Basil Bottle: Painting on Jars

Several years ago, when I still owned my craft store in Richmond, IL, I used to paint on jars and bottles. A LOT. Glass jars make a fabulous canvas. The surface is smooth, and as long as you follow a few simple guidelines, the paint won't peel. You'll have a fabulous accent for your home, or a wonderful painted package for gifts. I used to display these with a little votive jar with a candle in it.

This particular project was recycled into a vase from a bottle of barbecue sauce. I'm going to give you the pattern, so you can paint this on a bottle, jar, piece of wood, whatever your heart desires. I found the pattern on one of my craft shelves in my basement. I have a big stack of different ones I'll share here. These were patterns that were left over when I closed my store and I have forgotten that I even had them! This pattern seems very fitting, considering how into cooking I am now. ;)

Simply Basil Vase
designed and copyrighted by Amanda Formaro

Supply List

Liner, shader & small scruffy brush
Micron black craft pen
Acrylic matte spray
Crackle medium
pattern

Paint Colors
(all colors are Delta Ceramcoat)

Forest Green
Antique White
Leaf Green
Georgia Clay
White

Directions

1. Base coat surface with 1 coat of Forest Green.

2. Following directions on the crackle medium bottle, apply one good coat of crackle. Allow to dry until tacky (20-45 minutes).

3. Paint over the crackle with Antique White. Paint will begin to crackle within a matter of minutes. let this dry completely, overnight is best.

4. Trace outline of pattern (the rectangle) and paint inside with White. You may need two coats if the crackle shows through too much. Allow to dry completely.

5. trace pattern of plant and outer decoration onto painted rectangle.

6. Paint "Basil" with Georgia Clay and outer edge decoration with Forest Green.

7. Paint entire plant using Leaf Green, shade leaves and stems with Forest Green. Using a dry scruffy brush, dip bristles in Forest Green and dab off excess onto a paper towel or rag. Pounce onto areas where blooms are. Clean out brush and repeat the loading process with White paint and lightly highlight leaf edges. use a toothpick or a stylus to dot on White onto the blossoms.

8. Sign your work! Spray completed project with 2-3 coats of acrylic spray sealer (matte) according to directions on can.

TIP: If you are painting on jars, you can prepare your surface by washing the jar, completely removing all labels and glue, then giving the jar a rinse in white vinegar or rubbing alcohol. Allow the first coat of base coat to dry COMPLETELY before attempting a second coat!

Visit these great blog carnivals to see more fun projects:

Creative Cats

Friday Showcase

Get Your Craft On

Strut Your Stuff

Feature Yourself Friday
Metamorphosis Monday

Styrofoam Cup Spring Bonnets

I learned how to do this several years ago. I've made pilgrim hats, leprechaun hats (will post those soon too), and these springtime hats. These springtime hats are the perfect craft for spring, Easter, and Mother's Day. They are really fun to make and the kids love watching them bake. It's like having Shrinky Dinks in the oven!

Most common question: Does it smell?

Not really. Maybe a slight scent to the sensitive nose, but I could never smell anything. :)


Styrofoam Cup Spring Hats 

printable version


You will need

Styrofoam cups
acrylic paint in pastel colors
small silk flowers
small beads
pastel or sheer ribbons
hot glue gun
magnets (optional)

What you do

Preheat oven to 250 degrees F.

Note: The temperature and instructions in this craft are based off of a dark coated cookie sheet at 250 degrees F in an electric oven. You may want to experiment with different temps until you receive satisfactory results. I recommend baking one or two cups at the recommended temperature and time first. If they seem to melt too quickly or the ends curl up and under, try reducing the temperature and trying again.

Place Styrofoam cups upside down (open end of cup down) on a dark coated cookie sheet, placing them about 1-2" apart. Note: we experimented with both dark coated and silver cookie sheets, the cups did not melt properly on the silver sheets.

Bake in the oven for approximately 3 minutes, don't walk away! It will take about one minute before you see any changes to the cups, then the heat will begin to melt and shrink them rather rapidly after that. It's lots of fun for the kids to watch, so be sure to turn the oven light on.

Remove the cookie sheet from the oven and set aside to cool completely. DO NOT try to remove the cups from the cookie sheet until they are completely cooled. As they cool, the Styrofoam that is stuck to the sheet will relax and release its grip from the sheet, allowing you to remove them easily. Most cups will melt rather well, thought you may end up with one or two that look rather distorted or disfigured.

