Funky Frosted Wine Glasses [DIY]

May 13, 2013 by Picklee: Jordan

There’s nothing I love more than mixing up a nice refreshing skinny cocktail on a Saturday afternoon. The best part about experimenting with unique drink combinations is enjoying the end result in a fancy, fun cocktail glass… Because sometimes the glass you sip from is just as important as the drink itself! I fell in love with a pair of frosted cocktail glasses I came across the other day, so I decided I had to make some for myself using a couple old boring wine glasses I had at home!

DIY Frosted Wine Glasses

Start with two glasses of your choice, I chose to use bubble base wine glasses (which I LOVE drinking cocktails from =) ). Next, you’ll need a small bottle of Deco Art’s Frost Gloss Enamel paint, along with two colors of Deco Art’s Gloss Enamel paint and of course, a small tipped paint brush.

Use a small tipped paint brush to create a design around the rim of your glass. My artist skills are extreamly limited so I painted a simple zig-zag pattern Next, I painted the stem of my wine glass in the same color.

Now that you’ve added a little color and funky design to your glasses, it’s time to frost them! Creating frosted glass is super simple with Deco Art’s Frost Gloss Enamel paints. Simply fill in all the areas you’d like to frost with a light coat of paint. I chose to frost the base and body of my glass…

The only area I didn’t frost was the rim above the painted zig-zag…

Once you’ve got your cocktail glasses looking good, go ahead and bake them in the oven at 275 degrees for 30 minutes. This will make the finish dishwasher safe!

new jordan sig

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5 Mintute Spring Wreath [DIY Tutorial]

May 2, 2013 by Picklee: Jordan

I was whirling around my house last weekend trying to tackle some much needed Spring cleaning when I opened up my (rarely used) front door only to find I STILL hadn’t taken down my red rosewood Christmas wreath! AHHH! I felt like one of those people that leave their Christmas lights on in July…not a good look…as I pulled down my Christmas wreath, I remembered that I’d bought a garland of “greens” on my last trip to the Hobby Lobby (love that place!). I had an old branch wreath frame laying around too, so I quickly threw together this simple, yet beautiful Spring wreath! When I say quickly, I mean record timing…this entire Spring wreath took me no more than 5 minutes to make!

[5 Minute] DIY Spring Wreath

Gather up:

one medium wreath frame (the twisted branch wreaths are only $1 at the Dollar Tree =) )

one 6′ garland of greens (I purchased mine from the Hobby Lobby, on sale for $7.50)

at least nine round white coffee filters

twist ties

diy-spring-wreath-greens5

First things first, we’ll make the faux hydrangeas for our Spring wreath. Last Spring, we made en entire wreath using coffee filter hydgrangeas. The coffee filter flowers are super easy to make!

First, flatten out three coffee filters, layered on top of each other.

Next, fold them all together in an acordian-like method…

Cinch the middle of the filters with a twist tie…

Starting with the inside pedals, pull up the sides of the coffee filters…

Your flower should now look something like this… I made three of these for my wreath, but you can make as many as you prefer!

Now the your faux flowers are done, set them aside while we move onto adding the greens to the wreath. Simply wrap your garland of greens around the wreath frame. Secure it to the wreath by wedging pieces of the garland between the wreath branches every few inches.

The last step is adding the coffee filter flowers to your wreath! You should have pieces of twist ties stemming from the inside of each flower, simply secure the flowers to the wreath by wrapping the twist ties around the wreath’s branches…

That’s it! Your 5 Minute DIY Spring Wreath is complete!

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DIY Tooth Fairy Pillow-Wally Whale [tutorial]

April 24, 2013 by Picklee: Jordan

There are many fun traditions I miss from my childhood, waiting up at night for Santa to come, waking up to a basket full of chocolate from the Easter Bunny, and of course leaving notes for the Tooth Fairy under my pillow with every tooth I lost. The angst of waiting to find out what the tooth fairy had left me in the morning was almost unbearable! It’s the memories of traditions like these that inspire me to create fun DIY’s like today’s “Wally the Whale” Tooth Fairy Pillow! Not only was this whale pillow fun to make, it was made with lots of love for my future nephew who will be born this August

