Painting on Clay Jars

Hi guys! I’ve got another DIY Decor tutorial to share with you. I found these jars that were used for school projects that were due to be thrown out. I really wanted to save them and make them fit the vibe of my home so I decided to paint them using different design inspirations.

As these pots have all been previously painted on, the first thing that I needed to do was to cover everything with a base coat of white acrylic paint. Once every jar had been painted white, I set these aside to dry completely.

Boho Chic-So, for the first project, I wanted to do a boho chic design. To achieve this look, I decided to cover the center with natural burlap. I measured about two inches from the center and measured the same width on the burlap. Then I cut off the excess. The next thing that I did was I mixed a dark shade of green with white to make mint green. Once the entire jar had been coated, I set it aside to dry completely.

When the paint had dried, I got some glue and attached the burlap fabric to the center of the jar. Finally, I coated the entire jar, including the burlap fabric with Mod Podge and let it dry completely.

Industrial-The second jar’s inspiration are the concrete décor that I see so often on pinterest. This was actually a difficult redesign because the jar was painted black and I suspect that the paint originally used on it was poster paint because every time it stuck to something, the paint would chip or leach on to my white base coat. The plan was to paint everything gray and then dry brush it with black. I had to keep going back to it because of the chipped paint, but eventually, it did get to a point where everything was covered. I quickly brushed the jar with mod podge and that did the trick to seal everything.

Farmhouse-The third jar’s inspiration is another popular design theme—farmhouse. For this craft, you will need a bit of polymer clay. I wanted the jar to have this milk jug vibe so I fashioned handles for it using polymer clay. Once I created the shape of the handles, I baked the clay following the instructions on the packaging. Once the clay handles had been baked, I attach it to the sides of the jar with glue. Then, when it had dried, I painted everything white. Then, I dry brushed the entire jar with gray.

Pastel-And finally, I decided to do something pastel. Of the four, I have to say that this is my least favorite and only because the glue gun did not cooperate with me, and I couldn’t make straight, neat lines. I decided that I wanted to have some texture in this jar, and I thought that making the lines with the glue gun would work. In fairness, I still think that it would have worked, but I think that it would have looked better if I let my lines run along the entire jar.

And these are my four upcycled and redesigned jars. I hope you got some ideas on how to decorate your own clay pots.

DIY Christmas Decor

It’s been a while since I last shared a craft tutorial. Well, since it’s Christmas and I know a lot of us are trying to get smarter with our money because of this pandemic, I thought that for this year, I would only being making my own decor. In this tutorial, I want to share some very easy DIY projects with you.

This first one is just something that you can put around the house, on shelves, on coffee tables, basically, anywhere that can use a touch of Christmas.

Christmas Tin Can

You will need the following: a used and washed can (this one is from a canned good), Christmas ribbon (recycled, preferably), twine, burlap holly, plastic figs (from an old wreath perhaps), glue gun and plier.

  1. The first thing that you need to do is to remove any label from the can. Then, bend the sides of the can so that the edges don’t cut you. I also glued some paper twine around the opening for extra protection.
  2. I got the ribbon and glued this around the can. I glued a second ribbon for contrast (note that you can switch up the colors to suit your overall Christmas theme).
  3. I then cut a small piece of burlap, about an inch, to hide where the ends of my ribbon were glued.
  4. Then, I tightly would up some paper twine to glue at the base of then can. This will hold my figs upright.
  5. I decorated my twigs with a bit of holly first before I stuck them to the bottom of the can.
  6. Optional: You can add some tulle, or green fruits bags and fashion them as leaves.
  7. Optional: You can use a white marker to put touches of white on the ends of the fig to make them look like they’ve been snowed on.

I hope that you learned something from this tutorial! For the full tutorial, do head on to the Craft Time Studio – https://youtu.be/0A3n9SoLlh0

Summer Crafts for Kids #3: Gaudi-inspired Coaster

Since we’re always at the beach these days, we got to collect a lot of sea glass. At a certain point, we had one too many. So, we thought of another super simple craft to make use of these beautiful beach finds.