Paint the "hats" with pastel colors, one coat is usually enough, and allow them to dry completely. Once they are dry you can embellish them with small silk flowers, pretty beads, and ribbons using a hot glue gun.

If you like, you can hot glue a small round magnet to the bottom of the hat at the brim and hang on the refrigerator.

Visit these great blog carnivals to see more fun projects:

Creative Cats

Friday Showcase

Get Your Craft On

Strut Your Stuff

Feature Yourself Friday
Tot Tuesday

Make Tie Dye Wall Letters

Decorating your daughter's room can be a challenge, especially when she reaches the preteen and adolescent years. When Kristen, my only daughter amongst three boys, was 12 years old, she wanted me to take the girlishly pink wall letters her grandma had given her, and make them more "hip". She was in that "I don't like pink anymore" stage and was loving the vibrant colors of tie dye.

I found some tie dye fabric at the craft store and pulled out my paints. The results were fun and funky. it's now almost 4 years later and these letters still hang proudly above her closet doors.


Tie Dye Wall Letters
designed by Amanda Formaro

printable version

What you need

wooden wall letters
sand paper
Liquitex Basics Gesso (optional)
yellow acrylic craft paint
tie dye fabric
razor blade or box cutter
white craft glue
paint brush
water
nailess sawtooth picture hangers
hammer

What you do

If needed, sand wooden letters to make them smooth. You can find wooden letters at most craft supply stores or order them online.

Paint a coat of Liquitex Basics Gesso on each letter. This is a craft medium that will help provide better coverage and will require less yellow paint. This step is optional, or you may choose to use white acrylic paint if you don't have any gesso handy. Allow to dry completely. Paint all letters with yellow craft paint, allow to dry and repeat.

Once paint is completely dry, lay letters on work surface in front of you. Cut sections of tie dye fabric large enough to completely cover each letter. Each letter should have its own piece of tie dye fabric. Mix together equal parts of water and white craft glue, mixture should have a milky and paintable consistency. Use an old paint brush to apply a coat of glue mixture onto raised surface of the letter where you want the fabric to be. Lay the fabric onto the glue mixture and gently press down. Use old paintbrush to paint another coat of glue mixture over the top of the fabric, thus decoupaging the fabric on. Repeat these steps for each letter and allow to dry completely before moving on to the next step, at least 2-3 hours.

Using a box cutter or razor blade, cut away the excess fabric by stretching out the excess fabric with your fingers and cutting along the edge of the raised letter. To stretch fabric out, gently pull fabric away from the glued edge until taut, then use the box cutter to trim away.

Turn each letter over and hammer a nailess sawtooth picture hanger into the back for hanging on the wall. For letters with two "tops" or longer top edges such as "K" or "T", use 2 hangers. Hang your tie dye letters on the wall!

St. Patrick's Day Welcome Shamrock

It's been a few years since I made this, but I still pull it out every year and hang it on my front door! It was really easy and I always get lots of compliments. All you'll need are some inexpensive paper mache hearts you can get at the craft store, some paint and buttons.


St. Patrick's Day Welcome Shamrock
designed by Amanda Formaro

printable version

You will need:

4 paper mache hearts
assortment of colorful buttons
acrylic paint in green, black and white
scissors
hot glue gun
old toothbrush
acrylic sealer spray, matte finish

What you do:

On work surface, position the four paper mache hearts into a clover design. Hot glue them together. Use scissors to trim off the hangers from the hearts, leaving one on to hang the clover by.

Paint clover completely with green acrylic paint. Repeat if needed.

Dip the bristle tips of a toothbrush into some black paint that has been lightly thinned with a drop or two of water. Test your splattering ability on a piece of scrap paper before doing this on your clover. Hold toothbrush horizontally and drag your finger across the bristles, causing the paint to splatter spots wherever you aim it. When you are comfortable with this method, go ahead and splatter the entire surface of the clover with black paint. Clean out toothbrush and repeat this method with white paint. Spray entire surface with acrylic sealer spray and let dry.

When dry, use hot glue to add buttons around the outer edge of the clover. Alternate the colors so that there are not too many of one color together. If you prefer, you can use gold and/or silver buttons in place of colorful buttons.

Find one button to go in the center of the clover, preferably larger than the other buttons that you used around the edge.Hot glue to the center.

Hang on your door!

Rainbow Cake Recipe 
A friend of mine, Megan from Megan's Cookin', has a really awesome and colorful rainbow cake that would be PERFECT for St' Patrick's Day! Just look at that picture of all those vibrant and beautiful layers! I'm dying to try this and thought you would like it too!