“Wally the Whale” Tooth Fairy Pillow [Tutorial]

GATHER UP:

2′ x 2′ piece of white or light colored fabric
Deco Art Ink Effects Paint (color of your choice for the body of the whale pillow)
Deco Art So Soft Fabric Paint (two colors of your choice for whale’s hat)
small paint brush
sewing machine
iron
polyester pillow stuffing

Deco Art’s Ink Effect paints are great because they allow you to paint any image onto a regular piece of paper, then transfer onto fabric simply by ironing! The first step in the project is to paint a picture of a whale onto a standard white piece of paper (I used graph paper because it was all I had). Paint the whale the same size that you want your pillow to be.

Use this template if you’re working with standard 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper. Simply click on the image, save it to your computer, then print it out as a full page. I created this template for the whale I painted =)

Allow your painting to dry for about 20 minutes (or until it’s dry to the touch). Now it’s time to transfer your painting to the fabric you selected (I used a cream colored linen fabric). Place a piece of cardboard down on a flat surface (this will catch any bleed through), then the fabric with the painting face down on top of it. Iron the painting on top of the fabric, this will begin the heat transfer. Continue to iron for about 2 minutes until you can clearly see the painting transferred onto your fabric.

Next, use a pair of fabric scissors to cut out the whale shape. You need two sides for your pillow, so make sure to double up the fabric to cut out the pillow’s back as well. Leave 1/2″ around the outside of the painted area.

Now that we’ve created the whale pillow shape, its time to stitch it up! Flip the front and back of the pillow sides around with the good sides facing in (the painted side of the fabric should be facing in). Then, take it to a sewing machine and stitch all around the outside of the pillow, leaving a small 2-3″ section open at the top of the head (this is where we will stuff it, and hat will eventually sit).

Once you’ve sewed around the outside of the whale, flip it right-side-out and stuff with polyester pillow fill. Then stitch up the open area on the head!

Now the body of the whale pillow is complete, set it aside while we move onto the whale’s hat! Cut out three squares of fabric, each about 6″ in length, into the shape of the whale’s hat. Use the template below for tracing and cutting out your whale pillow’s hat. Simply click on the image then print.

Now that you’ve cut out the whale’s hat shape from three small pieces of fabric, we’ll start with creating the pocket that will hold the lost tooth and gift from the Tooth Fairy! Fold over the top of one of the fabric pieces and stitch it across. This will be the top of the pocket.

Lay the pocket piece you just stitched on top of another piece of of the cut. You will be flipping this inside out after stitching, so make sure the clean side of the stitched pocked is facing inward. Stitch all around the outside of the pocket, attaching both pieces together, make sure not to stitch the top pocket opening! Your hat should look like the photo below after this step.

Now flip the pocket right-side-out…I know the corners on my hat are far from perfect, but we’ll look at it as ”added character”

Now we need to attach the pocket portion of the hat to what will become the back of the hat. Flip the pocket over (with the pocket facing down) and lay it on top of the back of the hat.

Now stitch around the outside of the pocket, attaching it to the hat’s back. Make sure to leave a small (approx. 2″) section open on the bottom of the hat for flipping it back around and stuffing it with fill. Again, my sewing skills are seriously lacking, but trust me, this won’t effect the end result
tooth fairy pillow-whale 15

Now, go ahead and flip the hat back so it’s right-side-out…

See, now my horrid stitching job isn’t so noticeable anymore!

Stuff the hat with pillow fill through the opening that you left on the bottom. You’ll notice that the opening I left is much larger than what I originally left…I removed some threads and widened the opening to get more fill in.

After stuffing the hat, stitch the bottom back up!

I decided that I wanted my whale to have a funky red and cream striped hat! To paint the whale’s hat I used Deco Art’s So Soft Fabric Paint. tooth fairy pillow-whale 10
For this step, simply use a small paint brush to paint stripes (or whatever design you choose) onto the whale’s hat. Let dry for about an hour.

Last, but not least, attach the hat to the whale pillow! You might be able to use a sewing machine for this, but I hand stitched it…you’ve seen my limits when it comes to using a sewing machine

….there you have it folks, your new Whale Tooth Fairy Pillow!

