Friday, July 24, 2015

DIY Toy Story's Woody Disney Fund Jar!

Howdy!

I have a Disney DIY today! I have previously done a DIY Mickey Mouse Disney Fund Jar and now I've done another Disney Fund Jar, this time in the shape of Woody from Toy Story!





The Materials:


  • Mason Jar - I used a Quart size. You can get a pack of 12 from Amazon for about $8. (Mason Jars)
  • Masking Tape
  • Sponge Brush/Paint Brushes (A big one to paint the jar and a thin tipped one for detailing) 
  • Blue Paint (For Woody's Jeans)
  • Yellow Paint (For Woody's shirt)
  • Red Paint (For the lines of Woody's Plaid Shirt)
  • White Paint (For Woody's Vest)
  • Black Paint (For the Cow spots on Woody's Vest)
  • Brown Paint (For Woody's Belt)
  • Gold Paint (For woody's buckle) 
  • Sheriff's Badge (I got a pack from the dollar store)
  • Red Bandanna 
  • Two Buttons (optional) You can opt to draw these on instead. 
  • Glue Gun
  • Sealant 

The first thing you will need to do is to tape the masking tape a little bit more than half way down the jar. This will be where you paint Woody's jeans. I wanted to focus on the top half of woody so I only designated a little bit for his jeans. 

Paint the bottom half of the jar blue - I used 3 coats. Take the tape off and let it dry! 




Once that is done you will use the yellow paint - I chose a muted yellow - and paint the top half of the jar. You don't have to worry about this TOO much. I only used one coat for the entire jar and two coats only on the front of the jar and the line between the blue and yellow. We are going to paint white over most of the yellow, so it doesn't have to be perfect. 



After the yellow is dry, I went in with a precision brush and used the white paint to draw in Woody's vest. I used about 2 coats for this. Remember this will go around the entire jar, front and back. 



I let the white dry and then drew on the red to make his shirt into a plaid shirt. You can tell that it is no where close to perfect. I had a bit of trouble keeping the lines straight all the way down and all the way around the jar. You just have to be really patient and keep a steady hand when drawing the lines. 



After that was dry I drew on the black cow spots for Woody's vest. I outlined each spot first and then when I was sure I liked where each was located I colored in the spots. 



Front:


Back:




Again, let the dry for at least an hour or so. After that was dry I drew on Woody's belt. I started with his belt buckle and just drew a gold oval and colored that in. I really did not like the gold paint I used because it was rather streaky, but it'll do. After I drew that I drew the belt straps. I kept a couple of spaces between the belt to mimic belt loops. I had to use about 3 coats of the brown paint. 




Once that is dry, bring out the hot glue gun! I took a sheriff badge and broke off the clip on the back and hot glued that onto Woody's vest. Hold that there for a couple of seconds and then do the same for his two buttons! 



Lastly, Woody's bandanna! I took a regular size bandanna and cut it down to a smaller square. I just eye-balled this and just keep cutting it smaller until it fits the size that you want. Roll it down like you would a regular bandanna and then hot glue it onto the neck of the jar.  





TA-DA! That's it! This would be a cute way to encourage your kids to save up money and put it in their own little jars for souvenirs and what not! I hope you enjoyed this DIY, feel free to leave comments, questions or suggestions! :) Have a great day!

- Laura 





Friday, July 17, 2015

DIY Harry Potter Advanced Potion's Book

Hello once again! 

In my last post, I did a DIY on a Harry Potter, Hogwart's trunk for your Harry potter books (click here if you missed it: Harry Potter Trunk) and keeping on key with that Harry Potter theme, I am back with another Harry Potter DIY. I show you how I made the Advanced Potion's Book from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince! 

This isn't an ACTUAL potions book because who am I kidding, I'm just not THAT creative. But rather this is a fake book that you can open to put keepsakes and knick knacks in! 

I unfortunately don't have a separate picture for every step of the process, so I'll just talk you through it! 

First: The supplies!

































  1. Wooden Book (I got mine for about $3 on Michaels) I think Hobby Lobby sells cardboard ones and those should work just fine
  2. Black and White Paint. This you can choose your colors. White is for the pages of the books and the Black was for the "binding" and the inside cover.
  3. Mod Podge or some type of glue. (I used Mod Podge because it was what I had on hand and because I can use it as a glue as well as a sealant) 
  4. Masking Tape
  5. Foam Brushes
In addition to these craft supplies, you will also need a computer and printer.

First, I painted the "pages" white. This is where your masking tape comes in handy, tape off the parts of the book you don't want to get paint on.































Second, I painted the inside cover black.I found it easier, to unscrew the hinges and take the entire top cover off so that you can paint it easier as well as later glue on the image seamlessly. 






























