Tuesday Huesday: Terra Cotta Pot Garden

It seems like Summer time weather can often be one extreme or the other — wild and rainy every day or dry and hot. This pot garden shown in Better Homes and Gardens magazine suggests a patio set up that is flexible enough to weather the season no matter what. Having a wet week? Bring the pots inside and spruce up the house. Want your patio to look less parched in dry weather? Then bring the plants out. (Don’t forget to water them!) If you’re like me and have a black thumb, you can still enjoy the colors of this scene without claiming lives of innocent greenery.

We created this palette using FolkArt acrylic colors Linen, Mushroom, Terra Cotta, Rusted Pipe and Hauser Green Medium.

Make It Monday: Feather Your Nest

By Chris Williams

Mixed media has become one of the hottest new trends or art forms recently.  Mixed media is basically creating art using various mediums and products.  In this project both acrylic paints and decoupage medium is combined with canvas, wood and scrapbook papers to create a fun piece of art to hang on your wall or set on a table easel for all to enjoy.  Keeping this project easy and simple, I used Apple Barrel paints and Satin Mod Podge.  Let’s gather the necessary supplies:  an oval canvas, a wood bird cutout, a sheet of scrapbook paper, a few Apple Barrel paints, Satin Mod Podge, a pair of scissors and a few brushes.

TGIF: Holli’s Ballard Inspired Wall Plaque

I was recently looking through a Ballard Designs catalog and saw a great wall decoration.  What caught my eye was the soft color palette, which I immediately converted to Folk Art in my head!  So, I got out some Folk Art paint chips and started referencing colors and design and came up with this!

I gathered my supplies, the Folk Art colors, a Plaid surface that’s a cute wood sign with nine squares set inside the wood frame, which, I thought, was a perfect match for the wall hanging I saw in the catalog, and a Peel & Stick painting stencil from Simply that had some great images on it to make patterns.

I basecoated everything and set the wood squares in order as I wanted them in the frame.    Easy enough, right?

I also played a little with the stencils, and figured out where I wanted to place each image from the stencil.  This made things much easier when I started the actual painting of the project.

I dipped my #10 flat brush into water and side loaded into the Cinnamon color.  Then, I just followed the outside edge of the wood square and shaded the sides like this.

I used a very light touch with the stencil brush to basecoat the butterfly on the center square and lightly added the Cinnamon this way.

I also added a slight dry brushed edge to some of the squares on the outside edges and with an all over brushed effect on others, using Ivory White.

These Peel & Stick stencils make it very easy to make all over patterns with the smaller elements on the sheet.

I used a ruler to mark the half way point of the outer edge of the frame so I could center the stencils I used on it.

I tried to make everything look soft by using an almost dry brush to stencil with.  I also shaded the images using this technique.  This way, I kept a continuous look throughout the project.  I love how it turned out, don’t you?

Finally, I used E6000 to place the wood squares back into the frame and let it dry for the day with a fan blowing on it to be sure everything stayed in place when it was hung on the wall.

Here they are side-by-side. What do you think?

Summer Games

Welcome to another installment of ASK PLAIDIE LADDIE!

Plaidie Laddie, loyal Plaid pooch and one of our blog contributors, wants to answer your most burning painting questions. Every week he’ll pick a question out of his virtual mailbag and answer it (with a little help from me, since he only has paws).

“Dear Plaidie Laddie, my kids want to make board games to take on our vacation this summer. And all I can think is — more bulky stuff to pack! I love that they want to craft, but how can we do it without having to carry around big boards when they’re done?” Allison from Ohio

That is a great question, Allison. Of course you never want to discourage crafting, but if you’re creating things to take on a trip, the last thing you want to do is further complicate your packing. This is where Martha Stewart comes in. Always keeping her eye out for both elegant and functional projects, her beach game board solves both of your problems. Best of all, this is a project that you can do while on vacation! Just pick up a bottle of FolkArt Fabric paint and a place mat and you’re ready to go!

Do you have other ideas for easy and portable crafts? Let us know!

My Secret Addiction

by Holli Long

I have a secret addiction.  There are only a few people who know about this secret of mine… until now.

Tuesday Huesday: Feminine with an Edge

When I was a little kid my mom decorated my bedroom from top to bottom in pink. I hated it. I was too young to know it at the time, but when I look at pictures of the room as an adult, all I can think is “Pepto Bismal.” (In fact, my mom took a picture of me in pink overalls, holding a doll wearing a pink dress, standing in the middle of the pink room. The look on my face is crazed. I still tease Mom about it.) Had it not been the early ’80s and had my mom known about Traditional Home magazine back then, she might have designed a slightly cooler room for me, like the one shown here. The room includes all the traditional girly elements: pinks, toile, flowers and fancy pillows. But I would never walk into this room and think “Pepto.” I would probably walk in, smile, crank up the stereo and get comfy on that armchair.

We created this color palette using FolkArt Acrylic colors Vintage White, Ballet Pink, Graffiti Pink and Licorice.

Make It Monday: Glitter Tulip Vase

The friendly colors of these perennial blooms will immediately become favorites. Make them to brighten up your home, or as a fun house warming gift.

Here’s what you need to get started:

TGIF: Rose Medallion Planter

What happens when you pair vintage inspiration with a fresh new color palette? Not quite shabby but, definitely chic! This planter designed by Julie Lewis is a beautiful solution for many uses. One thing is for sure: you will certainly want to use it.

Crafty Food Diary

We leave no stone unturned when we’re looking for inspiration. Or in this case, we leave no refrigerator closed. We love turning unexpected things into chalkboards, and the color options available in FolkArt Chalkboard paints gives us tons of possibilities and itchy painting fingers. Imagine how excited we got when we stumbled across TheKitchn.com and got an eye full of this awesome chalkboard refrigerator. Chichi painted her fridge the standard chalkboard green, but imagine how you could get creative with multiple chalkboard colors. You could paint blocks in different colors to signify menus, shopping lists, family notes, or whatever else you think of. Or, if you’re feeling really creative, and have some time, paint an entire scene on your fridge. No matter what, turning your refrigerator into a chalkboard will make it that much more useful and and some interest to your kitchen.

Tuesday Huesday: Summer Patio

Since Plaid’s office is in the South, it’s probably no surprise to you that we love Summer and the warm weather. So of course, we’re always looking for bright ideas to help us keep that summery feel all year long. A recent trip to Lowe’s gave us some unexpected inspiration. Lowe’s Creative Ideas is a fun, free magazine that you can get in store, with a companion website. This particular image was for a trellis project, but we saw it and thought “sun room!”

Whether you want to spruce up your patio for the rest of the season, or keep that summer feeling all year long in an indoor sun room, we think this color scheme is a stroke of Summer time genius.

We created this palette using FolkArt Acrylic Colors Morning Sun, Taffy, Tangerine, Lime Yellow and Hydrangea.