Things I've Made Archives - Page 3 of 136 - Ashley Hackshaw / Lil Blue Boo

Vintage-inspired Oil Paint Ornaments – DIY Art Themed Ornaments

November 15, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

I love all things vintage, especially old art supplies. Another ornament I wanted to make for the tree this year was some form of oil paint tube and these vintage-inspired oil paint ornaments turned out just as I imagined them.

My friend, artist Stephanie Corfee, helped me create the vintage-inspired printable labels:

I started with a super-inexpensive pack of acrylic tube paints from Michaels (only $5!). To make them look kind of old I scuffed them up a little using sandpaper:

Then I printed these labels onto 8.5″x11″ white label paper (which is essentially a huge white sticker you can print onto). Click the image to download (or click here) the free PDF that Stephanie created for us: (And please help me thank her by following her amazing work on Instagram!)

I cut out the labels with scissors and wrapped each one around a paint tube. To age them a little more I opened up the each paint tube and dabbed a little paint here and there:

The colorful string was attached to the cap using a hot glue gun:

All my vintage art supply dreams have come true (stay tuned for more in the next few days too):

Click here to see the entire art-themed tree here and all the other ornaments I’ve posted so far.

Tiny Paint Palette Ornaments – Art Themed Decor

November 9, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

These were the easiest little ornaments to make: tiny paint palette ornaments inspired by Bob Ross!

I love all the color they added to the tree this year:

Easily made in an assembly line:

I started with a pack of these little unfinished wood disks from Michaels:

The first step was to age them by putting a thin layer of “Early American” Rustoleum stain on them:

The next step (or you could do before staining) was to drill holes into the wood disks. You can use a regular drill for this step but I used a drill press and did them all at once:

Painting palettes usually have the main colors around the outside and then the inside is used for mixing. I squeezed a small amount of acrylic paint straight from the tubes onto each palette. Then I mixed the in between colors off to the side because it’s REALLY hard to mix on a palette for ants. I dabbed the mixed colors onto the palettes to give the effect needed:

I let them dry overnight and added a little metal clip to each (found in the Tim Holtz scrapbooking section at Michaels):

We don’t make mistakes; we just have happy accidents. -Bob Ross

Check out the whole vintage art supply-themed tree below!

Vintage Art Supplies on a Christmas Tree – Michaels Makers Dream Tree Challenge 2017

Paintbrush Garland – How to Make a Garland with Paintbrushes

November 8, 2017 by Ashley Hackshaw

The idea for my tree’s paintbrush garland this year came like this: I need paintbrush garland for my art studio.

I love how the garland looks on the Christmas tree and I’m going to keep it out all year long (just not on the tree):

I’ll never throw out a used paintbrush again:

It would also be cool decor for an art teacher, a classroom, a craft booth or an art party:

I do try to take pretty good care of my paintbrushes so I didn’t have nearly enough to create a long enough garland so I bought a few packs of the cheapest, economy paintbrushes Michaels carries:

After opening up the packs:

The first thing I did was put on plastic gloves. I dipped my fingers into some dark wood stain and then haphazardly applied the stain to portions of the paintbrushes. This was my aging stage:

For the next step I used leftover outdoor paints from my concrete deer painting projects. These paints are a little bit thicker than regular craft paint. I dipped and poured and mixed the brushes together until they were covered with enough paint. I made sure that the bristles had extra paint on them so that they would dry together into clumps. Then I let them dry overnight.

I drilled holes into the handles of each of the paint brushes. I attached the brushes together using a colorful craft twine (found in the jewelry section at Michaels). I used a “knit picker” to poke a hole through the clumped paint brushes and pull the string through. (Note: On a few paintbrushes there wasn’t enough paint on the bristles to create a strong enough hold so I squeezed some hot glue inside them above where the hole was poked.)