Kids

DIY Octopus Wall Art

6 · Jul 10, 2017 · 2 Comments

Create a simple DIY octopus wall art piece with The NEW DecoArt Americana® Premium Artist Acrylics found at Michaels.

• This DIY Octopus Wall Art Post is brought to you by DecoArt •

Back in December we purchased our PERFECT home! Perfect for everyone but our little guy Gage. His room was a rather bold pink and purple. This kiddo has spent 7 long years with only sisters. We have a soccer ball and a volleyball that he plays with and they are hand-me-downs from his sisters and they are, you guessed it… PINK. To say that the little guy is over all of the pink, is an understatement. This week we are starting his room transformation and we are going vintage nautical for the theme.

Now, any vintage nautical themed room NEEDS a cool piece of art. This year in Gage’s 1st grade class he worked on a really cool report on his favorite sea creature, the octopus. We decided he needed a cool octopus for his room and set to work to create “Davy Jones,” Gage new octopus friend.

Gage’s sister Jane helped to create this with me using the NEW DecoArt Americana Premium Artist Acrylics and Mediums.

DIY Octopus Wall Art Supply List

DecoArt Americana® Premium Artist Acrylic Paint in Prussian Blue Hue, Dark Grey Value 3, Titanium White
DecoArt Americana® Premium Artist Acrylic Matte Medium
Art Wood Canvas (I found mine at Michaels)
Paint brushes
Paint rags
Jar of water
Pencil
eraser

DIY Octopus Wall Art Instructions

The cool thing about this project is that you really don’t have to be an artist to create fun art for your home. With this type of vintage looking painting, perfection is NOT NEEDED. Whew! That’s my kind of painting!

First thing you need to to is to take your Titanium White and mix it with the Matte Medium. Why would you mix the paint with a medium? Here is what the matte medium adds to the acrylic paint…

“Add Matte Medium to Americana Premium acrylics to create a matte finish, extend color, increase transparency, and enhance color blending. Can also be used as a clear coat for a matte finish. It is water-based and fast-drying.”

Pretty cool huh? Now if you don’t want the paint to dry too fast, you want to have more time to work with it, you may want to use and Extender Medium…

“Add Extender Medium to slow the drying time of Premium Acrylics. It can also be safely added to the other mediums in the line. Any time you want the paint or medium to have more working time add some Extender to it. Extender also allows you to perform oil techniques using acrylic paint.”

Once you have your white and matte medium mixed together, roughly paint on a white surface onto your boards. That reminds me… I used 2 of the 16×20 art boards to create a longer octopus to fill up more wall space. Because we all know… Davy Jones needs to be huge!

I left a boarder around the edge leaving some of the raw wood. But, if you notice, it’s all really rough. We aren’t looking for perfect lines here.

Next, Hannah sketched the octopus onto the boards with a pencil. Again, we aren’t looking for perfect. She even traced the legs off of the white section to make them look like they were coming off the canvas. Don’t trust your sketching skills? No worries, Angie from The Country Chic Cottage shares a great tutorial on how to use transfer paper to create a good sketch for sign making on the DecoArt Blog. It’s PERFECT for those of us who are artistically challenged.

Again, we added the Americana® Premium Matte Medium to the Prussian Blue Hue Americana® Premium Artist Acrylic Paint and mixed it well.

Then we set to work painting good ole’ Davy Jones the Octopus for Gage’s room…

I wanted as much texture as possible so we tried to create really rough brush strokes. I was really impressed with how fast the paint dried, it was so easy to use!

Next, we painted on rough circles for his tentacles and eyes. Again, we wanted things to look really rough. That’s why this type of project is so good for beginner artist. That leads me to the Americana® Premium Acrylic Paint, here’s why is it the perfect type of paint for this application… Americana® Premium™ acrylics provide a medium-bodied formula for the hobbyist-artist at an affordable price point. Its satin-sheen formula was created to work well on canvas, and other artistic surfaces. Its simplicity of design and use takes the intimidation factor out of fine art painting. Use it alone or mix with mediums to create original pieces of art at a budget-friendly price. It’s the perfect, easy to use, budget friendly paint for this kind of home decor project.

I’m even thinking of drilling some holes into the two boards and connecting them with rope. I think that will look really cool. I’ll let you know as we get started on Gage’s room. Davy Jones will for sure make a few more appearances!

