glitter. I buy them at the $ store and they work great for quick pickups.

On the hearts that have sayings I used an old paintbrush to carefully remove most of the glitter on the inside of the heart. Just leaving a border of glitter around the edges.

Now for the fun part. I love using power tools! Using a drill bit that is just a little bit bigger than your skewer or dowel drill holes in your block of wood. On second thought you really should drill the holes before you paint the block of wood. I used a marker to mark where I wanted my holes to be, keeping in mind that I wanted my hearts to have a staggered appearance. (sorry for the crappy photo but you get the idea)

Once your holes are drilled you can start arranging your skewers/dowels making them different lengths. Hotglue your skewers to the back of your dowels, and put just a dab of hotglue on the end of the skewer before sticking them into your drilled holes. Ta-Da! This project cost me $2.00 and was really easy to do. Fun too!