Craft Project: Handpainted Garden Art

I came across this post for painting glass plates and turning them into garden art. I decided these would make some fun and creative Mother's Day gifts. So the girls and I set out to make some pretty garden art for grandmas and great-grandmas.

What you'll need:
--glass plates/bowls from Dollar Tree
--Gloss Enamel acrylic paint and Crystal Gloss Enamel Paint
--Triple-thick Glaze spray
--3/8" coupling
--threaded rod
--UV6800 industrial strength glue

The nice thing about this project is that you can buy the plates and paint, and just go for it. You don't have to add glazing medium (unless you want to and we did add a bit on a few of the plates). We chose to paint the BACK of the plate because you can use the pattern detail in the plate as a guide. It also creates a smooth look on the front.

We did some pour paint on a few of the plates.

  Our art room turned into a glass painting studio.

 We used both big plates, small plates, and a bowl.

The four plates on the left half of the image were Mother's Day gifts this weekend. The three plates on the right are for our landscape bed and they are not quite done yet. I'll add a photo of them when they are.

As I did with our pour paint wine glasses, I baked the plates to cure the paint into an enamel surface. 350 degrees in the oven for 30 minutes. Starting with a cool oven and letting the glassware heat up with the oven. Remove items once cool.

I had no issues with the paint baked on wine glasses. I did have some issues with the paint on a few of the plates bubbling up once baked. I think this may have happened because we applied the paint thicker on the plates than we did on the wine glasses.

It ended up working out that we painted on the back of the plates. Even though the paint bubbled up, it still looked smooth and great from the front of the plate.

Once the plates were baked, I further sealed the painted side by spraying Rustoleum Triple Thick Glaze spray on them. When that was dry, I used UV6800 industrial strength adhesive to glue the two painted pieces together. I let that sit for a day and then flipped it over and glued the coupling on the back. I let the whole thing sit for two more days. It seems like it has an incredibly strong bond so I'm crossing my fingers that it stays attached for a long time.

And finally here they are with the threaded rod attached and in the ground. Unfortunately, our landscape bed doesn't quite look like spring yet (even though it's May 12th) because our winter hung on for soooo long this year. We gave this one to my mom for Mother's Day.

And here is one in my Grandma's flower bed on Mother's Day!

I'm excited to finish our last three plates that will go in our yard! Maybe spring will finally arrive in Minnesota so we can enjoy them with our beautiful flowers in our landscape bed.

Craft Project: Pour Paint Wine Glasses

My mom's birthday was yesterday and I wanted the girls and I to make her something fun. I had come across this post on doing pour-paint on a glass tumbler. I was so excited to have another idea for pour-paint. We made pour-paint flower pots a year ago for teacher gifts and the girls LOVED it. Okay, I admit it, I LOVE pour-paint projects too. :-)

My mom and stepdad drink wine often and I thought it would be neat to make them some fun wine glasses to use. And with these, each glass is unique, so you don't have to use wine charms, glass markers, or anything else. You just have to remember which color glass is yours!

Will admit this project was done over several days and took some trial and error. But hopefully, I can hash all that out for you so that you can just cut right to it and do the project without added steps. However, I really enjoyed the PROCESS of this art project.

Without further ado, here are the supplies you will need:

--Wine glasses (or glasses of any sort)--I got some great ones from the Dollar Store! They also had some decent stemless glasses there

--High gloss enamel acrylic paint. I used Americana Gloss Enamels (which is opaque) and Americana Crystal Gloss Enamels (translucent)--the Crystal paints were hard to find in a store. I had to order online.

--Glazing Medium or Americana Clear Medium 

--paper cups, plastic spoons OR small squeeze bottles

--blue painter's tape

--newspapers and paper towel

--Krylon Triple-thick Crystal Clear Glaze spray (optional)

STEP ONE: Tape off any area you do not want paint to cover. In the case of the wine glasses I did it around the top one inch where your mouth would go. And the base of the bowl of the glass. There was a natural line where the stem met the bowl.

Then suspend the glass on top of something so the glass will not sit in a pool of paint. I used paint bottles. I've found putting a paper towel between the glass and the paint bottle helps contain a bit of the mess.
(SKIP DOWN TO STEP 2 if you just want the nitty gritty and don't want to wade through my process) ;-)

What the girls found waiting for them after school.

I actually tried this project first to see how it was going to work and what adjustments I might have to make for the girls. So here is my initial glass:

I used the Crystal translucent paint without thinning it out at all. I really thought the paint would lighten a bit more than it did. This was waaay too dark for a wine glass, at least in my opinion. Though it would look wonderful painted on glass for a faux stained glass image!

Next, I poured the glazing medium into a throw away aluminum muffin tin and added some translucent paint to it. We used our plastic spoons from IKEA that we keep in the art room.

 The paint is thin enough that you can turn the glass to help direct the flow of the paint.

