{Tutorial} Stenciled Tray & Tea Light Votives -- NEW Martha Stewart Crafts™ Decorative Paint Line

I'm so excited to introduce you to the Martha Stewart Crafts Decorative Paint Line, brought to you exclusively by Plaid Crafts. I was one of the lucky crafters chosen to get a preview of the line before it was released to the public!  If you are a fan of Sew Woodsy on Facebook you got a sneak peak of the amazing box I received a few week's back. It felt like Christmas morning when I started opening the box. There were so many amazing craft supplies from this first-of-its kind decorative craft paints for ALL surfaces! I had a million project ideas racing through my head. Too many ideas and not enough time in the day for crafting. 

The product is exclusively available at Michaels stores in the United States and Canada. When I stopped by my local Michael's last week I saw the full display. Did you know they have chalkboard paint? In multiple colors!!! 

There are 160 paint colors in five finishes (Satin, High Gloss, Glitter, Pearl, Metallic).  All paints come in 2 oz. bottles and are non-toxic which means this paint is even safe to use with children! *And when wet wipes off without a problem! 

This paint is formulated to work on all crafting surfaces including wood, metal, glass, ceramic, terra-cotta and fabric.  It is indoor/outdoor safe and dishwasher-safe on glass.

Now, let's get on to the project! 

I chose to make over a wooden tray that I use often in our house, and a few glass tea light votive holders. I wanted to test the paint on both wood and glass surfaces.

Supplies:

1 wooden tray

3 glass tea light holders

Spray Paint Kit

Drop Cloth

Paint colors of your choice: 

Carrot (orange), Jonquil (yellow), Green Curry, 

Peridot (green glitter), Peppermint Bark (pink)

Foam Pouncers

Stencil Brush Set

Adhesive Stencils, Fair Isle Dots 32271

Large stencil, Arabesque 32266

Painters tape

Water & Paper Towels (for clean up)

First you will want to pick out your color, lay out your drop cloth, and begin prepping to spray paint your tray. 

Mr. Woodsy was intrigued by the Spray Paint Kit. He wanted to give it a try. Follow the instructions on the back of the box. The spray paint kit comes in satin and gloss finish. In my case I received the satin finish kit. It is suggested that you only use satin paints with the satin spray medium, so that's what we did.

Mr. Woodsy spray painting the top of the tray. * Make sure you spray paint where ever you would normally spray paint a project. We spray painted outside like we would normally do with spray paint.

Once your tray has dried you can begin to layout your stencils and paint. 

I waited 24 hours before stenciling. 

Here are two of the six stencil brushes you get in a package. These brushes are ideal for painting on textured surfaces like fabric and wood. 

Before I began painting on my tray I wanted to try out the stencil on a piece of paper. 

Here was my finished product... I was very happy with how easy it was to use the stencils. You'll notice the large glob of paint. A little paint goes a long way. Learn from my mistakes. Make sure you conserve! 

Next you will want to tape down your stencil, and read the directions on the stencil package. 

Make sure your stencil is taped down good to prevent it from slipping and paint from getting in the unwanted areas. 

Next, you will want to start painting your stencil on to your tray. Each stencil pack comes with step-by-step detailed instructions. On my first stencil I used the stencil brush. I placed a small amount of paint on the brush and dabbed/brushed a thin layer of paint onto the stencil. 

While the paint is still wet carefully peel the stencil away from the tray. This is what my stencil looked like after I was done painting.

I'm in love with the foam pouncers. These little gems are amazing. Not only are the pouncers easy to clean up (the sponge can be removed from the plastic handle), they give amazing end results.  These foam pouncers have totally transformed the way a sponge brush is used.  

After the first stenciled design dried, I secured two more stencils on to my tray. I then used a medium size foam pouncer to dab the paint on to the large design. 

Using my new favorite paint tool, the foam pouncer. 

Both of the colors have been applied, now they are ready to be peeled off the tray. 

As each stenciled design dries, repeat until you have the desired pattern. 

*I used a small pouncer to dab the Green Curry (gloss) on to the stencil. Followed by a light dusting of Peridot (glitter).

After I finished the tray I decided to add a painted pattern design to a few glass tea light votives. I used the small adhesive stencil; Fair Isle Dots 32271. 