Mosaic Heart for Valentine's Day

When my daughter (now 15) was 6 years old, we came up with this cute Valentine's Day craft made from poster board, construction paper, and magazine pages. I remember the look on my daughter's face vividly, smiling and happy, the whole time we were making these. She loved every aspect of it, turned out to be such as easy craft with an impressive result.

So if you are looking for something last minute, and you have some construction paper and magazines on hand, this is the perfect choice. Happy Valentine's Day!


Mosaic Heart
designed by Amanda Formaro


printable version

You will need

poster board
construction paper
old magazines or catalogs
scissors
glue stick

What to do

Note: poster board can be replaced with construction paper, but construction paper is not as sturdy and will not hold up as well.

Base
Cut a piece of poster board to the size you want to work with, we used a square foot piece (12" x 12"). Draw a heart near the center of your poster board. To get a perfect heart, fold a piece of paper in half lengthwise, then cut out half of a heart OR print this. Unfold and you have a complete heart shape, trim if needed. Trace around your pattern with pencil onto the poster board. Draw 4 lines from the edge of the heart extended outward to the edge of the posterboard to divide the background into sections.

Prep
Tear out magazine or catalog pages that have mostly color and not much text, laundry and cereal ads are usually great for this! Tear pages into small squares by tearing into strips first, then into small pieces from the strips. Keep colors separated. We used goldenrod, green, blue, and pink for the background, and red for the heart.

Gluing
Begin with background colors first. Using the glue stick, apply squares in a tile fashion (next to one another) in one of the quartered sections of the background. Complete the color. Do this for each section until background is complete. Remember, the beauty of this project is that perfection is not required! Once the background colors are in place, fill in your heart with red squares.

Framing
To make the frame, cut four 1"-wide strips of construction paper in your choice of colors. We duplicated our background colors and set them in contrast with the background. For example, we started with a green frame strip on the left side because the green mosaic tiles were on the right side, and so on. Glue in place and over lap at each corner as shown in photo.

For the Younger Set
For younger children, it is not necessary, and not recommended, to tear pieces so small. Allow the children to tear pieces in whatever fashion they choose (lengths, clumps, blobs, etc.) and let them at it! The larger pieces are much easier to manipulate for smaller fingers. Take a look at Figure 2, designed completely by my 6 year old daughter, Kristen. Larger pieces are also better for the younger crowd because their attention spans are limited. The project involving small squares took approximately 45 minutes for an adult.

Decoupage Rose Votives

Aren't these lovely? They last forever too. The are great for any occasion, but are especially nice for Valentine's Day. They give off a lovely glow and are perfect for a romantic dinner at home. I made these about 3 years ago and I still use them often. I keep them in my living room, they are great for any holiday!


Decoupage Rose Votives
by Amanda Formaro

[printable version]

You will need

glass votive holder
white tissue paper
dried or fresh rose petals and leaves
Medium paint brush
white craft glue
water
small bowl
paper towels
wax paper

What you do

If using dried rose petals you will need to soften them up by soaking them in a cup or dish of tap water. Do this for the leaves as well. You will need about 6 petals and 2 leaves for each votive. Set these aside to soak.

Tear tissue paper into 1" squares, no need to be precise. It's important to tear rather than cut as you will achieve a smoother result this way.

Mix together equal amounts of white craft glue and water in a small bowl. Mixture should be paintable but not too thick.

When the rose petals have soaked long enough to make them pliable, remove them and the leaves from the water and place onto paper towels. Cover with another paper towel and place a small book on top to flatten them out and squeeze out excess water. Leave book in place for 1-2 minutes, then check the petals. Carefully remove them from the paper towels and place on wax paper. If you leave them on the paper towels, they may stick to it as they dry. Break the leaves into smaller pieces and set aside.

To decoupage, paint the back of one of the rose petals with the paintable glue mixture and position onto the glass votive. Paint the mixture over the top of the petal as well. Repeat this step for each petal, working your way around the glass. Repeat this process again, this time using the leaf pieces around the bottom of the votive.

Working in sections, decoupage the torn pieces of tissue paper over the top of the rose petals and the leaves, completely covering the entire votive. Repeat again, covering entire votive with a second coat of tissue paper. Look at your finished votive and see if there are any thin spots and decoupage on more tissue paper wherever needed.

Let project dry completely, overnight is best.

Insert a votive or tea light candle and light!