Paint Yourself Silly

For the entire four years I was at UNL, I wanted to go to Paint Yourself Silly. I finally went on one of the last weekends before my younger sister graduated (five years after I did). She, my mom, and I spent an evening in Lincoln's Haymarket painting and chatting. It was as much fun as I had dreamed it would be. Mom picked a flower vase, my sister choose a mug, and the moment I saw this Sun & Moon candle holder, I knew it was meant to be.

What I learned is that I am an extremely slow painter. By the time they were both finished and the workers kicked us out of the store because it was closing time, I was about 40% done with the first coat. Luckily, my husband ran the Lincoln Marathon a couple weeks later so I was able to finish my project then. The shop then glazed and fired it for me, and my sister picked it up the day before she graduated.

It was a fun time and I'm happy with the way it came out, but I need to learn how to paint quicker. They recommend applying at least three coats of paint so that the colors stay bold after it is fired. I thought I applied three coats everywhere, but you can see that the paint is pretty thin in some areas. I think one more coat would have done the trick.


Supplies Needed:

• Money (They supply everything else at Paint Yourself Silly)
• Ceramic Pottery
• Up to 6 Colors of Paint
• Paint Tray
  
• Paintbrushes
• Water
• Clear Glaze
• Kiln Fire
  

Art as a Cover Up

Once upon a time, we had a plasma TV hanging on our living room wall. Then, we rearranged the room so the TV sits on an entertainment center on the other side of the room. The room "flows" a lot better, but it left the wall looking like this:

Actually, it was worse than this because the hardware that held the TV up left big holes in the wall that I later spackled over. So, we had a rather large empty space with an electrical outlet floating in it. I looked around for a wall hanging to cover it up, but anything big enough was very expensive. So, the wall remained empty for about a year until I finally put the following display together.

To determine where they should be placed on the wall, I taped pieces of paper up that were the same size of the canvasses and my parents, husband, and I moved them around until it looked right.

It was actually easier than I thought it would be. I used masking tape on the canvasses to keep the lines straight. If I were to do this project over, I would pick out a set of 5-6 colors in advance rather than start without a firm color scheme. I would also use only muted colors. I think the two small canvasses are a little too bright for the room, especially the green and yellow one. Overall, though, I like how it turned out. It sure beats the crooked outlet in the middle of the wall!

Supplies Needed:

• Canvas
• Masking Tape
• Ruler
  
• Paintbrush
• Paint
• Picture Hook Kit
• Picture Nails
• Hammer
  

Wall Block Display

I hate throwing calendars away, so a few years ago, I got the idea to turn a couple of my favorite calendars into a display for the living room.  This project took one evening to put together and only cost about $30! 

  I used two calendars that I had from Spain.  One contained images from Sevilla and the other one was from my dad's trip to Barcelona.

Instead of finding a large picture or wall hanging for a big wall, you can create the illusion of a big display with several smaller pictures in a grid pattern.  I used 20 blocks that were approximately 4" by 6" arranged into 5 columns and 4 rows.  The columns are 18" apart at the centers and the rows are 12" apart.  Since my blocks are different shapes, it was important to keep the centers aligned, rather than try to pick which point at the top should line up with adjacent blocks.

I was planning on painting the blocks, but I found stain pens that made this project even simpler. The pens come in a variety of colors and provide the image of stain but don't make any mess.  The only negative aspect is that the stain fades periodically from the sunlight.  I just restain them about once a year, but there is probably a paint sealer out there that would solve this problem.

The picture doesn't show the colors perfectly, but there is a pattern to the madness here.  I used four different shapes of blocks (Rectangle, Oval, and Two Irregular Shapes) and four different colors (Green, Red, Brown, and Blue). Each shape was paired with each color, which created 16 unique blocks.  I then duplicated an existing color/shape combination for the remaining 4 blocks.  Every column has exactly one of each color and shape.  Every row has each color and shape, but then one color and one shape was duplicated in the rows for the 5th block.  The final result is that the pattern is not obvious, but it instead effectively randomizes the colors and shapes throughout the display.  Certain members of my family have been known to switch the blocks around when they come to visit, but I've always caught them.

To make sure that they don't get messed up, though, I did write numbers on them when I moved from Kansas City to Nebraska.  I also cut out the description of each picture from the calendar and pasted it on the back of the block.

The blocks are currently in our dining room.  They add a lot of color to the white walls and tie in to the living room where I have posters from Spain framed and the remainder of the calendar pictures in simple frames over the stairs.

Supplies Needed:

• Wooden Blocks in a variety of shapes (Michael's or Hobby Lobby should have these)
• Wood Stain or Paint (Woodcrafter's Markers from Chartpak worked well)
  
• Mod Podge or other craft glue
  
• Old Calendars, Pictures, or Magazine Clippings
• Sponge for applying Mod Podge
• Exacto Knife for cutting the pictures to the same shape as the blocks
  
• Paintbrush (Unless you are using the stain pens)
  
• Brackets and Small Nails
• Hammer
• Frames (Optional)