Pretty, Practical & Fun to Make: Wearable Coasters

This holiday season my wineglasses are going to wear their coasters on their feet - no more nasty tabletop circles for me. These wearable coasters can be made from recycled holiday greeting cards, comic strips, newspapers, old cds, gift wrapping or even plain brown paper. The coasters are a fun, rewarding project - pretty and practical for your holiday entertaining.

In fact, relying mostly on my old holiday trims, I made dozens of the coasters in different designs, and the only thing I had to buy was the dimensional paint to finish the scalloped edges and add sparkle. I used FolkArt Dimensional Fabric Paint by Plaid, available online. Sigh.. take a look at these eight designs and maybe you'll agree - Recycling is sooo satisfying.

Wearable Coasters ePacket Templates & Instruction Available

You can add see-through pockets to old cds for a WOW! wearable coaster, filled with confetti . Trim the wine glass with curled ribbons and tuck in a fun tag and you'll be ready to say you were "Born To Be Merry!"

See eight fabulous designs for holiday and casual party events following

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Transform Your Family Photo Into A WOW Painting

Do you have a great family photo that you would love to turn into a huge personal painting for your home? Maybe that super shot of your hubby breaking the finish line in first place in the marathon, or granddad hammering together a wood rocking horse, or even a family shot eating hot dogs that you just love? Could be your rec room would be the perfect place for paintings of your little girl going through drill team exercises and your little boy hitting that homer- maybe your office would lighten-up if you had a painting of your baby in the tub splashing water up to the ceiling or your toddlers making wishes as they blow away dandelions. Would this make a perfect gift for someone special?

You could never paint something like this? Well, maybe you could... I did. It was like "coloring".

I'm so very excited about the potential of this paint - HD High Definition by Plaid. My artist's heart wept when I realized how much was possible with it. The paint is being touted as an alternative for oils and demonstrated used for traditional art. It is sooooo fine in its own right that I wanted to design to take full advantage of the dimension and texture it offers - plus take advantage of how easy it is to use. Amazing stuff...

It was so easy to completely convert this family photo of my grandson on playday to an art painting for his room.

I just tweaked my photo, sized it, printed out the numbered pattern, transferred the pattern with graphite transfer paper, selected my colors and started painting.



I had the " mdf canvas" cut at Home Depot, 24 x 36 . I primed it with shake and rattle Kilz, worked on printing the patterns while the primer dryed, and once the pattern was transferred, knocked it right out that afternoon. Though I blocked in some of it with Plaid acrylic matching paint, most was straight from the bottle HD paint. The squeeze bottles have a tip that can be used for fine detailing and effects or you can brush or apply this paint with a pallette knife. I did a little of all of it.

I let it cure for a few days and then sprayed it with a matte sealer cuz I don't like shiny - but, wow, I love this texture! Check out the beaded bracelet & dimensional sunglasses. Who could imagine paint could do that? I love it!

Instead of a frame, I've chosen to hang this with exposed industrial hardware clips that can be painted bright colors or left silver. I'm going to leave these silver, I think.

My grandson is the little fellow in the center. I think this will be great for his room. Hope he likes it.





NOTE: I'm receiving many questions about transferring the pattern so I'm following up with additional pattern information.

I sized the " photo pattern" and converted it into actual inches that would work for the art piece. With a software ruler snapped to the resized and tweaked image (now grayscale, more than a line drawing but less detail than the photo) , I sectioned the big pattern into appx blocks of 8 x 10 so my printer could print them out. I numbered the pages so I wouldn't get lost. Printed each page of the pattern out, taped the pieces together so that all of my lines met, covered my board with sheets of graphite paper, placed the pattern over it and traced over it with a ballpoint pen, pressing pretty hard, to transfer it.

It took longer to transfer the pattern than to paint it, I think. And I could have done a better job if I had been precise in my transferring of the pattern.

Hope this helps. If not, it's really ok if you use the email link below to contact me. I'll try to help.

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Another Day In My Life With A Rabid Treasure Hunter...

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My Privacy Window: Lets Light & Color IN & Keeps Curious Eyes OUT

Click on Photo to Enlarge

For years, as much as I wanted to open the blinds to my sliding glass door and let the beauty of morning light fill the room, I didn't. And I didn't, primarily, because though the back yard was a wonder in the morning with filtered sunlight through the trees and birds that I wanted to watch - it also offered a straight view, from the alley, right to the table where I was having my coffee. The trash men rode high enough to see right over the fence, into my room - and who knows, I might not be decent. Sooo those blinds remained closed.

