heart shaped frame

I found this cute little frame at Michael's several weeks ago. It was only a buck so I picked it up. At the time it was just unfinished wood.

I painted it an antique white and at first I tried to paint the lines of words, but I found that a Sharpie worked much better.

It was a really simple craft that didn't take much time, but in my opinion turned out really cute!

Valentine's day is coming up! Last year Tom surprised me by showing up at my work with flowers, and because I was just becoming vegan that very week, some fresh berries instead of chocolates. It was very sweet and exciting because we had not been together long and it'd been a few years since I'd last had someone to celebrate with.

Tom and I agreed that our gifts for each other this year was our vacation, but we are also going to go out to dinner on Thursday (to beat the Friday Valentine's crowd). I'm looking forward to a quiet evening in on Friday :)

Love,
-A.

simple crafts: glitter critters

These adorable little guys are another part of my DIY Christmas. I found these wooden critters at Michael's for $2 a piece.

For this cute fish I used Martha Stewart Crafts Glitter paint in Smokey Quartz and Aquamarine. I like this paint because so far it seems as though the glitter sticks pretty well. Since I'll be giving these creatures to my five-year-old niece, I wanted to be sure the glitter wouldn't be flaking off all over my sister's house. So far, the paint seems pretty solid once it dries. 

 For the snake, I used the same Martha Stewart aqua glitter paint (which is more green than teal), but first I did a green wash by mixing a little of the green paint (that came with the wooden snake) with water and coating the wood. I let that dry thoroughly before adding the glitter paint. 

The glitter paint requires several coats to create the glitter coverage you see on the fish and the snake. The fish especially because I didn't paint the wood first. I probably did ten coats there, to ensure the wood was completely covered. I found dabbing it on worked better than brushing.

I did the same thing for the gecko as for the snake, except that I used red paint that came with the kit and the smokey quartz glitter paint. I decided for this guy to use the glitter paint only on the head, legs and back of the body and not to do so many coats. I liked the way the red looked.

It was a really simple handmade project which I think makes a great gift for little ones! It'd be great to do with kids, too.

And how cute are they?

Peace & love,
-A.