Bleach Pen Stenciling

Just stumbled upon this while in blog world.  What a cool idea. I am thinking this technique can totally be done on t-shirts for a fun summer/beachy look.  Head on over to Crafts & Sutch for a tutorial on this "no sew bleached sand dollar pillow"

House Number Sign

We've been living in our house for over a year now... but until today haven't had our house number displayed anywhere.  Cricut to the rescue, once again.  I absolutely love the way this turned out.

I noticed that burlap is so popular these days.  You can see it in all the upscale stores.  It's so inexpensive but has great texture and is very easy to work with.

For this project, I started with a square of burlap and frayed the edges.  Then I cut out numbers 2 and 6 using my friend the Cricut out of fabric.  I used iron on thing-a-majigy (what is the name for it???) to attach the numbers to burlap.  I also cut out "Creme" on the Cricut, out of freezer paper this time.  Ironed that on the burlap and used it as a stencil.  Then I used some heavy duty glue to attach the whole thing to the wood plaque, which I painted using acrylic paints and a layer of mod podge (mainly for texture).  For the finishing touch I added some upholstery tacks to each corner of the burlap.

I frayed the edges of the fabric numbers a little to give it a more shabby look.



I just love all the textures on this sign.  Here is a closer look at the burlap and painted background... along with that really cool tack.



Etched Glass - can I really do this?

This is the end result of my first attemtp at glass etching.  It was a super easy, fast.. and very satisfying project.

Supplies you will need:  something glass (obviously).  I purchased these two candle holders a the Dollar Tree.  They are probably about 4" tall.  The reason I have two is because my sweet husband, who was home not feeling too well today, said he would like to do a project with me.  What a good sport he is!  OK, now back to the supplies.  You will aslo need Glass Etching Cream.  I purchased mine at Michaels.  Not cheap but goes a long way.  I think my 3 oz. bottle was $12.99 but I used a 40% off coupon, so it was quite a bit less.  We used foam brushes to apply the cream.  Another thing you will need is some sort of a stencil.  I bought some at Michaels but decided not to use them because I didn't have repositinobale adhesive... blah blah blah.  So, we improvised...  next step.

I used my Big Kick and cut out a flourish (Tim Holtz's die) on some contact paper.  You obviously don't need printed contact paper but that's what I had on hand, leftover from when we lined our bathroom drawers. 

Then I removed the flourishes and saved them for another use... don't know what that use might be quite yet.  You need the negative space in order to create the stencil.



We then attached it to the glass...  and used some more contact paper around the edges, so the cream wouldn't get on the parts where we didn't want it.  You also want to make sure to remove any air bubbles, so the cream won't get under your stencil.



Here is my Honey applying the etching cream to the glass. 

We applied it very liberally, tapping it on, not brushing.  I think it works better that way.  But since it was our fist time, we don't really know.  The directions say to let it sit for about 5 minutes.  I followed the directions, and Greg left his for about 15 minutes, to experiment...  we didn't see much of a difference between the two. 

Then you rinse the whole thing, washing away all of the etching cream. 

Then peel away your stencil... and marvel at the beauty of your newely etched glass.  It's SO cool!

Here are our two candle holders side by side.  I still need to remove the labels from the bottom... and get some candles to go in them. 

Freezer Paper Stenciling

These twin sisters are funny. I love their ideas and many of the projects they do. Hmmm... I am getting all kinds of ideas using freezer paper for stenciling. Can't wait to try it. Will have to let you know how it works.

By the way, when they mention that you need to use fabric paint for stenciling on T-Shirts or items you plan to wash... You CAN use acrylic paint, just make sure to set it with a hot iron, through a cloth, and it should be all set.