Color Buzz

Friday Project Series: Recycled Gift Wrap

By Veronique Habermann

In these times of economic hardship and awareness of the environment, I thought it would be nice this year to wrap my gifts in the recycled boxes and bags I have been saving for a while. Here is what you need – but be creative. There is no limit here:

• Assorted sizes of recycled shipping boxes (with online shopping, we all end up with so many!)
• Assorted packing material
• Recycled ribbons (any color)
• Raffia strings (50 cents at craft store)
• Recycled jewelry boxes
• Assorted sizes of recycled paper bags
• Valspar spray paint in metal silver
• Valspar spray paint in glitter gold
• Valspar spray paint in metal glitter copper

Make sure you tear off all shipping labels on boxes. Also, work in a well-ventilated area and unlike me, wear latex gloves!

Let your creativity guide you and spray paint your gift wrapping and packages in solid colors or use our stencil templates from last week’s DIY holiday cards post to create a design. Add on bows, raffia strings and ribbons for extra flair. And remember, be sure sure to let everything properly dry before wrapping all of your presents!

 

 

Voila! Have fun!

Friday Project Series: Retro Holiday Cards

For our December Friday Project Series, we will focus on painted holiday crafts that are easy and fun and let you create a beautiful one-of-a-kind gift for others.

Cards seemed like a great way to start. Everyone loves getting a handmade card—I know I do! It’s very simple to do. We are referring to this project as retro because it reminds us of the cards we used to get when we were little.

Here’s what you need:

- Plain cards & envelopes (available in places like Staples, AC Moore, Michael’s, etc.)

- Snowman, Christmas Tree, and Star Stencil Templates (Click each to download)

- Card Stock

- X-acto knife

-Leftover house paint in assorted colors

- Brushes

- Valspar Silver Metallic Spray Paint

- Valspar Gold Glitter Spray Paint

- Glitter

- Plain white letter paper

- 3 mm red ribbon

- Glue

- Pinking Sheers

- A mailing list filled with friends and family

Start by collecting all your supplies in one place. Because the project involves spray paint, it is important that you find a well-ventilated space to work.

Take a stencil or pick from one of our templates included in this post. Print this out on card stock and cut it out using an X-acto knife. Use care when working with this tool!

Paint the surface of your blank holiday card using any left over house paint. We have lots of colors lying around the studio so we were able to come up with these combinations:

Red:
La Fonda Fireberry
Grand Hotel Geranium
Sassy Peach

Blue:
Bay Mist
Gentle Wind
Sweet Mint

Green:
Mild Evergreen
Celery
Bay Mist

You can use any combination if the colors that you prefer. We like to blend a few colors together to give depth, but you can always go with one color, particularly if that is what you have on hand.

Once it is dried, take the template and place it over the face of the card. Take out your well-shaken spray paint and give a little spray. You don’t need much! Next, add the glitter. The glitter will adhere to the drying paint. This will give your card some extra sparkle - and who doesn’t want a little extra sparkle, specially this time of year?

If you want to go the extra mile, you can add a beautiful inside layer as well. To do this: take the paper and spray it with Valspar Glitter Spray Paint. After this dries, take the pinking shears and cut it to the size appropriate for your card.  Glue it to the card, add some festive red ribbon and voila!!!  You have a gorgeous card you’ll be proud to give to a loved one.

 

Friday Project Series: Simply Spray Paint Magic

I’m having dinner at my house over Thanksgiving weekend (I’m spared the actual Thanksgiving dinner thanks to my mother-in-law!). But don’t worry, people will still be coming over, and I want to give them something nice to eat and also something to feast their eyes on!

I couldn’t believe how gorgeous this project turned out!  I’m so excited. The real beauty is how easy it is... and how inexpensive!

It’s all in the art of spray paint. First, you go gather things from the yard, or in the case of my friend Susan, something from the produce section of the grocery store. You then pick a favorite metallic spray finish.  For this, I chose silver.



Get on the gloves and in a well-ventilated space, start spraying and let the magic happen. I spray painted leaves, branches and pine cones.



For the acorns, I went with copper, just to give a little dimension.



My friend used silver spray painted on apples, which turned out beautiful.




Then comes the fun of setting it out on the table and lighting the candles. Voila! The added beauty of working with objects from the yard is that you can pack them up and use them year after year. Even during these tough times, we have so much to be thankful for. Adding a little sparkle to the table reminds us of the good things ahead. Happy Thanksgiving!!!