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Get Organized with DIY Shelf Labels

March 12, 2013 by Picklee: Jordan

If there’s one department I’m seriously lacking in, it’s organization…I’m constantly re-arranging and searching for ways to organize & de-clutter. The problem is that I’m so bad at organizing, most of the time I end up with a bigger mess than I started with! It’s super frustrating. Now that I have the Picklee shop, it’s really forced me to search out organizing solutions that really WORK. A couple weeks ago, I was faced with the challenge of creating a display for our fabulous aromatherapy collection (if you’re not familiar, it’s an amazing collection of essential oils used for healing from within). I tossed around lots of ideas until I came up with a thought to create DIY shelf tags using just clothes pins and cardboard!

These worked perfectly for my display, but they would be great for organizing shelves at home to! Think shoes, clothes, toys, cleaning solutions, toiletries…everything!

DIY Clothes Pin Tags

I started out with a few strips of cardboard, cut from some boxes I had laying around. First, I created labels for each of the products and printed them all out on heavy weight paper (regular copy paper will do too), my labels were 3″ L x 2″ W.

Next, I cut out a piece of cardboard (3″L x 2″W) for each of my labels….

After every was cut, I used just a bit of hot glue to attach a cardboard back onto each tag.

Using the hot glue again, I attached the clothes pins to my self (one for each tag)…

Simply open up the pin and insert your tags! This is great because you can change out your tags anytime as needed!

Here’s how the entire display turned out!

I needed some of that stress relief essential oil after tackeling this project

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How to Paint Simple Wall Stripes [DIY]

February 20, 2013 by Picklee: Jordan

I’ve had my heart set on painting stripes in my dining room for a while now. I love the clean, refreshing look of vertical stripes…they make ceiling look taller too =) I finally got the chance to make my striped wall dream a reality when I was stuck at home for three straight days during the Nemo blizzard! I can say with certainty that my striped wall was the best thing to come out of that storm for me…it definitely trumped losing power for 72 hours, getting stuck in a snow bank mid-blizzard (and I’m referring to myself, not my car), eating cold hot dogs, the list goes on…Anyway, I am super excited with how my striped wall turned out, here’s a little tutorial for painting striped walls of your own!

Here’s what my dining room looked like before the stripes….

To get started, I mixed up a new custom wall color. My walls were already painted a dark blue/gray but I wanted them to be a few shades lighter so they’d blend better with the cream colored stripes I had planned.

Here’s the wall, freshly painted and drying…

Once the walls had dried (which should be at least 6 hours, but I have no patience so I waited 2), I began taping them off for the stripes. It’s extremely important that you use painters tape for this part. Painters tape is designed for this purpose so it will not pull off your first coat of paint.

I wanted my stripes to be 12″ wide, and I was using 1.5″ painters tape so I taped off the wall in 12″, then 9″ sections (by sections, I mean the area inside the tape lines). The 12″ sections would be filled with paint, and the 9″ sections would be the wall color. The reason the wall colored stripes are only measured at 9″ is to account for the 1.5″ of tape on either side of the stripe (3″ in total). This will make for perfectly even 12″ stripes. You will have to vary this equation depending on the width of your tape (ie. if you’re using 1″ tape, your stripes will be spaced at 10″ and 12″)…

*Since there was no tape on the right side of my first stripe (it was the start of the wall), my first stripe was 10.5″ wide.

Once my wall was taped off, I rolled the stripe color onto the 12″ sections. I mixed up an off-white creamy color, then added some pearl white paint to give the stripes a little shine.

*Make sure the tape is pressed down tightly to the wall to ensure clean lines!

Here’s a close up of the paint color…

Once my stripes were painted, I peeled off the tape carefully. I think it’s best to peel off the tape while the paint is still slightly tacky…I’ve always done it this way, but that could be out purely out of impatience..

Here’s my new striped wall!

I just love the contrasting color!

Now you know how to paint wall stripes, it’s your turn to give it a shot!