Level of Difficulty: Beginners

In this craft activity, you will need:

Used paper bowl (cleaned and dried)

Sea glass

Scissors

Silicon

Acrylic paint

Paint brush

What to Do:

  1. Cut the bottom of the paper bowl.
  2. Flip it and paint the sides with acrylic paint. Set aside to dry.
  3. Once the paint is dry, fill the bottom with silicon. (Note: silicon sets very quickly so your sea glass pieces should be on hand).
  4. Decorate with sea glass. Leave overnight to dry.

Summer Crafts for Kids #1: Aqua Beads

It’s summer once again and for parents, this means that a lot of time will be spent on thinking of what to do with the kids at home. Luckily, I’ve discovered that there are a lot of simple and relatively inexpensive crafts to do with the kiddos to make sure that their time is occupied on meaningful endeavors, and not just mindless play (eg. Internet surfing, etc.).

Level of Difficulty: Beginners

For this craft activity, you will need:

  • Aqua beads set (which includes templates, aqua beads, water spray, and layout tray)
  • Clean bottle with lid
  • Glue gun

What to Do:

  1. Put the layout tray on top of the bottle lid so that you can measure how big your design can be.
  2. Start putting the beads on the tray to make your design.
  3. Once you’re happy with the design, spritz the entire thing with water. Let it dry overnight as the beads will not attach properly if the water is not completely dry.
  4. Glue the pattern to the lid using glue gun.

The advantage of this craft is that the beads come in a variety of colors. They also sell beads by the pack. The disadvantage is that once the kids get a hang of making them, they can finish quite quickly. Challenge them to a game of making the most number of designs.

Watch out every Wednesday for a new set of summer crafts!

Oh This Cat!

Cat on My Window Sill

As I sit on this window sill
Unmoving, silent, very still
Watch my blue eyes speaking
Is your heart melting?

I lick my lips and you get it
You bring out a bowl and you fill it
I purr to show satisfaction
Of our unspoken connection

Okay, so it’s my first time to make a poem about my craft. I made the cat using polymer clay, and the window sill using an empty matchbox. It’s really quite an adorable yellow cat, and it’s one of the few crafts I’ve kept with me because for some reason, I can’t bear to give it away.

It also inspired me to write the poem that accompanies it. I imagine the cat, looking oh-so-cute, using only its hypnotizing eyes to communicate its desire to drink some milk. And of course, all I can do is comply. After all, who can resist those eyes? Oh this cat!

Padded Pot Holder

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Sorry, it’s been a while since I last posted something.  I realize that with blogging, I have to prepare a lot of things in advance so that I can maintain my once-a-week posting, and still travel, and do my other weekly objectives.  Anyhoo, this is a super-cool DIY project that has (at least for me) been 1. easy to make, 2. easy on the pocket and 3. easy on the environment.  Let’s start with materials.  I used here the shoulder pads from my old office uniforms.  I think shoulders pads were big during the 80’s, but even then, I didn’t need them.  I have used shoulder pads in so many projects already, so I don’t throw them away (plus, they come free with my uniforms).  You will also need a needle, some thread and scissors.  I had all these at home, so zero expenses on my end.  Step 1:  Remove the Velcro patch located on the top of the shoulder pad.  Step 2:  Interlap two shoulder pads (choose the ones that are about the same size).  Use running stitch to attach the two pads together.  Step 3:  Get a third pad and attach the straight end of that pad to the bottom of the pad used in Step 2.  Step 4:  Do Steps 1-3 for another set of pads.  This will be the front and back of your pot holder.  Step 5:  Use running stitch to attach the edges of the front and back of your pot holder, leaving the bottom open so that you could insert your hand.  Step 6:  Get another shoulder pad and fold into two.  Attach one end to the front pad, and the other to the back pad.  This will be where your thumb will go.  Ta-dah!  I think I finished this craft in twenty minutes as I didn’t use any complicated stitching.  But, if I used a sewing machine, I think I would have this done in maybe under ten minutes.  All in all, I used up seven shoulder pads.  Thanks for reading this post!  I promise that a new post will be ready by next Wednesday!