 My daughter also masked off some stripes with thin blue tape.

Finished and drying.

Here are the first round of completed glasses:

They are gorgeous and I love them! However, I decided I wanted us to make some that were a little LESS translucent. In order to find MY happy medium, I decided to do a little experimenting so I took the glass out of one of our Dollar Store frames (good thing I just keep some on hand). I tested both the opaque and translucent paint mixed with varying amounts of glazing medium. Here are the results:

1) opaque High Gloss Enamel paint
2) with a bit of clear fill medium (1:1 ratio)
3) more clear fill medium
4) 1:2 ratio of 1 part opaque paint, 2 parts clear fill medium
5) 1:1 ratio of opaque paint and glazing medium
6) more glazing medium to one part opaque paint
7) 1:2--1:3 of glazing medium--I didn't actually measure anything out just eyeballed it. This last one is somewhere in the ball park of 2 or 3 parts glazing medium to 1 part opaque paint.

A) translucent Crystal Glass Enamel Paint
B) 1:1 translucent paint with clear medium
C) 1:1 translucent paint with glazing medium
D) 1:2 translucent paint with glazing medium

You can see how it flows better once it's thinned and I decided that I like using the glazing medium over the clear medium. We used quite a bit of glazing medium for all the glasses we made. We used two 8 oz. bottles.

*Tip* Paper cups, small light weight plastic spoons work best for holding the paint. Initially we tried a muffin tin, but the paint was so thin that it was easy to drip into the other paints.

STEP TWO: Mix paint and glazing/clear medium to your desired translucency and pour on glass with a spoon (or small squeeze bottle)

FOR STEMLESS GLASSES:  Just like with the pour-paint flower pots, just pour paint in one spot on the bottom of the glass. Keep adding paint to the same spot and it will eventually fall down over the sides.
*Tip* Next time I do stemless glasses, I think I will mask off the bottom of the glass as well. I think they are much brighter and lighter if there is light flowing all the way through the glass. You can see this in the stem glassware below.

FOR GLASSES WITH A STEM:
Just use a plastic spoon and drip paint down the sides. You will have to rotate the glass or pick it up and let the paint drip around the glass.

STEP THREE: Let dry for 24 hours. I was actually amazed at just how quickly these dried to the touch! I think even after 12 hours they were pretty much dry to the touch.

The aftermath! After they dried for a few hours, I cleaned up and took the paper towels off, just leaving them suspended to dry overnight.

STEP FOUR: After they were dry to the touch, I took the blue tape off. I used a small sharp pair of scissors to go around the edge of the tape so it would come up easy without pulling the paint off. You can use an Exact-o knife too. I am just a bit clumsy with sharp objects and felt like I had more control with a small pair of scissors. After the tape was removed, I used a mild scouring pad to rub off any excess paint that might have transferred where I didn't want it. You can use your finger nail too. I found the paint came off very easily. I then rinsed the glasses and patted them dry.

STEP FIVE: You can cure your paint for 21 days. But who wants to wait that long to be done with a project that looks this amazing??? So put your glasses on a cookie sheet in a cool oven. Turn it on to 350 degrees and let the glasses heat up with the oven. Leave in there for 30 minutes (I might have left mine for 40). Leave in the oven until cool to touch. Once I could remove the pans I just let them finish cooling on the top of the stove.

You can see a difference in the paint once it's baked. It definitely feels and looks more enamel-like. But the colors stayed just as bright and vibrant!

After this step, you can be done. (Optional STEP SIX) I plan on retaping the glasses and spraying with Krylon Triple-Thick Clear Glaze just to ensure the paint will last and not scrape off. I will update with a review of this process once I'm able to complete this step.

Lastly, they should be top-shelf dishwasher safe. I read you shouldn't soak them in water for a long time. But otherwise, they are fine to be washed.

And just because they are so darn pretty, I took them out on our deck with my white backdrop in full sunlight and obsessively photographed them!

Everyday Art: Vinylmation Obsession

Have you heard of Disney's Vinylmation? No? Don't feel bad. I had no idea what it was either until about two months ago. We were at Mall of America and visited the Disney Store.

My mother-in-law was letting the kids pick out a little something there and the girls fixated on these little Vinylmation characters. I had never seen these before. I thought they were a little overpriced for what they seemed to be. A little three-inch plastic figure for $12.95. And here's the kicker. It was in what they call a "blind box". So you didn't KNOW which one you were getting! WHAT! You spend $13 for 3 inches of something you may or may not like? Wow, Disney. What a racket! Yes, those were my initial thoughts. However, I softened. We have nearly 9 million stuffed animals in this house already so the fact that they were looking at something so small, I started to see the positive side to this. HOWEVER, my older daughter wanted the Nemo one. She had to have it. And both girls were getting a box. Can you see where this is going?

Here's a Disney Store display (though not the MOA store).

