Add Some Paint

Guess what people! The day has finally come! We have been working on re-vamping our website and today is the day we make the big move. Thanks to Jenna’s mad skills, we have created a more friendly webiste for our followers (and much better looking too). So lets not mess around! Here is our new site:

But wait, before you click to you need to know something. I (Ali) will be taking over the website and doing it by myself (although most likely we will still see a few crafts from the sisters here and there.)

YOU MUST ALSO FOLLOW THE NEW BLOG IF YOU WANT TO BE A PART OF THIS NEW WEBSITE! ADD SOME PAINT WILL NO LONGER BE RUNNING! 

Click the link below and follow us using the RSS feed button or the Followers button.

Click me to visit the new site!

Thanks to all the support from our followers on Add Some Paint. Now we are opening a new and final chapter with Dream Crafter. WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

Today is the day people! Thank you to all those who entered the giveaway and for your constant support through all our “construction” on the site and our inaccuracy at posting. We love you all!

The winner of this yellow beauty is: Jennifer Transtrum!

And the winner of the blue one is: Katie Poole!

Thanks again to all who entered! The winners will be posted on Facebook and contacted through messaging so we can get your addresses. Congratulations! And a big thanks to Emily for doing this darling giveaway for me.

Have you guys ever looked at the Pottery Barn Kids magazine and drooled over all that super cute stuff that is WAY too expensive? I have. I especially love their Easter and Valentines day stuff but when I saw these bad boys online, I thought, I could make that:

So here is my version of this little Valentine cutie:

They only took me about a half hour to make two of them! So here is the how-to:

You will need: 1. white embroidery floss, 2. 2 red sheets of felt (for each envelope), 3. any coordinating felt if you want the extra fluff ( I got two full sheets of white for the ric-rac edging. 4. hot glue and hot glue gun.

Take your first sheet of red felt and cut it in the shape of  a house. I only cut the top so the envelopes are is big as they can be. Just fold down the corners like you are going to start making a paper airplane with it and that is a pretty good measure of how much to take off.

With your second piece of felt, you will need a shape like this: sort of a half circle at the top, and square at the bottom.

I measured this second piece by laying it on top of my “house” piece and lining it up. Then I took a mixing bowl and laid it over the top and traced my half circle right where I wanted it. Just be sure that the top of your half circle isn’t any higher than where it can be for your envelope to still close.

Next you get to embroider! Normally when you use embroidery floss you separate the floss into sections of two strings but I didn’t pull anything apart. I wanted my floss really big and in charge. Trace with a light pencil where you want to stitch. Stitch each piece of felt individually. You aren’t hooking them together yet. Be sure to do ALL of your stitching before the next step.

Next measure how much white you will need and do your best to make the roc-rac look with your scissors. Once All your white is cut, hot glue it into place and hot glue your house piece to your second piece of felt. The hot glue is the only thing keeping your envelope together. But its really strong.

Tip: Do NOT try to hot glue your peices together and THEN do your stitching. You won’t be able to get your needle through the dried hot glue. Trust me. Been there, done that.

Tip 2: Be really careful with your hot glue. Once it touches your felt, there is no peeling it off.

Next, if you want to add any extra embellishments, get creative! I did a little monogram on a heart so they were personalized for my boys.

Now that I have these cute envelopes, all I need is something to put in them…yeah. Let me know if you have any questions about this craft!

P.S. Don’t forget to enter our giveaway! Its the last day! As a reminder the drawing will be tomorrow morning around ten!

I dont know about you guys but I feel so unprepared for Valentine’s Day. I have been doing all these fun V-Day crafts but I have NOTHING planned for my husband or my boys. Hmm…Maybe my brain will catch up with my crafting fingers one of these days. Nonetheless, I wanted to share this super cute craft that is WAY easy to do for Valentine’s Day.

My mother-in-law actually made these for me right after we got married and I love putting them out for V-Day. They are so cute and such a fun way to personalize a craft for someone.

I think she got these blocks at The Wood Connection and I know they still sell these. But you can also have your handsome husbands cut you some from scrap wood in the garage or have home depot cut you some.

Sand them. Wipe them down. Cut your scrapbook paper (or picture printed out onto printer paper) to the right size, and Mod Podge it on.

The “L-O-V-E” stickers on mine are actually vinyl but you can also paint them on too. When its all dry, Spray with a clear coat for protection.

Allow to dry for at least six hours before displaying.

“Love,”
Ali

Hey there faithful readers,

Add Some Paint is up to its 100th post today! Huzzah! So to reward all of our dear followers we are doing this double giveaway!

Emily made these amazing canvasses and we will be picking TWO lucky readers to win one of these beauties!

 Here is how you enter:

1. Subscribe to our blog (follow our website)

2. Follow us on Facebook

3. Leave a comment on this post. Be sure to indicate which one you would like to win and how we can get in contact with you. (Email, phone number, link)

The giveaway will end when we draw the winners on Friday February 8th around 10:00 am.

Peace and Blessings Y’all, Peace and Blessings

-The Sisters

Today’s tutorial is on how to make these super easy sweater pillows!

So, emily got married. And when she got married she was betrothed…(I don’t think thats the right word) this lovely couch from our mother.

Although the couch is nice and very comfy, it doesn’t really fit emily’s styyyyyle. So, she decided to update the pillows a little.

