One Stencil: Two Ways

I know that it's not technically Spring yet, but I couldn't help putting up my decorations as the much needed sun shines in through the windows. 

Our front room is my favorite color during the winter, a deep maroon that works perfectly for short, dark days, but when I want to add a touch of Spring the usual pinks, light greens, and pastel blues just don't work right.  I usually go with muted tans and whites but this year I added a little chocolate and cream to the mix!  I used a stencil two different ways to add a little bunny to my mantels.

The first way I used the stencil was on wood.  After dC finished with our new headboard he had a lot of little end scraps left behind.  I couldn't resist making something out of them. 

I glued them together using a little Gorilla glue.  Usually I don't like this stuff because it expands into a foamy mess, but that's only if you use too much.  A little bit goes a long way!    I left the edges un-sanded and uneven, then painted it white, wiped off the excess with a paper towel, and left it to dry.  This gave it just barely a wash of white on an already light wood.

Then I cut out my bunny silhouette and traced it onto the wood.  And here is where I think the fun begins.  I love painting, but I have zero talent without the aid of paint by numbers, so this project is perfect for me!  I used a fine brush and painted in the "chocolate" bunny.

The second way I used the stencil was to paint on burlap.  I taped the stencil onto burlap and much like my stencil wall art I painted over the stencil to transfer the image onto the burlap.  It took three coats to get the coverage I wanted, which equals a lot of patience.

Then I found this great old hanger my mom had given me and used it to hang up my second bunny.

 

 

The turquoise and white coffee pots and white pitchers are all lovely gifts from my mother in law's collection.  They work so well to help bring bright and light colors to our otherwise dark room!

Thanks for stopping by!

This week I am linking to Lines Across and Craftberry Bush

Happy Easter!

We had a quiet Easter this year (no egg hiding or Bunny visits), so I decided to keep the table centerpiece just as simple.

I made two simple cake stands out of tin cans and old cake pans.  I got the idea from here and just deconstructed it a bit.

Then I topped them with egg cups and mini terracotta pots (that I painted white) filled with eggs straight out of the refrigerator.

I also used a overturned spring form pan to elevate a white pitcher full of flowers from my yard in front of driftwood from the Oregon coast.

Tea pots are topped with craft paper eggs that I picked up at the craft store for $1.50 each!

Hope you get to spend some time with family!

Happy Easter everyone!

PEEPS!!!

Peeps are by far one of my favorite candies!  They are fun year round, but of course they are meant for Easter!  I found this recipe to making your own sugar coated marshmallow shapes.  (Thank you Martha!)  I've made marshmallows in the past, but it was much more fun to pipe into birds.

One trick I'll fill you in on - you need to quickly, I mean quick as a bunny, get your shapes into the sugar.  They begin drying instantly and won't take on as much coating.

I used light colored sugars that I usually sprinkle on cookies (yellow and green), as well as regular white sugar. 

Besides the birds and a few nests for them to sit on, (and for me to eat), I made hearts, and even piped out "F" and "M" for the kid's names. 

The peeps last for about a week in a Ziploc bag and are better to eat the next day since they will have gotten more solid - perfect to prep ahead of time for an Easter party!

What Came First?

When I started collecting "white" years ago, I began small with egg cups.  My grandmother had passed down her milk glass chicken candy holder (always full of sticky jelly beans) and I thought it would look cute to have egg cups as well!

Having egg cups kept me thinking of different ways to decorate with eggs each Spring.  A fun project that you can do with blown-out dyed eggs is to decorate them with blades of grass.  I made this one over 5 years ago and it still looks great!  You can follow Martha Stewart's instructions here.  Or you can do it for free by using grass from your backyard and a bit of watered down glue (as I did).

Spring Soaps

In the spirit of keeping busy and findnig fun things Fender and I can do together, I found these cute soap ideas over here and thought we could get a head start on decorating for Easter.  They are very simple to make and Fender had a lot of fun helping out!

I grated two different colored bars of soap into two separate bowls.  He really wanted to help, but I saw severed fingers in my mind! 

Then I let Fender add a little water (about a Tablespoon per bar) and mix it up with his hands. 

Good clean fun!  It should stick together like this:

The bunny was easiest, we just filled the cookie cutter with the shavings and pressed down until it had an even consistancy across the entire mold.

The striped egg was done the same way but in three parts. I even did a layered butterfly and a ball that basically used up the remainder of what we had left over.  Fender likes using the ball the best in the bath!  They needed to dry for a day in the mold and then they just slid right out!