Looking for more fun painting projects for the family here is another one from WhipperBerry that you might like…

Gnome Garden

Disclaimer • This post is sponsored by DecoArt. I receive product and payment to help create this fun project. Please remember, I will only share what I truly love and use all of the time.

Gnome Garden

4 · May 1, 2017 · 3 Comments

A Gnome Garden is the perfect project for the entire family! With a little imagination, a good container, plants, some sticks from your yard and a little DecoArt Patio Paint, you can transform a simple garden into a gnome wonderland. Come learn how…

This Gnome Garden post brought to you by DecoArt

I have always been fascinated by gardening. Gardening is in my gene pool. I have a sister with a degree in horticulture & landscape design (gardening) and a mother who adores gardening. I SHOULD be an amazing gardener, right?

Well… I’m getting there. To be completely honest, that darn gardening gene is taking awhile to really kick into gear. Every spring I bring home a new set of, what my husband likes to refer to as, “this years sacrifices!” What?

I’ve tried and tried for a few years to maintain some plants in my home and finally, I feel like I can mange some simple plant care. However, I am no expert. What I love to do is, create with my family and a gnome garden is PERFECT for that.

Gnome and Fairy Gardens are becoming all the rage these days. If you walk into Michaels right now, they have a whole section dedicated to these fun gardens with all kinds of gnomes and their accessories. I decided it would be fun to create a gnome garden together with the family using some budget friendly items like sticks from the backyard as our gnomes & a raw wood bird house that I found at Michaels as their cute home. Here’s what you’ll need to make one with your family…

Gnome Garden Supply List

Garden container
rocks
soil
7-8 small plants
4-5 sticks roughly 6 inches tall
DecoArt Patio Paint
- Suggested Colors
- Tuscan Red
- Marigold Yellow
- Tango Blue
- Mistletoe Green
- Cloud White
- Wrought Iron Black
Small round tip paint brush
Small flat tip paint brush
pencil
a sharp whittling knife
jar of water
paper towels
small decorative rocks
colored decorative sand
garden accessories

Why Patio Paint is Perfect for Gardens

Not all paint is created equal. Some paint is more durable than others and that’s alright, every type of paint has it’s purpose. What you are looking for with this project is a highly durable paint that is non-toxic, water based and adheres nicely to things that will likely be outdoors or will endure repeated watering like this project. The DecoArt Patio Paint is PERFECT for this! Here are the specifics…

No sealer required for a durable, long-lasting finish
Weather-proof
Satin finish
Scuff-resistant
Superior coverage
Will not crack or peel
Water-based and non-toxic
Easy to clean
Made in the USA

How to Create a Gnome Garden

Here’s a quick video to show you how easy it is to create a special gnome garden of your own…

Gnome Garden from Heather Thoming on Vimeo.

Isn’t that easy and fun for the family? Here’s the step by step…

Place rocks at the bottom of your container. This helps with drainage for your plants. Plants love water, but they typically don’t like to sit in it all of the time. You’ll need to make sure they have proper drainage.
Pour in your potting soil. Fill your container about 3/4 full.
Plant your plants in the container with the lower plants in front and the taller toward the back. Keep in mind, you are trying to set a scene. If you are wondering what plants to use and how to maintain them, here’s a good article from the Empress of Dirt.
Paint your birdhouse. Keep it simple or go crazy… This is your design. I wanted to keep our simple. We painted the door on the back of the bird house and added dots to the roof with a nice red peek-a-boo trim around the scalloped edge of the roof. I used the tip of the brush handle to create the dots on the roof.
ADULT TASK • Whittle the end of your branches into a tip like a pencil. The top portion of the tip will be your gnomes hat. Keep in mind this task either needs to be done by an adult OR supervised by an adult.
On one side of your stick, whittle a “U” shaped section for the face of your gnome.
Using the DecoArt Patio Paint and your small flat brush, paint on your gnomes hat and let dry.
Take the white paint and paint on your gnome’s beard. Basically in a “U” shape following the line of the face that you whittle in before. Set aside and let dry. Refer to video for more details on how to paint your gnome.
Using a sharped pencil, dip your pencil tip into the black paint and gently place one gnome eye. Reapply the paint to your pencil tip and create another eye. Dipping into the paint twice will help to create eyes that a similar in shape and size. Set aside and let dry.
Once dry, name your cute little little gnomes! Ours are Max (red), Sven (yellow), Einar (green) & Ole (blue). Then place them into your gnome garden.
Using the small rocks and colored sand, create a walkway in front of the house.