So each one grabbed a box and we opened them right outside the store. Guess what happened? My older daughter (the one who really wanted Nemo) got...Mr. Incredible (though I still thought it was pretty cool). And my younger daughter got.....wait for it....NEMO! Actually, that was pretty much a miracle considering there are 11 or 12 they could have received. Now, my younger daughter is very sweet and she knew that her sister really wanted Nemo so she switched with her even though she didn't really like the Mr. Incredible guy. No one was devastated so we went about our day.

Well, then we made a trip to California for a family vacation. We gave each of the girls a little money to buy a souvenir and I told each of them I would buy them a vinylmation figure. Well. Even though, we saw them throughout the park, we waited until we could go to D-Street in Downtown Disney to pick out their characters. They had a HUGE selection there.

This is in front of the Tomorrow Land store at Disneyland.

You wouldn't believe HOW LONG we were in that store! Ella picked two (she saved some of her souvenir money to get one) and Lily picked one. And well, I picked one too. Another tidbit about these, you can trade them! So we brought Mr. Incredible with and Lily traded him for the Toy Story Unicorn at the Tomorrow Land store. Here's our current collection:

Now, remember when I said Lily just happened to pick the Nemo one out of the box. Well, the girls picked out blind boxes from the Park #11 series. See that little guy on the left. The yellow Donald guy? Well, Lily picked him. She wasn't super excited about it so she thought she would trade it. Luckily, the store person mentioned to us that this was a VARIANT. Um, what is a variant? Yeah, apparently, Disney puts "variants" and "chasers" into their blind box series. So one in each case of 24 blind boxes is more RARE than the others. Lily just happened to pick that. And it's not just one of the rare ones, it's SUPER RARE. I told her it might be best to keep it. I looked on ebay the next morning and I couldn't believe how much that little 3 inches was worth! And HOW LUCKY Lily is. She is now picking out all my future Vinylmation purchases and I'm now referring to her as Lucky Lil'. Okay, not really. But it has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?

They have fun playing with these little guys too. Here is something they set up at our rental house while were were still on vacation:

 Each of their characters had a little room and a vinylmation friend.

I started actually googling all this and learning more about these figures. There are some really cute ones out there, and some really not cute ones. And it's kind of fun that you don't always know what you're getting. My older daughter and I have actually bonded over this joint obsession. I've told her everything I found out about vinylmation. And she and I have had fun looking at them in the Disney Vinylmation Vault and here at Vinylmation Kingdom. We talked about which ones we liked. She and I haven't really had something fun like this that we both liked. She is into Legos and Star Wars which is more my husband's thing. She and I have always had art in common, but nothing toy-related really. It's been really nice to have a topic I can bring up with her if I hear something new.

Now, typically, I wouldn't post all this on HERE, an art blog. I mean, I could claim that each of these little 3-inch figures is a work of art because Disney has a team of artists who work on these and create the series. And I do believe the newer series are more creative than the older ones. But all that might be stretching it just a bit. ;-) I did mention to Ella that there are artists who create the vinylmation characters. She thought that was the COOLEST THING EVER! She has long said she wants to be an artist (or a scientist) when she grows up. And I think it was kind of neat to show her a job where someone can be creative and it not be your stereotypical idea of what an artist is or what they do.

We had one weekend day to relax after we got back from our vacation before we jumped back into the craziness of our lives. And THIS (below) is how my girls spent their entire day! Seriously, they worked on this project for about 6 hours almost nonstop.

They decided they were going to create their own vinylmation series. And it would be the Pixar Series 2 (Series 1 is currently being sold at Disney Stores). We had some Color Blanks waiting to be created. They carefully thought out each character and drew an image first.

And here's the REALLY COOL thing. The girls worked TOGETHER! Seriously, these two are quite the opposites when it comes to personality. And there are times they get along, and other times they simply do not. But they spent the entire day working together on this really nicely without any fighting. It was amazing!

Once all their characters were created, they enlisted the help of my husband to create boxes for their characters. Here's what he came up with:

Here they are! Eight completed blind box vinylmations:

So now, what did we do? Why, opened them of course! We shuffled them around and everyone picked two to open.

And here's what we found:

 Sully and Boo in her purple costume from Monsters Inc.

Mittens and Rhino (hamster in the ball) from the movie Bolt (I don't think Pixar created Bolt, but the girls were trying to come up with vinylmation characters they hadn't seen before).

Dory and Squirt from Nemo

Doug from Up and a "rare" one. They didn't have a name for it. And it's not really based on a character.

Instead of the rare one above, they originally were going to make Russell from UP but I think there was a mistake on that Color Blank. ;-)

I don't even know if this post will be of interest to anyone. I just thought it was so amazing how such a creative endeavor brought our whole family together on a weekend day when typically we would all be in different parts of the house doing our own thing. I was intrigued and amazed at the amount of attention and thought my girls put into this project. I have NEVER seen them work on something for so long all at one time.