Saturday, June 16, 2012

Thumb Print Flower for Mom

My brother and I made this for our mom for Mother's Day but it would also make a good present for Mom's birthday! :) Sorry I don't have pictures of the how-to. I did this awhile ago, before I started this blog.


What You'll Need:
- acrylic paint
- brushes - including a fine tip brush for the lettering
- letter stencils
- scrapbook paper with a slight texture
- frame
- pencil
- ruler

Step One:
My frame is 12in x 12in but matted down to 8in x 8in so I measured out an 8x8 box on my paper with pencil to paint in.

Step Two:
I painted a small circle off center in the box. Because I didn't have any circle templates with me, I made the edges fuzzy so you can't tell that it's a bit irregular. Then I picked an acrylic paint color (yellow) and painted it on my thumb. I recommend testing out your thumb stamp on a piece of scratch paper so you can adjust how much paint you apply to it if you need to.

Step Three:
I then started stamping my thumb around the circle. You'll need to reapply paint to your thumb with the brush after each stamp to keep the prints consistent. After completing one row I began the next with my thumb in between the previous prints. Once the flower was the size I wanted and dried, my brother did the same with his thumb in orange.

Step Four:
After the flower is completely dry, I used the stencils to write out "Home is where your Mom is." I used the ruler and pencil to mark out each line to make sure the letters were level. I first used a pencil to stencil out the letters incase I made a mistake (which I did). Then I went over it with brown paint using a fine tip brush.

Step Five:
Once everything was completely dry, I erased any visible pencil marks leftover. Then I put it in the frame and we gave it to Mom. She loved it! :)

Stay Inspired! :)

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Toilet Paper Roll Wall Art



What You'll Need:
- around 15 toilet paper rolls (more or less depending on how big/small you want it)
- acrylic paint(s) & brushes
- matte mod podge & sponge brush
- hot glue gun
- scissors
- newspaper/scratch paper


Step One:
Peel off any leftover bits of toilet paper. Smash down the rolls to create a leaf-like shape. Then cut each roll into three pieces. I decided to cut them at varying sizes to make it more interesting.


Step Two:
Paint them whatever color(s) you see fit. I chose these three Craft Smart acrylic paints from Michael's which I purchased for 50 cents each. Then I let them dry for about half an hour.


 Step Three:
Once they were dry I applied a thin coat of mod podge to seal and give a subtle glossy finish. Mod podge takes longer to dry so I just let it sit over night to assure it was completely dry.

Step Four:
Next, I played around with how I wanted to arrange the pieces. I was originally going to connect them all into one large piece but as I started hot gluing, I decided it would be easier to make three seperate shapes. This also allowed me to experiment with their composition when I hung them up.

Stay Inspired! :)

My First Post

Hello creatives!


My name is Jessica and I'm majoring in Interior Design at Iowa State University!
I love my design classes but they can be pretty stressful sometimes. To help with the stress, I like to come up with art projects to do outside of school. This helps me stay inspired and keep in touch with the fun side of design!


My goal with this blog is to share my fun projects and how-tos with other DIYers.


I hope this helps you stay inspired! :)