Don't forget to paint the bottom inside cover black as well. The bottom cover does not open BUT, there is a little piece running around the edges of the "pages". 

Now, you can let that dry and print off your image. 

I got the image off a Harry Potter Forum on therpf.com - you are going to have to make an account in order to get onto the forum, but it is totally free and they have same amazing cosplay and crafts ideas. Since, it is not my image I won't post it, but you can go onto the website and do a search on Harry Potter and you should be able to find the image. 

The image you download from the forum is rather big, which is good because that means the quality of it will be clear. Measure out the length and width of each part of your book, cover, back cover and spine. The image is downloaded as one image so you're going to have to disassemble it and make is so that it fits the length of your book. The easiest way would be using photoshop BUT using paint works too. You measure out how big the book is compared to the computer paper and fix the sizing and margins accordingly. It took me a couple of tries and prints to get this to work. I recommend going a little bit bigger so you can wrap it. (I printed the front and back cover on card stock and the spine of regular computer paper) 

Print the spine first, use mod podge to adhere it to the book. Let it sit and dry. Make sure the spine can wrap around and little bit.Then I printed the back cover and mod podge it on and the same with the front cover. After that I used an x-acto knife and cut out the wholes for where the hinges are supposed to be and I re-attached the front cover to the rest of the book.

Mod Podge the entire book to seal it and you're done!






Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions or if something wasn't clear! 
The hardest part is just playing around and getting your image the right size. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

- Laura 



Sunday, July 5, 2015

DIY Harry Potter trunk!

Hello All!

I'm back and this time with a DIY! Keep in mind this DIY is not meant to be accurate! I am a huge Harry Potter fan! I've read all the books and seen all the movie multiple times and I just love the entire series! I decided to make this trunk as a birthday gift for a friend! It's not accurate simply because that wasn't in my budget. IF you want to make one that looks more like Harry's trunk in the films, I suggest looking up steamer trunks! (Keep in mind, those are usually $100+). 




Supplies:

  • Trunk
  • Brown Paint (or your color of chose) 
    • I chose the folklore Antiquing Medium in the color 2937 Espresso - I wanted an aged, antique look. You can also opt to use a stain instead
  • Black Spray Paint (optional) 
  • DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Metallic Acrylic Paint in color Emperor's Gold 
  • Sponge brushes 
  • Hogwart's Crest + Printer 
  • Modpodge or Spray Adhesive   
  • Mod Podge Hard Coat sealant + Acrylic Spray Sealant (optional) 
I found this trunk on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $30.59 down from $89.99. I had been doing a lot of shopping and this was the cheapest I was able to find for the size. The dimensions are: 21.2x13.3x11.8in. Honestly, to fit the entire collection of books you don't need a trunk this big, but it was a good price and she could always put the HP movies in and other knick knacks in as well. 



First thing I did was take my brown paint and a sponge brush and paint the entire trunk.
I immediately regretted this. haha I suggest taking the hardware off BEFORE you paint instead of after like I did. That would have been the smart thing to do. haha No worries though, after I took the hardware off I was able to wipe the brown paint I accidentally got on it with a wet wipe. 

I painted the first coat. You can tell it was pretty splotchy and brush strokes were very obvious. 







I waited a couple of hours and went in with a second coat. I let the trunk dry overnight. This paint does dry pretty Matte, so if you want a satin sheen I suggest picking a different type of paint. I kept it the way it was because I wanted a used weathered look. 




In the morning, I spray painted the hardware. Originally I spray painted them gold but then decided black looked better. I only spray painted the 8 corner pieces and left the rest silver. 

Then  I printed out the Hogwart's Crest (I got mine from a Harry Potter forum on therpf.com) I used regular Mod Pdoge to glue this onto the trunk. I took a book and placed it on top of the crest and let it dry. 






While doing that, I went onto the side of the trunk and used the gold paint to paint on her initials. 






After both were dry, I used Mod Podge Hard Coat and brushed this over the entire trunk. Again, I let this dry and then painted on a second coat. The Mod Podge does leave some brush strokes on the trunk,  I didn't mind because it just looks like textured wood. If you don't want to see brush strokes I recommend using a different sealant. I then went in with an Acrylic paint sealant spray and sprayed the entire trunk and TA-DA! You're done!

This is the finished look:






Here's a picture of the inside and things you can put in there, As you can see the Page to screen book was a little too long so I had to turn it sideways. All the other Harry Potter books would have fit fine the other way though. 



Thanks for reading! :) Feel free to ask me any questions or suggest any new ideas! I would love to see how your projects turn out! 

- Laura