Friday, July 13, 2012

paint chips and cats

Today I am a crafty thief. Recently my husband and I have become obsessed with paint chips. You know those little sample cards you can find for free wherever paint is sold? Well we have struck there, got some, and turned them into more than they were designed for. 

I just love that now wherever we go I hear him question, "I wonder if they sell paint?" And soon I find myself face to face with more colors than a crayola crayon box. As we stand there our true personalities shine: I think carefully and craftily on what exactly I am going to make, what precise colors I need, and the exact amount (I do not want to take more than I will use), and then there is my husband, not too sure what he is going to make, something "neat", but really just looks at the random shapes and sizes and walks out with more than he will ever use. I love his non-planning non-OCD side, we balance each other well. 

I know this idea of using paint chips is not new to the world, but it is new to us and we are going strong! Take a look at our first attempts as we master this new crafting skill. 

I cannot craft without cats trying to "help." Sometimes I wonder why this blog is not called "Crafting with Cats."
Prepping random sized pieces for clay pot.
I was given a flower from one of my lovely students the last week of school. Of course I killed the flower in a matter of two days (I have black thumbs). So I decided my new pen cup needed an upgrade. I cut up pieces of paint chips in my favorite color, hot glued the pieces to the clay pot, and then covered the whole piece in a few layers of mod-podge.  This picture was taken mid-process. I lined the rim in some green accent pieces. 
I found a black canvas on great sale so I decided my sister-in-law's bedroom needed a new art piece. I wrote the word in chalk to get my sizing right. I then used a circle and button paper punch to get pieces that matched the room's color scheme. I used hot glue to affix each dot, then covered the entire canvas in a high-gloss mod-podge. 


The next project was a calendar for our office. We have a red, orange, and yellow kind of room, so I picked some vibrant paint chips in those colors. I then found a frame at Ikea for a really good price. Scrunches helped make sure nothing was hiding behind it. The nice thing about matting squares in the frame is that the piece becomes an instant whiteboard. To complete this my husband helped try to cut pieces to size (somehow they are not perfect, but who needs perfect), and then I glued them to the gray paper that came in the frame. I left all of the pieces without writing on them so I can use this piece as a whiteboard calendar, or replace the days of the week with a title and instant to-do list or record keeper.
I think having Crumpler help with measuring did not work out too well.
The final piece I worked on was a large picture for our dining room. Much like the previous item I found the frame at Ikea for a great price. It is a bit larger than 2' by 3' so it makes a great statement for a fraction of the cost.
Marked off how large of a piece I was making, then glued different size quadrilaterals down.
These are just the projects we have finished so far. A lot of other ideas for our classrooms are in the works, such as bookmarks, behavior cards, classroom calendars, and word families.

I dare you now to walk passed those paint chip samples without looking at them thinking what else could be made... I double dog dare you.