The weekend is almost here! How has your week been?... hectic, stressful, uninspiring?? Well I have two weekend projects to share that will help you unwind and rekindle your creativity! They were actually birthday presents that I made for my Mum and she was so pleased with them, I thought you would appreciate them too. Here goes!
The first is a decoupage project, which is a fun way to transform and personalize everyday objects like this glass dish... Isn't it lovely! (I'm quite pleased with myself lol)
I drew my inspiration from these two tutorials on Crafty Nest Blog and marthastewart.com.
You will need:
- A glass dish or plate
- Scrap-booking paper with a pattern/image of your choice. (Printing images on your home printer will not work in this case because the ink will run... trust me, I learned the hard way!)
- Decoupage medium - for this I simply used 3 parts Ponal glue to 1 spart water. Fancy name, but it's basically diluted glue.
- A medium-sized paint brush to paint on the decoupage medium
- Scissors
- Spray paint/acrylic paint in your desired colour(I found that the spray paint worked better on the glass.)
- A sponge applicator if you are using acrylic paint
- A pencil
- Clear varnish or spray enamel for the finishing coat.
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| Supplies for the task! |
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| My Paper Cut-Out |
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| My Decoupage Medium |
Instructions:
Use your pencil to trace the shape of the bottom of the dish/plate onto your scrap-booking paper. Take your scissors and cut the shape out. Make sure your paper cut-out fits the area you want to stick it to and ensure that the glass is clean (use a little Windex if necessary). Next, use the paint brush to apply the decoupage medium (diluted glue) to the are you wish to stick the paper. In this case, It was the bottom, outer-side of the glass dish. Then, carefully stick the right-side of the paper cut-out onto the base of the glass dish. Don't worry if it looks a bit blurry on the inside - the glue will dry to a clear finish. At this point, some people put another layer of the decoupage medium on and then another piece of blank paper in the same shape to strengthen it. I didn't bother to do that because my paper was card stock and I felt it was adequate. Once you've applied the glue, let it dry for at at least 30 - 40 minutes... If you still see wet patches, let it dry for longer.
Once it has dried completely, you will move to the next stage which is painting the outside of the dish. At this point, if you have decided to coat the outside with a more translucent colour like white, I would recommend that you do several coats of white spray paint as opposed to painting it with white acrylic - trust me on this one! I learned from trial and error! The spray paint will give you a more even finish.
Once you have applied a satisfactory number of coats, you can either leave the exterior blank and move on to varnishing it, or you can opt for another paint finish. I decided to apply a sponged finish to my dish. I mixed up a lovely pale, green, acrylic paint mixture (my mum's favourite colour is green ;-) and I applied it lightly with a sea sponge (you can get these at local craft/hardware stores). This also complemented the pattern on my paper cut-out.
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| Sponging |
Once that was completely dry, I then added 2 coats of clear, spray enamel for the finishing touches and VOILA!!!
Be sure to advice the recipient on how to care for the item. I would not recommend that a dish like this be used in the microwave or oven. It's more suitable for light use. Gently clean it using a sponge with a little dish-washing liquid and then pat dry with a kitchen/paper towel.
Don't you think this makes a fantastic gift!!? I'll share the other project with you next time. So stay tuned!
