make: holiday painted spoons

Tutorials for painted and dipped spoons have been floating around the interwebs for the better part of this year. I have always loved them and intended to make my own but had never found the time. Last week as I was getting ready to head to a friends for a holiday party, inspiration struck and I decided to do these but with a holiday twist. These could not be easier and a matching pair work as serving spoons or as salad servers. Here’s what you’ll need:

+ wooden spoons (i bought two three packs of michael graves wooden spoons at target – not available online)
+ craft paint (red: haberno and white: wedding cake satin acrylic paint by martha stewart crafts at michaels)
+ 1 inch thick painters tape (my fave is frog)
+ paint brush
+ food safe shellac (zimmers bullseye)
+ scissors and/or pinking sheers

You want to make sure that you buy spoons that do not have shellac on them already but if you make the mistake and do purchase them, don’t panic, just take some sand paper to them and roughen up the surface so that you can paint it. Then, you want to prep and tape the spoons for the first layer of paint. I choose varying lengths for the painted portion of the spoons, it was about the 1/3 of the spoon and I tried to make them as even as possible by measuring and marking with a pencil before adding the tape.

Once the spoon was taped, I painted the first layer of paint one red and one white for each of the pair of spoons. Paint two coats and allow to dry for an hour or so. Then using your tape and scissors apply the tape for the lines on the paint keeping in mind that the areas under the tape will remain the color of the first layer of paint. Make sure that you press the tape down firmly so that you get as clean as line as possible. Once the tape is in place, paint two coats of the opposite color and set aside to dry. Since I painted both the front and back of the spoons, I found that the best way to allow them to dry was to place the spoons on my counter top with the painted handle hanging over the edge. Allow to dry for an hour and remove the tape.

Do touchups as necessary and when you are happy with the final product, spray with two coats of the shellac and tie the pair in together with a bow

I did a set where I created a zig zag stripe by cutting the tape with my pinking sheers. These were by far the most “homemade” looking of them all but I fell in love and kept them for myself. The others have been set aside to hand out as I head to holiday parties this year. Make sure you let the hostess know that these are not dishwasher safe (but you really shouldn’t wash wooden spoons in the dishwasher anyway).

Katie

make: simple DIY packaging

I don’t know about you but Valentine’s Day really sneaked up on me this year.  I feel like I am scrambling to get everything in order and ready for tomorrow.   Because of this, I wanted to share with you one of my favorite ways to package and label gifts.  This quick and easy technique will come in handy for Valentine’s Day or any occasion.  I often do this as a personalized gift tag and I’ve even used it to make last minute place cards/napkin rings at a dinner party.

Here’s what you will need:
+ Card Stock
+ Scissors
+ Ribbon
+ Double Sided Tape
+ Wax Paper
+ X-acto Knife/Utility Knife
+ Pen or Marker

Start off by wrapping the items in waxed paper like a present and secure the packet closed with double sided tape.  Then, take the card stock and write out your valentine’s sayings.  I like mine to be more clever than romantic so I chose a few of my favorite song lyrics and TV show references.  I also hand wrote mine but if you hate your handwriting, you can also type and print the sayings on the labels.  I’ve pdf’d a few of my favorites, you can download them here.

With a scissors, cut the labels into squares and rectangles and using an X-acto knife, cut two slits on either sides of the label.   Next, take the ribbon and “thread” it from the front to the back and then back to the front again.

Wrapped the label around the sugar cookie pocket and secured using tape. Voila, easy and personalized Valentine’s. I think my favorite may be this Downton Abbey inspired one:

Did you see last night’s episode?!?!?  Matthew and Mary just have to get together in the end.

xoxo
Katie