Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Magic-Reveal Visor


I love watching my son create. He is so intense and focused, like there's something inside him bursting to get expressed in a particular way. He's 3½.

Our local $1 store has a pretty varied craft section, including a rainbow of foam sun visors. I knew when I saw them that they'd be an awesome craft for my red-haired-and-therefore-sunburnable son Caspian (if he makes it, he'll be more likely to wear it, right?). He chose a white one to decorate.

First, I laid out a couple sheets of newspaper and taped the edges down on the table (including wrapping a little around the edge of the table). Since he usually doesn't like to wear clothes around the house, I didn't bother with a smock. I also removed the little plastic curlicue that holds the visor onto your head.

I offered spray painting, brush painting, and markers as choices for decorating; he decided he'd like to start with markers and move to brush painting. He asked me to draw his name on the visor for him (specifying "small" and "open letters"), then he colored all over it (both in his choice of Sharpie color: blue). Since his name was now obscured by scribbles, I went over the letters again in silver Sharpie. Then I set out my meager selection of plain ol' craft paint and let him choose where to start. He used bristle and foam brushes, plus a bath pouf that was in our painting supplies box. The cool thing is that although he eventually covered the entire visor with paint, when it dried, you could "magically" see the marker again!


I'm pretty sure we'll be doing this craft at his fourth birthday party next month. Instead of gifts (Lord knows he doesn't need any more toys), I'm going to ask each parent to bring 3-4 bottles of acrylic paint and an old shirt or smock for her child to wear. I'll get a visor for each kid and they can go to town! The acrylic paint cleans up so easily, and the parents can have fun by helping their kids use the Sharpies in the beginning. By the time the party is over, the visors should have magically transformed!



"Wait, mommy — you need wings."
Yes, they're magnet clips.
First, silver paint...

Then switch brushes...

Now purple...

He asked me to fill it in the rest of the way with the purple, then he decided to cover up the silver and the marker, too:

Now brown!
Then a big ol' dab of white, spounced all over with a bath pouf. Fun!
completely covered

set it out to dry where kids and cats can't reach
LOVE the texture from the pouf!

All dry...and look what happened!
Even the under-colors became visible beneath the white texture layer!




Please feel free to ask questions in comments, and I'll flesh out the tutorial. I ♥ comments and followers! :)

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Thursday, June 24, 2010

the CSI project: wall challenge, entry #3



This is probably one of my favorite projects, probably because so much work went into it. It's always nice when the things you look at every day make you happy. Teal+iridescence+bling+organization+personalization=a happy KatrinkaJane.

This started as a $1.50 memo center from Goodwill. Holes, scrapes, and old wood don't fit into my decor (Lying! They totally match 79% of the stuff at my house, unfortunately), so I bought this with the intent to paint it. Now, what does match my preferred decor is anything painted with Bahama Sea spray paint. Yay! Now that's a big can of happy. It looked a little one-dimensional just in the teal, so I lightly spritzed it with some Sesame Shimmer spray paint as well. After staring at it and pawing through my stash for inspiration, I decided to use more of my iridescent teal marbles to mosaic the top. They were a little large to use alone, so I interspersed them with some smaller ones I picked up at WalMart ($3 for a big bag of teal and green mixed). It still looked kind of ordinary, so I found some gorgeous, blingy, faceted beads in my stash to sprinkle throughout. They really make the most of all those plain little nooks and crannies! (Anybody know the difference between a nook and a cranny, without Googling it?) Add some custom push pins and you're ready to go!





Arrrghhh! How'd that happen?! It won't even scrape off with a razor. :p




Ummm...no...that's not my kitchen counter, post-lunch...why?


I had no short, flat push pins, so I modified the ones I had.
This is how my mom used to poke holes in Barbie's back so the wings from another doll could stick in. :)






Add a little E-6000...
Find a high-contrast image...


This is the difference between tracing around the marble with a pencil (outer ring) and what actually fits well on the bottom of the marble.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who manages to glue shut her Mod Podge every single time...?





random bling from my bead stash = cute pushpins






Comment with questions, and I'll flesh out my "pictutorial" as needed!

Please check out my other two CSI "wall" entries!


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