Crafts

My Favorite Crafting Tool + Silhouette Portrait GIVEAWAY

1 · Nov 24, 2014 · 240 Comments

+ Silhouette Portrait GIVEAWAY brought to you by Silhouette America +

It is no secret that my favorite crafting tool is my Silhouette cutting machine. Each and every time I start planning a project, 9 times out of 10 I will turn to my Silhouette for help in some fashion. I’ve decorated whole rooms with my Silhouette CAMEO…

One of my favorite all-time projects I’ve only shared on Instagram!

It’s my living room wall… I painted it black with chalkboard paint, added a chalk rub to give it texture and dimension, then I placed swiss crosses in a grid on the wall. I cut each of the crosses on my Silhouette CAMEO using the Silhouette Premium Vinyl.

Another favorite is my “handwritten” canvas on the other side of the room…

This is a simple canvas, all I did was cut the letters in black paper and then Mod Podged them onto the canvas. You can learn how to do that HERE. It gives the look of a hand lettered sign, without having to develop the hand letter skills! I LOVE it!!

Honestly, I don’t know where I would be creatively without my Silhouette machines.

I use the print and cut feature ALL THE TIME to help the kiddos with their school projects or my church projects.

I love how I can whip-up a simple Happy Birthday banner in minutes and it looks so much better than anything store bought.

With the holidays upon us… It’s PRIME Silhouette season.

Now’s the time to be dressing up your table with all kinds of custom cut goodies. Making fun wall art for gifts, making custom Christmas ornaments, planning out your room makeover for the new year… The sky’s the limited when it comes to a Silhouette Cutting Machine!

This is the time of year to get your new Silhouette… BLACK FRIDAY is the BEST day of the year to get your new friend!

I can’t spill then beans just yet, but they have some amazing deals for Black Friday this week.

To celebrate… the folks at Silhouette are giving away TWO Silhouette Portraits to TWO lucky WhipperBerry friends!

All you have to do is enter in the Rafflecopter widget below…

a Rafflecopter giveaway

DIY Chalk Paint Halloween Apothecary Jars with BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder

5 · Oct 29, 2014 · Leave a Comment

+ Guest Post by BB Frösch Master Jonelle Morris from Chalk-a-Lot +

EEK! It’s almost Halloween! I’m not one for the guts and gore of the holiday, but I do love me some fun Halloween decor. I have wanted to make an apothecary display for a few years now, but never got around to it thinking, “oh that will take too long,” or “that will be too expensive,” or “I wouldn’t make it look good.”

Well, since I have joined the BB Frösch team, I have been trying all sofrts of things I never thought I would do. I set out to good ol’ Michaels to see if they had any glass bottles I could turn into something amazing, and as luck would have it, they did!

And the best part, each one was a $1.29 or under—score! But my luck didn’t run out there. Most of their Halloween stuff was 50-60% off, so therefore I made my whole display with what I purchased at Michaels, plus a couple small things I already have for….drumroll….$25! Double score!

I wanted some of the bottles I made to be black, and thought I would put the “BB Frösch bonds to virtually anything” claim test. I started out with my plain glass bottles and put a quick few coats of BB Frösch chalk paint with some leftover black paint I had from another project. BB Frösch isn’t just for furniture!

And when I say quick, I mean quick. Three coats on those four bottles took me about 25 minutes, drying time included. I then took a wet rag to wet distressed the tops and corners of the bottles to create a more authentic vintage look. I chose to leave the other bottles clear, so I could put some water with food coloring inside.

Then, because I am cheap 🙂 I searched for free vintage apothecary labels online and found some awesome options! I printed them off on regular paper and Modge Podged them under and on top of the label.
I used the labels found here:

Two Crafty Paws

Love Manor

The Graphics Fairy

For some other wonderful options you can go here:
Lil’Luna

Then to complete my display, I printed a beautiful, but slightly creepy picture of an old Victorian house (that was most likely haunted) on burlap.

Yes, you read that right, I printed on burlap, as in on my home inkjet computer.

Amazing! You can find this easy to follow tutorial on Domestically Speaking. It seriously took me about 10 minutes. The graphic I used as well as several other vintage halloween images can be found on The Graphic’s Fairy.