This morning when I flung the blinds wide open, I examined my solution and realized that ten years later it has proven to be one of my better projects - it still looks great, in fact the colors have faded a little on the leaves making them even prettier and for years it has continued providing me with both privacy and all the morning wonders of my back yard .

The project was quick and easy . I went off to my fave craft store, purchased faux stained glass paint, created leaves and vines. Then on the lower half only, I filled in the clear gaps with frosted clear - just took my fingers and rubbed it straight on in a back and forth overlapping pattern. It created the effect of frosted crackled glass, beautiful in itself, and also kept anyone from seeing anything but a blur within the room. The upper clear part lets all of the light inside and altogether, the effect is much like a kaleidoscope of color that changes with the seasons and weather - but is always, always beautiful. It's easier to clean than just plain glass doors too - I love it.

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Black Can Look Dramatic & Stunning

This is another vintage desk I refinished. I stripped, sanded, then painted this in flat black and softly sanded away to accent it. Black makes a statement, doesn't it?

It's fun to create displays - the turned wood pen was a Christmas gift from my eldest son. He turned it, my sweet dil did the intricate sanding and I get to use it! I loved using it in this photo. You can click on the photo to see my pen up close.

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Seeking The Perfect French Finish...

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I've been working feverishly trying to nail down a finish that would work for my coffee table and several other pieces; I wanted it to be a finish I could live with for a long time. Unhappy with my results- I started over so often - I was ready to pull my hair out. When I thought I had "hit" it, I did several pieces (that were all in dark stained fruit wood finishes) just to make sure I could duplicate it repeatedly because it is a very painstaking finish. Finally, I nailed it. (See some pieces I finished in above photo)

Please forgive me the conceit but I'm so happy with this I'm going to name it - "French Perfection" . It is everything I wanted it to be and more - an elegant antiqued and distressed finish in blended whispers of ivory, natural wood, and zinc that can be shimmered with the silver of mercury and gilded with gold.

This "French Perfection" for all my vintage French Country furniture pieces
will work "perfectly" with antiqued weathered architectural elements, tumbled stone, zinc, mercury, glass and marble. There are too many shades and hues to simply call it cream. ;)

Whew... my shoulders are aching and I'm creatively drained from working non-stop on this finish - but I'm glad I did it.

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All In A Day of Life With A Rabid Treasure Hunter: An Amazing Dollar Sale

My beloved, Mr. Many Shades of Shabby, is rabid about finding good stuff at good buys. He hunts out the best estate, garage, church and yard sales and eats, drinks, and sleeps - treasure hunting. He starts early and stays late; he believes fervently in all of those old adages about the early bird and snoozing and losing. Today, he was sound asleep on the sofa in front of the television, when like a man out of a bad dream, he raised up rim rod straight, rubbed his eyes with both fists, then riveted his gaze on the tv, exclaiming "WHAT?!?!"

He: Devonia! Did you hear that? Everything at the Dallas Zoo was on sale today for a dollar! I guess the zoo is closing...

Me: Closing the zoo? I didn't know that. What a shame - I can't imagine Dallas without a zoo. Are you sure? Whatever would we buy at the zoo?

He: I just heard it on the news. Maybe they aren't closing it permanently, just for renovation or something. We'll see. The feature is up next. What would we buy? Woman!!! Use your head - All kinds of things! Just think, the statues, the lighting, the name plaques, signs, beautiful chairs, outdoor furniture, patio tables with umbrellas, benches, aquariums, gorgeous potted and hanging plants, all those wonderful old architectural trims, all kinds of stuff to decorate indoors and outdoors with - ONE DOLLAR! ( now holding both hands, palms up, shaking his head in pure despair) I can't believe we missed this.

Me: (brows knitted together) Are you certain?

He: Here it's coming on now - Come listen if you don't believe me. (now turning very disappointed eyes my way) What I want know is - why didn't you know about this? We should have been there. Man, just think... anything there - One dollar!!

Me: (fingers to my lips) Shhhhh, let's listen.

The local news reporter : Today, record breaking crowds lined up at the Dallas Zoo to take advantage of Dollar Day. Today only, all tickets were only one dollar...

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