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Old Painted Books for the Valentine’s Mantle Display [DIY]

February 13, 2013 by Picklee: Jordan

To warm up the house a bit for Valentine’s Day, I made these great faux antique glass candle holders to put on my fireplace mantle…but I knew I wanted to add a little more to the vignette. I don’t like to go all out with pink and red Valentine’s decor scattered around the house (I’m really just not into the color pink), but I figured one little splash of it wouldn’t hurt! I completely obsessed with elephants, and I got these amazing white lacquer elephant bookends as a gift recently…I knew I wanted to display them on my mantel, but I wanted to use books that had a nice, clean look. I had nothing of that sort in my house…so I decided to create it! I used basic, old books and simply painted the spines! I love the way my old painted books turned out!

Creating this romantic Valentine’s mantle display was literally the easiest project ever…

Old Painted Books DIY

I started out with three vintage books that I didn’t mind painting, a little coral pink acrylic paint, and a number stamp

Next, I used a small paint brush to brush the paint onto just the spine of the books…

To tie the books together, and add a little extra detail, I decided to use a stamp to number each book, 1, 2 & 3…Once the coral pink paint dried, I applied a light coat of white mixed with silver paint to the stamp and stamped each book…

Here’s the books stamped with their numbers….

That’s it! Here’s how the books now look on my romantic Valentine’s mantle!

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

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Romantic Faux Antique Glass + Giveaway [Valentine's DIY]

February 12, 2013 by Picklee: Jordan

Like it or not, the most romantic day of the year is approaching! With just a few short days left before Valentine’s Day arrives, why not add a little romantic touch to spark up some romance at home? In my opinion, there’s nothing more romantic than a little candle light…just add some Norah Jones and a bottle of wine and now we’re really talking Hint, Hint to all the men out there that say they’re not the “mushy” type…it doesn’t take that much!

Today’s DIY will help you create that subtle Valentine’s ambiance in your home on a dime…you’ll even have a chance to win a special something for yourself too

DIY Faux Antique Glass [Valentines DIY]

Grab some basic glass pieces, I picked up two round votives and two glass candle sticks from my local dollar store for under five dollars.

Next, apply a messy coat (yes, I said messy, this paint job should not look perfect since we are aiming for the antique look) of gold metallic paint. I used Americana Gloss Enamels Paint in Glorious Gold. Americana Paints are should be available at your local craft store.

Once the gold paint has dried, apply a very light, messy coat of silver metallic paint over it. Don’t cover all of the gold, try to leave some gold spots showing. For this step, I used Americana’s Silver Sage Metallic paint.

Once the silver coat has dried, use steel wool to rough up the painted surface on the glass. Allow some of the clear glass to peak through, make for a beautiful effect once you have candles lit inside the votives.

Once you get the glass looking nice and old & scratchy, it’s time to add the candles! Light em’ up, dim the lights and crack open a bottle of wine…bring on the romance!

Now it’s my turn to share a little love with all of you! In honor of the most romantic day of the year, our good friends at Deco Art offered up this fabulous Valentine’s Day paint package! Just in time to create some romantic V-day crafts!

Enter to win this wonderful package!

1. Leave a comment below telling us your favorite part about Valentine’s Day.

2. Like Picklee on a social platform you don’t already like us on, Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, then tell us you did so in your comment below!

A winner will randomly be selected announced tomorrow, so stay tuned!

Good luck!

***UPDATE***

The winner has been selected! Congratulations to Samantha Ellis of Petersburg, VA! You will receive this fabulous Valentine’s Day paint package from Americana Paints!

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DIY Engraved Wood Signs [Tutorial]

February 7, 2013 by Picklee: Jordan

I’m not usually big into art and signs with quotes and sayings…but I can appreciate a cute little saying every now and then. I’m especially a sucker for beachy [I wish spell check would stop telling me "beachy" is not a word...it is in my vocabulary!] quotes & sayings. I always have lots of scrap wood laying around that I like to find uses for, so the other day I decided to turn one of them into an engraved sign! Of course I chose one of my favorite quotes to put on it…anyone who lives near the coast can relate this
How to make an engraved wood sign [tutorial]

All you’ll need for this project is a piece of wood to engrave, two paint colors, and a printer!

