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Potato Painting, Gift Wrapping
December 20, 2010 // Posted in: DIY, Holiday-Related Projects // By: Emily // 2 responses
We’re really getting into the holiday spirit over here, with the music, the movies, the lights, and the presents. I did go out and buy some new wrapping paper this year for friends and family gifts, but channeled the inner 4-year old in me and decided to do a evening project with J to make some custom paper that we could wrap her grandparents’ gifts in. I think the last time I was involved with making stamps out of potatoes, I wasn’t old enough to actually to the cutting and carving myself, so that’s probably telling as to the quality of the handiwork you’re about to see here :). Didn’t turn out quite as well as something you’d see in Real Simple or BHG, but inexperience aside, we did come up with some cute designs to cut and stamp.
First things first, I brought a bag of Wegman’s cheapest potatoes home. Stamps and dinner. With each potato cut in half the short way, we etched the desired shape into the surface, and then carefully cut about 1/4″ off the edges, leaving the shape raised and stampy (no, not a word). Paring knives worked best because they allowed for smoother curves and detail work, but I used a serated knife (as shown) as well as a strawberry stem remover as a scoop.
We ended up with a good assortment of stamps (about 12 in all). We did letters for J-U-L-I-A, a snowman, christmas tree, heart, flower, square, triangle, and a couple of others that you’ll see that were more salvages of ones gone awry than something done intentionally.
I used some of the most basic brown paper I had – it wasn’t glossy or finished in any way, so it really locked in the paint nicely. We used about 6 different colors from the Crayola washable paint set that Pete had on hand (trying to adhere to the reds and greens and whites, but little girls like blue and purple too, so we made it work). With paint divided into separate bowls, we tried stamping the paint onto the potato right in the bowl (the bottom was flat, not rounded at all) but learned quickly that you have much more control and can avoid blotchiness if you hand-paint the color of choice on to the stamp directly.
The dried finish products (we did several table-sized sheets of paper) turned out really good. Perfect paper for grandma and grandpa’s gifts. Little bit of ribbon, and we’re done.
Berry Wreath (And Girl’s First Paper Bow)
December 20, 2010 // Posted in: Decor, DIY, Holiday-Related Projects // By: Emily // Leave a comment
I planned to make a few different wreaths this holiday season using the same plain vine wreath. I gave myself budget, and I was perfectly fine creating and disassembling wreath after wreath for the sake of experimentation. The first one that I made involved some fake snowballs, and stayed on my front door for about 1.5 weeks before I was inspired to start the next one. A beautiful tree filled with lovely red berries became the perfect inspiration for the second wreath – I snagged a few branches, figuring a couple low-hanging ones wouldn’t be missed.
Once the existing wreath had been cleared of pine garland and snowballs, I wove the berry branches into the vines (probably would have been easier and more secure if I had some florist wire, but I didn’t use any). I kept the branches to one half of the wreath to create some asymmetry intentionally, and once it was done I decided I liked it best with the berries along the top/right edge. Seeking some additional adornment, I found directions on how to make your own paper ribbon at How About Orange (nice blog, DIY’ers). I used some plain brown wrapping paper, and following the directions as they outlined, I made a bow. OK, mine wasn’t as carefully measured out but it still worked, and it would probably look great if it was made out of newspaper, magazines, or gift wrapping paper.
Maybe one or two more to come! Awaiting inspiration.
More DIY projects, featuring Sugru
December 19, 2010 // Posted in: DIY // By: Emily // 5 responses
Back when Pete bought (close to) a thousand packets of the ever-handy and cool product Sugru, we figured that we’d have a while (maybe years) to use it all, but within the last month or so, we realized that the stuff does expire, becoming less maleable and more likely to crack (like drying playdoh). I used it to create little feet on the table centerpiece that I wrote about right here, but in addition to that, we’ve really ramped up our efforts to use it all before the end of the year (when allegedly, it expires). Here are some of the quick hacks we can report on:
Sunglasses hack(s): There isn’t enough wiggle room in Pete’s motorcycle helmet to accommodate a pair of sunglasses (the arms end up digging into the backs of his ears, ouch) so he decided to shorten the length of the arms so that they were just long enough to grip the side of his head, but not be painful. He actually melted the ends of the arms off with a small torch (fun) and then used the soft, silicone Sugru to make cushioned end pieces that would form perfectly to his temples. Once dried, they’re actually a little grippy, so they never slip off. Dad hacked his sunglasses too, replacing the broken-away plastic wraps (there was just a thin wire exposed) with a light coat of Sugru to help get him through the summer.
Magnet hacks: Well, I couldn’t always use the entire packet of Sugru on a hack, so I began using the leftovers to decorate my own plain magnets – here’s one where I molded bits of Sugru to a magnet and then hand-coated with little silver beads.
Dog crate hack: The dog gate has to fit in my Jeep very snuggily in order not to shift around en-transit. Since it was wedged in there tightly, I noticed that the edges of the gate were wearing against the roof of my car, actually beginning to tear the fabric. The quick and obvious fix was to cover up the exposed metal area to prevent additional wear, so we decided to give the Sugru a shot – the orange pieces molded and solidified perfectly to the gate, and prevent wear and tear – plus, it’s grippy, so it does help to keep the gate in place too!
iPhone Cord hack: We sure love our iPhones, but the cords aren’t made to last – I noticed that the plastic coating on my cord was starting to crack apart, exposing the wires, so I coated the affected with Sugru to weld it back together. No exposed wires, and a reinforced connection should help it last awhile longer than it might have otherwise.
Potholder hook: Yes, Sugru sticks right to the wall (or the side of the microwave, in this case). In need of a quick hook to hang oven mitts and pot holders on, Pete made a quick formation out of Sugru and yes, the hook is strong enough to hold what it needs to (although it couldn’t hold more than one thing).
*I have no affiliation with Sugru or FormFormForm, I just really love the product and think it’s revolutionary in the space. Try it for yourself, and browse other people’s cool hacks on sugru.com.
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