This is a great impact for not much effort activity! For those parts of the world approaching spring it is also perfect seasonal arty crafty fun for kids. Blow ink, or runny paint, or dye, or food coloring around on some paper with a straw – make sure that if the children are doing this that they practice BLOWING first. Try to blow in one general direction to get some branch shapes. Then glue on little scrunched up bits of pink or white tissue paper on or near the branches.
This was one of those ideas after a few glasses of wine. And having had the idea I could not wait long enough for the shops to open to buy the correct paint – Foolishly I would rather spend 5-6 hours painting with the wrong paint! The paint I needed was textile paint, the paint I had was normal paint and really old textile medium. It worked fine except it sat on top of the jean forming a skin instead of soaking in like normal textile inks that I bought the next day and used to finish the jeans. Oh well, they are sooo loud that hopefully folk will not notice the difference in texture.
The inspiration for my first pair are Matisse cut outs. I have ideas for many others but not so sure that I would wear them, so I am thinking along the lines of painted hats instead!
The occasion was my sisters 50th and a few yummy cocktails were likely. So for part of my gift I decided on painting some cocktail glasses. A new craft for me, and I did find purchasing the paint a little expensive but they will paint a lot of glass. This is really easy and lots of fun. So easy that I ended up painting 6 glasses when I intended on only painting two. Basically clean the glasses, paint, then bake when dry – instructions will be on any glass paints you buy.
I will be painting many wine glasses as a gift with a bottle of wine. This would also be great for kids party gifts, paint a glass with the childs name and fill with goodies for a special take home treat.
Their was some slight need for dressing up, so I went all out. We were going as the owl and the pussycat. We had a huge pea green boat that we walked in and carried, the cat costume was fairly standard, cat mask, tail and fur cuffs for my wrist and ankles. But the owl mask and cape was magic. The mask was built around a plastic mask with papier mache and then painted. The cape is just felt with marker pen – easy, no hemming needed.
Fantastic for storage – nothing new about that, but it sure is great to make something useful. The star box I bought as a ready to paint and then followed a design from a book. It has stored my fabric bits and bods that I must use one day! I love the gold paint and the effect it has.