There, I did something I never thought I could do, and quickly and inexpensively! Happy Halloween!

Stop in for a Spell – Free Halloween Printables

7 · Sep 9, 2014 · 2 Comments

Hello Whipperberry Readers! Its Lisa and Pam from Over the Big Moon again! This month we have a Vintage Halloween Witch sign, some of our free Halloween printables just for you!

This print can easily be framed. But I wanted it for my front door. In order to do that I needed to make it weather/waterproof. I also adjusted the sign wording a little help it fit in with our Harry Potter themed Halloween decor.

First I bought a piece of wood that was slightly larger than my print.

I stained my wood with Minwax Dark Walnut stain. I also got out my Mod Podge in matte and an old brush.

I also printed my print and trimmed the white edges off. It is best to take an ink pad and rub it along the edges. It really ensures the whole thing looks old and aged.

Spread an even layer of Mod Podge over your wood. It can be bigger than the print, it dries clear so it wont matter.

Lay the print down and press it flat. I wanted let it dry over night to make sure it didn’t bubble up. When the excess on the top was dry enough I placed a piece of foil over it, just for added protection. Then placed some heavy flat objects on the top.

In the morning I added a thin layer of Mod Podge over the top.

After it was dry, I did a second coat. After the 2nd coat dried completely I sprayed it with Shellac to give it extra protection. After the Shellac dried it was as simple as drilling some holes and stringing burlap through it. It really boosts the front door appeal and turns a boring wreath into a statement!

You can download both the Salem Witch version or the Weasley Wizard Wheezes version just by clicking on the word links.

Be sure to stop by and visit us this month to check out some of our other fun and spooky Halloween projects!

Thanks for having us Heather!

BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder

10 · Aug 6, 2014 · 11 Comments

If you have been following me on Instagram for the last little bit, you’ve seen some of the fun furniture projects that I’ve been working on using BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder.

What is BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder? It is the most amazing paint product that I have found… EVER!! This is seriously a game changer in the paint world.

We know we all love to use Chalk Paint for all kinds of projects, whether they are furniture projects for the house or simple craft projects. The issue is that boutique chalk paints have a PREMIUM price tag which is typically too expensive for most consumers. Another issue… You have a limited selection of colors. You only have at most, 35 colors to choose from. What if you want the chalk paint look but they don’t have the color that you would like… You are out of luck.

You can try to create your own chalk paint with common items like Plaster of Paris, but you have several issues there as well. First off… Plaster of Paris is meant to harden. So… whatever paint you mix, within a few hours turns to rock. Second, did you know that some components in Plaster of Paris are on the list of the hazardous chemicals? You can actually burn yourself using the stuff!!

I’ve teamed up with a good friend of mine who has developed the perfect product… Chalk Paint Powder.

You add this powder to any flat latex paint and turn it into chalk paint for a fraction of the cost. Plus you can mix up smaller batches if you want, cutting your cost even further. For example…

I painted this dresser in three hours, start to finish, with an 8 oz. sample pot of paint from Home Depot. The dresser was purchased on Craig’s list for $16, the sample pot was $2.95 at Home Depot, the BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder cost $2.50 and the soft wax used to finish the project was less than $1.00. Total… I was able to refinish this dresser for $6.45!!

Total cost for the dresser… $22.45!!

That’s INCREDIBLE!!!

This desk…

Again, it took a sample pot of Behr flat paint $2.95 at Home Depot, $2.50 for BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder less than $1.00 for wax and gold spray paint. New hardware was $12.00 and the cost of the desk from a garage sale… $10.00.

Total for the entire piece (including the desk)… $28.45!!

Like I said before… GAME CHANGER!!

How fun is this!?!?

Krisitin and I will be traveling the country teaching workshops on how to use this aaaaamazing new product! Our first stop… DENVER!

We will have regular workshops in the Las Vegas, Nevada & Lincoln, Nebraska areas so visit the BB Frösch site for all of that information.

If you just want to get busy and start painting… Visit the BB Frösch shop to get your Chalk Paint Powder TODAY!!

We carry a full line of Chalk Paint Powder supplies, the powder, brushes & wax. Everything you need to get started.

Crafts

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