Select a piece of wood to engrave and apply a base coat of paint to it. I always have scrap wood laying around, my piece of wood actually came from an old table I took apart! I chose to paint my sign in CeCe Caldwell’s Nantucket Spray to give it a beachy feel.

**For best results, I recommend using chalk paint because it will sand off and give the cleanest finish in the end.

Next, decide what your sign will say! Again, I went with the beachy vibe, so mine said “Sandy toes, salty kisses”. Print your message in whatever font you’d like your sign to be in. Cut it out and arrange it on your sign.

Next, using a ball point pen (preferably one you wouldn’t mind ruining!), trace the text onto the wood. Press hard as you go, the key here is for the pen to engrave into the wood!

After you’ve finished tracing the letters, your sign should look a little something like this!

Next, use your second paint color and a tiny paint brush to paint over the engraved text. I chose CeCe Caldwell’s Cinco Bayou Moss, the gold was a great contrast on the pale Nantucket Spray

After you’ve painted on the text and it’s dried, take a super fine grit sand paper and rub lightly over the text. You will see the paint on the outside of the letters sand off, while the engraved portion of the text remains! You can touch up any areas that rubbed off too much, if you need to. This will also give your sign a nice, weathered effect!

Here’s how the finished product should look!

Now all I need is a sandy beach to dig my toes into…ah well, summer will be here soon enough!

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DIY Lavender + Flax Owl Heat Pack

January 21, 2013 by Picklee: Jordan

Now that the rush of the holiday season is behind us, I say it’s fine time to start focusing on other important things like relaxation and our own wellness =) I know that I’m a big hypocrite when it comes to this because I’m always running around trying to cram 17,000 things into one day (as I’m sure many of you do as well)! At any rate, every now and then I try to squeeze in a little R&R…I was in this frame of mind the other day when I decided to create today’s adorable DIY =) I’ve seen a few DIY heat packs around the web and I’ve always thought they’d be fun to make, so I went ahead and made my own the other day! I sewed my heat pack into an owl shape then filled it with flax seed and lavender, I absolutely love the end result… and it forced me to relax on the sofa with it for a bit

DIY FLAX + LAVENDER OWL HEAT PACK

GATHER UP:

Two pieces of fabric, approx 9″ H x 8″ W

Two small pieces of scrap fabric (for eyes)

One small piece of orange fabric (for beak)

1/4 cup dried lavender buds

1/2 cup flax seed

3/4 cup rice

METHOD:

Cut your owl shapes out of fabric. Start with the owls head, cutting an oval shape with ears (remember you need a back and front, so cut two pieces of fabric on top of one another). The size of my body was approx. 9″ L x 8″ W. Next, it’s time to cut they eyes. Cut two circles approx. 3″ in diameter, using a solid colored fabric. Then two more circles approx. 2″ in diameter, using a coordinating print. Finally, cut two more circles approx. 1″ in diameter in the same solid fabric you used for the large circles. Last, cut out an orange triangle for the beak.

It’s time to make the owls eyes. Begin by sewing the medium sized circles onto the middle of the large circles. Next, sew the small circles onto the bottom of the medium circles….

Now it’s time to attach the owl’s eyes and beak to his face! Use a sewing machine or needle and thread to attach the eyes and beak to the owl’s face.

Next, sew the front and back of your owl’s head together using a sewing machine or needle and thread. Make sure to leave a small open space (about 2″) on one side so that you can fill your owl heat pack with the flax, lavender and rice.

Now it’s time to fill up your owl heat pack with flax, lavender and rice! I chose to fill a separate pouch then insert that into the owl. You can simply pour the flax, lavender and rice directly into the owl or fill a separate pouch and insert that if your heat pack fabric is thinner. I made my pouch by sewing two squares of fabric together, simple! Once you’ve filled your owl with the materials, simply sew him closed!

Your handmade owl heat pack is now complete! Throw him into the microwave for 30 seconds to warm him up, then use him to relieve sore muscles or simply snuggle with!

Now you just have to remember to make some time for a little rest & relaxation!