Here is what you will need:

-Old pillows (I know you can get pillows in all kinds of shapes and sizes down at D.I., Savers or Goodwill. If you already have some that go with your couch that works too! Or you can always use fiber fill. But I think the cheapest option is getting them at a second hand store….just be sure to spray them with a generous amount of Febreeze.)

-Old Sweaters (Emily already had one of these sweaters that she didn’t ever wear and I think she got the other one at H&M for pretty cheap. This is also something you could easily get at a second hand store.)

Now to get started:

This is the best part. Turn your sweater inside out. Place pillow inside sweater. Sew around your pillow, leaving one side open. Take out pillow. Flip fabric right side out. Stuff pillow back in. Turn down the open side of your fabric and top stitch closed. THE END!

As far as the cream-bow-pillow goes, just tie a bow around it when you are done sewing, using your extra sweater fabric. Heck, just use the sleeve from your sweater!

What’s your favorite way to re-create a pillow?

-Ali

Just FYI your information, (ha ha I crack myself up), THERE WILL BE A GIVEAWAY ON OUR NEXT POST!

Today’s tutorial is for a really simple heart garland.

Alls ya gotta do is get some scrapbook paper. I used the extra scrap paper from this project.

Then I created three paper patterns just from some cardstock. I chose to make three different sizes of hearts but you can do them all the same size if you want.

Then I traced my patterns onto my scrapbook paper, cut them out and got my sewing machine ready.

I don’t know if you guys knew this (because I didn’t know for a long time) but you can actually run paper through your sewing machine! This makes for a really quick garland which is always nice.

I chose to run my hearts through with random intervals in between each heart. I made three separate garlands and then hung them up on top of each other.

I hung mine over my laundry room window cause it adds a little “love” to the snowy background.

Love,

Ali

I don’t know about you guys but somehow when we walk through the door to our house, our keys end up in all kinds of places. They are either on our desk, the T.V. stand, our nightstand, or…the kids grab them off a dresser and they end up who knows where! So, here is a little idea for you that works great for us. A while ago my dad was giving away some old kitchen cabinet doors. So I snagged one with this project in mind.

I didn’t take pics for the tutorial but it is really self explanatory. I sanded it down, painted the blue edge, taped it off, painted the chalk paint, then bought these really cheap hooks at Walmart and put them on! Tada!

*Oh and one more tip: if you are going to put a picture hanger on the back, be sure to hammer that into place before putting the hooks on the front. It just makes life easier.

Now our keys are never lost or put in the pantry by our boys. When its time to leave the house, we know right where to find the keys!

-Cheers

Ali

Happy Monday!

Today we will be doing a tutorial on how to make your own body wash for A LOT cheaper than you can buy it.

First by a pack of Dove soap (or whatever brand). We like Dove the best for the smell and texture but use whatever floats your boat!

Cut up your bar of soap by either using a cheese grater or just use a knife to chop it into small pieces. We like using a knife because its a little hard on your cheese grater and its a pain in the rear to wash it when you are done.

Next, put two cups of water into a pot and add shredded soap. (You can do multiple batches at a time just always do two cups of water per bar.) Stir over medium heat until the soap is completely melted. DO NOT breathe in the fumes. They are toxic. But make sure your soap doesn’t boil over.

Pour into jars (mason, pickle, jelly…whatever) to cool. Put your lid on your jars and allow it to cool for 4 hours. After it has cooled pour the soap into your blender or use a stick blender to remix it. (You can skip this step if you want to. We just wanted to make sure that ALL of the chunks of soap were really gone.)

Use like regular body wash! Now that your body wash is done, here is the break down of cost. One bottle of Dove body wash costs $6.50. One package of Dove bar soap costs $6.50. The pack comes with six bars in it. One batch of soap fills the entire bottle of old body wash. (We made a double batch, thats why our pickle jar is full too). Therefore, you can make your body wash for 1/10 of the cost of the store bought. That is just over 1 dollar per bottle! Woot Woot!

Happy washing,

-Chelsea

I am always looking for ways to entertain my boys. Especially during church. Lately they have been into playing with their puppets. The problem is that I don’t know that our Bishop would appreciate giant dinosaur hand puppets during sacrament meeting. I can see that going terribly wrong.

So…thats when I started looking into making finger puppets. They are small enough to fit in the diaper bag and good for developing fine motor skills.

I wanted to create a puppet set that could make a good story but didn’t want to make a million characters. So I decided on the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.

The instructions are pretty simple. I made a basic shape of the pig out of paper and then cut out my felt using my paper pattern. I did a front and a back. Then I just used scrap felt to dress up the front. I think that using a variety of stitches helps create some visual interest, along with the bright colors.

Hints:  I made the finger puppets so that they fit my finger pretty snug. Problem is, they aren’t for my fingers. They sort of twist and turn when my boys put their fingers in them. Make them small enough for tiny hands. I also used some pieces of felt that were too small and so when I stitched them they just got bunched up. Check out the ears on this pig:

If you can stitch it, just stitch it. Forget about making every little piece out of felt. Also, I used the blanket stitch on the out side of mine but I think it would have been a cleaner look had I just run it through my machine.

Although this project is more functional than all that fancy, the kids love it. So I guess it was a success. Good luck!

PS. If you ever have any questions about any of our crafts or tutorials. Just let us know by leaving a comment or emailing us. We would be happy to answer any question.

-Ali