Summer Crafting with the Kids

0 · May 1, 2016 · 1 Comment

+ This Summer Crafting with the Kids post brought to you by Michaels +

You guys… Summer is almost here!!

No more school!

No more car pool!

No more early mornings!

Well at least for a couple of months anyway. Now the challenge is how to entertain the family during the fun, lazy days of summer. Did you know that Michaels has you covered, they offer free classes in their stores! You can try out a new craft skill for just the cost of supplies.

Just because school will be out for the summer, doesn’t mean that learning stops.

You can sign your kiddos up for a class or you can take a little time for yourself and learn a new skill.

Another great way to explore your creativity is by trying out a craft kit. Michaels has everything from sewing kits to art kits and everything in between.

My daughter Emily and I decided it would be fun to take one of their kits for a test drive.

Emily picked the Craf-Tastic™ Pom Pom Kit, we’re kind of obsessed with pom poms here at our house. This kit was cool because it had the promise of teaching us how to make pom poms really quick. We were intrigued.

I’ve made all kinds of poms, but this was Emily’s first rodeo so this kit was perfect!

The directions were fantastic and Emily who is 11 easily figured everything out without any help from Mom.

We loved how the kit came with EVERYTHING you need for a fun afternoon of crafting and Emily loved that she could do it all on her own.

We decided that it would be fun to add some silly eyes onto the poms to create some little fuzzy friends…

This kit was worth every penny… Emily and I had a ball creating together without all the hassle of trying to pull together all the supplies on our own. Total summer win in my books!

Here are some more fun idea from the other Michaels Makers.

Airheads Drink Gems

0 · Nov 13, 2015 · Leave a Comment

+ This Airheads Drink Gems post brought to you by Airheads. All thoughts, ideas and opinions are my very own. +

Picture this scene… You have a house full of 10 and 11 year old girls. They are looking for something fun to do.

You are scrambling to find something “cool” to do that won’t embarrass your daughter and force your family to enter the Middle School Protection Program and relocate the entire family to Cleveland (sorry friends in Cleveland… I’m sure it’s a lovely city! I just needed to pick a place.) They are hungry and thirsty and things are starting to escalate… Your “cool” factor is dropping dramatically.

You’ve never been there? Boy, I have! I have three girls and the last one just started Middle School this year and the fun has started all over again. Take it from and experienced tween Mom… You need to stock-up on Airheads so that you can up your “cool” factor higher than you can even imagine!

If you have a room full of restless kiddos, pull out your Airheads, some cutting boards, rolling pins and some small cookie cutters or cupcake decorating tips and let them go to town.

You’ll be the coolest Mom in town if you teach them how to make Airhead Drink Gems. They will LOVE it, plus it will kill some time before you have to come-up with some other non-cringe worthy activity.

Here’s how you can look like a rockstar…

I used a fondant rolling pin, but any kind will work. Unwrap 3-4 Airheads of the same color, place them in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 5-8 seconds to soften them up. Kneed them in your hand to work them together. Lay them on a cutting board and then use small cookie cutters or a large cupcake decorating tip to cut out your shapes.

All you need to do is gather some clear class cups or jars and then affix them to the side of the glass.

They are easy to affix… All you need to do is slightly dampen a paper towel. Just like you would dampen a stamp, lightly r ub one side of your shape on the paper towel, slightly dampening it. Place it on the side of the glass and voilá, you’ve created your first Airhead Drink Gem!

Let them go to town designing their own glasses, they’ll love it!

Once they are finished you can add some clear soda or seltzer water to the glass and watch the dr ink take on the color of the gems. This is RIGHT DOWN THEIR ALLEY! You’re officially a ROCK STAR!

If you want to be extra cool… You can help them make their own Airheads Straw as well.

You can make all kinds of stuff with Airheads! For more fun ideas on how to craft with Airheads visit and follow them on Pinterest. To learn more about Airheads candy visit their website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube!

Yes, even YOU can be a cool mom with Airheads!

Disclaimer // This post is sponsored by Airheads. All thoughts, ideas & opinions are my very own.