These adhesive stencils can be removed multiple times for multiple uses. The texture of the adhesive stencil reminded me of a bandaid. These are most ideal for curvy surfaces like a round votive. 

I chose two different patterns to wrap around my glass votives. 

I used Peppermint Bark and the smallest foam pouncer to paint on to the glass. You may notice that you might need a few coats of paint. Use a small amount of paint on each coat to ensure paint does not seep into unwanted areas. 

As you can tell there was a gap left that was not painted. Carefully remove the stencil. Once the paint has dried completely, line up the pattern and paint the remaining unpainted patterned surface. 

Don't worry if you get paint outside of your stencil (pictures above). Take a paper towel with water and carefully rub off the excess paint. Be careful not to rub off the painted pattern.

I followed the same steps for painting the larger glass tea light votive. 

Take a look at the pattern. I'm not sure if anyone would notice that I painted on the pattern myself. It came out perfect! 

 Just like the small votive you will need to let the paint dry completely, line up the pattern of the stencil, and paint the remaining unpainted surface area.

Here is an arial view of the glass tea light votives. I'm in love with them, and I think I'm ready to start stenciling more glass surfaces! 

I love the detailed pattern. The color matches the tea light perfectly! 

These glass tea light votives took less than 20 minutes to complete. 

I love my newly revamped two-toned tray, the detail of the stencils, and the glass tea lights.

I'm ready to do a little entertaining (or throw our bills and magazines on the tray).

A view of the glass votive tea lights. 

An arial view of my newly revamped tray.

In case my sneak peak of this amazing new product wasn't enough to get you excited--here is  Martha Stewart herself to talk about this first-of-its kind paint for ALL surfaces.  

I hope I've inspired you to go try this revolutionary product! Michael's has a coupon available for 40% off one Martha Stewart Crafts Craft Paint of Craft Paint Accessory that's good until tomorrow, Tuesday, August 30, 2011. *I plan to buy chalkboard paint with my coupon.

Disclosure: Full post disclosure here.

Double Ruffle Pillow {Tutorial}

Everyone has been making pillows--ruffled pillows to be exact in blog land lately. Not that I want to copy the trend, but I do love me some accent pillows, and the fact that we don't have any accent pillows on our new comfort in our bedroom meant that I could start creating. This is the first of many pillows that I plan to create. 

It all started with a yard of black linen fabric for $2.70 and a throw pillow! That's all it took for me to start dreaming up what I wanted to do with this fabric. 

First you'll want to get the measurements of the pillow. I used a 14x14 pillow. I cut the ruffled fabric to 15 inches by 15 inches, and then the two back pieces; one at 10 inches wide and the other at 8 inches wide. That way they can over lap by 3 inches so that you won't see the white throw pillow. *Hem one side on both 10 inch and 8 inch fabric pieces.

Cut one-inch strips of fabric from the remaining piece of fabric. 

I sewed a straight stitch right down the middle of the fabric. I ruffled the fabric as I went almost making it pleated. Then I folded over the pleated ruffle fabric and sewed another stitch on top of that making it a "double" ruffle. 

You'll notice that my double ruffles aren't all that straight and of course I ran out of fabric to double ruffle the top, so to be on the safe side I had to just ruffle the last two rows. 

Next, you'll want to pin the two back pieces together to make 15 inches. 

Then pin the ruffled side (that's also 15 inches) to the pinned back side of the pillow. 

Sew around the edge of the pillow. 

Trim the remaining fabric on the edges and cut the corners at an angle.

Somehow... I shimmied the straight pins from the inside of the pillow out, so that I could eventually turn the pillow right-side out. 

Here is the final product. For being my first ruffled pillow I'm pretty pleased with how it came out and can't wait to make another (*better) ruffled pillow. 

*The fabric the pillow is resting on is the fabric we are going to recover our craft room chair in. 

Lastly, I had to share this photo of what Mr. Woodsy and I think is the cutest pup ever! Our furbaby, Lola. She was inquisitive of what was on our bed... sneaking over to the pillow. I grabbed her and she yelped (I think in fear), and I plopped her right down next to the pillow. I gave her no time to check out what was on the bed. She sat still for a good 30 seconds. This was the best photo I could get with the funky lighting in our master bedroom.