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Farmhouse Wide Plank Floor Made from Plywood! [DIY]

December 12, 2012 by Picklee: Jordan

As many of you know, it was just two short weeks ago that we opened the doors to the Picklee shop in Newport, RI! Getting the shop ready was a super exciting (and stressful!) process. We were faced with a stinky, old, run down storefront that had been neglected for YEARS, but we had big plans to make the shop a beautiful place. Sort of like reviving a stinky old chair…but on a much larger scale

We fell in love with the space because it was in historic home built in the early 1700′s, so it was packed with original details and character…oh yea, and it was in the heart of the Newport waterfront shopping district =)

When it came time to renovate the shop, one of the first projects we took on was the floor. The shop came with a Berber carpet that was probably three thousand years old…OK, maybe not that old-but it sure looked and smelt like it. We knew we wanted to bring in beautiful & unique flooring that kept the shop true to it’s era, and save on costs at the same time. We tossed around ideas for a while, and then eureka! We decided we would create a wide plank, farmhouse style flooring using good ol’ fashion PLYWOOD! Sounds a little crazy right? That’s what the guys at Home Depot thought too…just wait until I march back in and show them this!

I am absolutely thrilled with how beautiful the Picklee shop’s plywood floor turned out! Its classic and true to the age of the space with it’s wide plank style, yet has a coastal farmhouse feel with it’s rustic look and white-washed finish. I’ll to show you exactly how to get the look by making your very own wide plank plywood floor!

First, I head over to my local Home Depot to scope out the different types of plywood. I chose to use standard 1/2″ thick 4′ x 8′ sheets at a cost of just under $20 each! I opted for these because they wern’t perfect. They had knots, markings and lots of color variations…this was exactly the look I was going for!

With (lots of) help from the guys at HD, I loaded up my cart with the plywood sheets. I needed 14 sheets since I would be covering an area of just under 450 square feet. My original plan was to bring the sheets home and convince my lovely fiance to cut them into into planks for me, but then a miracle happened…the wonderful man at HD offered to cut them all for me!

In order to have zero waste, I chose to have the boards cut into 8 inch by 8 foot lengths, giving me six planks per sheet of plywood. Thankfully I picked a slow time of day to go to HD because it took a little over an hour (and two trips to the shop and back) to cut all 14 sheets. I am so grateful to the guys at Home Depot, even though they looked at me like I had 10 heads when I told them my plan for the planks

Once the planks were cut, I brought them into the shop and laid them out. First, I took out an electric sander and sanded all rough edges and splinters. Next, I made up a mixture of 1/4 CeCe Caldwells Simply White Chalk Paint and 3/4 water. You can alter this mixture depending on how “white” you want your flooring. I used a roller attached to a broom handle to apply a coat of the white washed paint to all of the planks.

This next step is where my lovely fiance came in…some days I just don’t know what I would do without him =) First, Brett applied Bostik flooring adhesive to the backs of the plywood planks. Next, he laid them into place then used a finish nailer to secure them to the floor. We were lucky enough to have a strong wood sub-floor to shoot the finish nails into. Brett used 1 1/2″ nails and shot them in on an angle. We chose this method because we wanted the floor to have that rustic look. The nails were spaced out about every 12″, placing two all along either side of each plank.

It’s important to have spaces in between the planks because wood will shift and expand over time. We found that a metal straight edge gave the perfect distance between planks, so Brett used that as a spacing guide.

As Brett went on nailing down the boards, he used a table saw to cut some of them into different lengths so that we would give the boards a staggered look. You can see some of the shorter lengths above…

See I helped a little here, passing him the pieces

Once the entire floor was down, about 6 hours later…we applied three coats of Minwax Polyurethane (in satin) to give the floor a protective finish. We waited 24 hours in between the first two coats, then only 2 hours between the second and third coat. Less than $300 and a day later, the floor was complete! I couldn’t be more happy with the results =)

Sheer bliss….

**UPDATE!**

Here’s a photo of the floors inside the Picklee on Spring shop, 4 months after the install! They are holding up wonderfully and we receive compliments daily!

I’ve had lots of questions about how to calculate square footage needed, here’s how…

Each sheet of plywood it 4′x 8′ (32 square feet). Simply divide the total sqaure footage of your space by 32 to figure out home many sheets you’ll need. Then just add an extra sheet or two for scraps!

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