Hello again!  It’s Suzanne back on the blog with a special guest this week – my sweet hubby and Rebecca’s dad Paul.  He’s going to be putting together part one and helping on part two of this week’s two-part block party.

A while ago, to save storage space, I removed most of my rubber stamps from their wooden blocks.  I kept a few of the blocks to use in future craft projects and today, I’ve got two quick and easy projects that can easily be duplicated with any small block of wood you might have available.
​
First up is Paul’s idea.  We are going to make a small sanding block that is the perfect size for the small sheets of sandpaper that are sold at the dollar store.  This quick project takes one block, two small binder clips, two washers, and two screws. 

​First, position your binder clips at each side of the block with the openings facing out.  Mark where the handle of the binder clip lands so you know where to drill a pilot hole for your screw.

​Once the pilot hole is drilled, screw a washer over the handle of the binder clip to hold it in place. 

​Repeat on the other side and clip your sandpaper in place. 

​You now have a perfect little sanding block for small craft projects.  

​The second quick project today is going to make use of more blocks and these picture holders that I’ve had in my stash for so long that I can’t remember where I got them.

​I started by marking a spot on each for Paul to drill a small hole in each of the blocks. 

After peeling off the label and giving the block a quick sanding with my new sanding block, I gave it a coat of faux stain with a furniture repair marker.  These markers are a quick and easy way to mimic the look of stain on a small project without having to pull out a can of stain.

​While the block was drying (which takes only minutes), I cut some squares of cute and colorful paper and layered them together.  I picked papers that matched some adorable cutouts I picked up recently.

​Using hot glue, I added the paper squares to the front and back of the block and wrapped some baker’s twine around the block.  I added one of the cutouts and then secured the picture holder in the pre-drilled hold with gel super glue.  As a final touch, I added a knot of the same baker’s twine around the base of the picture holder.  In honor of Paul’s contribution to this week’s projects, my first finished product features Slowhand himself, Eric Clapton.  I have nine more blocks ready to go to make more.

Thanks for stopping by!

Rebecca here! A big thank you to my parents for the great ideas today!

Today's photo on the homepage is from Pexels user FWStudio: www.pexels.com/photo/brown-wooden-panel-172277/

Hello everyone! I don't have anything crafty to share today as I've been on vacation! My husband and I were finally able to go on a honeymoon after getting married in 2020. We went to Hawaii, specifically Oahu, and I thought it would be fun to share some of the photos from that trip in a little mini blog. If you guys enjoy this more lifestyle-oriented blog, let me know!

So let's start off with some lovely pictures of the ocean. My husband and I were staying at a hotel right across the street from Waikiki beach which was beautiful!

Now for some food we got at various places across the island. The pig you see was for a luau we were a part of at the Polynesian Cultural Center (I would highly recommend a day here if you ever go to Oahu).  PCC shares so much wonderful information about the history and culture of Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga, and Aotearoa (New Zealand).

And here are a few bits and bobs including some wonderful dancers from the Polynesian Cultural Center, the Hawaii state capitol building, a statue of King Kamehameha who was the original ruler of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and an anchor from the Pearl Harbor memorial site. 

Those are a few of my favorite memories! Clearly I am just a tourist who spent one week on one specific island of Hawaii so I am by no means an authority on anything at all, but I can say it was a wonderful time. It was fun to experience both the "touristy" side of the island, but I also loved seeing the more rural side; it was very clear how important it was for people living on that side of the island that it remain undeveloped. It's easy to just think of Hawaii as a tropical paradise totally untouched by any of the issues of the mainland US such as high housing prices, homelessness and economic distress still going on due to the pandemic, but these issues are still present even there. If you ever go I hope you have a lovely time and just remember to be respectful of the people and natural environment that you have been welcomed into. I'd love to hear about some of your vacation experiences in the comments below!

 - Rebecca

P.S. The blog homepage photo today is from my camera roll! No stock photos needed today :)

Hi everyone! So today we are back with a fun painting craft but using something that I don’t believe has been on the blog before: watercolors.
​
I typically FaceTime my best friend every Sunday and she has a really cool painting in her bedroom featuring a silhouette of a woman holding an umbrella and then acrylic pour paint all around to look like a rainstorm. I always think it is so cool and have wanted to try and do something similar, but I can also acknowledge that you may be a bit pour paint-ed out over here. So I was trying to think of something else that I could do to get a similar effect and thought of watercolors. I have had these watercolors for a while, but don’t often get to use them. Instead of being a powder that you mix with water, these are very concentrated thick liquid pigments that you can mix with water to achieve your desired level of color. 

​ To start off, I went to a thrift store to get myself some frames or cheap pieces of art to refurbish.

I also bought myself some watercolor paper at Michaels. Watercolor paper is extremely thick and able to withstand being saturated with water and paint without starting to disintegrate. 

Some of the frames I bought were a bit old and looked like they had been professionally finished at one point so they had some paper on the back. For those, I was easily able to peel back that paper to reveal the prongs holding the art in place. 

I then sanded down the frames if they needed it and used some black chalk paint on them. I know I've talked about chalk paint before, but its great to use when you don't feel like doing a ton of prep before painting as the gritty texture of the paint makes it adhere well to a lot of surfaces. The only frame that I had to sand very heavily before using the paint was one that I had thought was wood but was actually plastic that looked like wood. For that one, I scuffed the plastic up a lot to ensure the paint would stick. 

After giving the frames several coats of paint and letting it dry, I also went over with a thin coat of finishing wax. This helps to seal in the paint and give the frame a bit more shine as chalk paint is very matte. The only wax I had was a dark brown, but I actually loved how it highlighted some of the texture on the frames and gave them some dimension against the black paint. I'm not sure how well it comes across in the photo but the frame on the left just has the chalk paint while the frame on the right has the brown finishing wax as well. 

Now for the actual paintings! I started by tracing the art size for each frame onto a piece of watercolor paper so I knew the exact size I was working with. 

I then used my Cricut to cut out some different black silhouettes of people holding umbrellas from adhesive vinyl.  

I then sketched out an area where I knew the sticker would go so that I could leave it blank when I painted. I then just went crazy with the watercolors, using about 3 colors per painting. Once I was almost done I added the sticker and then finished up the watercolor so that it looked like it was rain coming down around the person. Below is an example of a painting before I did that final step of finishing up the watercolor. 

Once I was finished with the paintings and they were dry, I ended up putting them between some of my husband's high school yearbooks as the paper was a little wrinkly. This helped to flatten the paper back out.

At this point I have made 6 paintings and added them back to their frames. I have 2 frames left which I did not get to yet, but I plan on finishing them up soon! Here are the 6 that have been completed so far; 1 is horizontal and the other 5 are vertical. 

I am so happy with these and they were honestly pretty easy to make! What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments below!

 - Rebecca 

Today's picture on the homepage is from Pexels user Nick Collins: www.pexels.com/photo/selective-focus-photography-of-paint-brush-on-paint-palette-1213431/

Hi everyone! So I realized I have not given a tour of the craft room/office since it was last redone so we’re going to do that today! Here is the blog showing what the craft room looked like right after we moved into our apartment last July: www.thepatternedpaperplate.com/blog/weve-moved

We’ve made some changes since then and I’m here to walk you through them! I’m always trying to make this room more efficient, so it gets changed up pretty often. I’m really happy with it as it is right now!

So when you first walk in and look to the right, we have my husband’s desk. This has not moved, but some décor and shelves were added to the wall to make it look less empty. The fronts of the drawers and doors were also covered in peel-and-stick wallpaper and have had knobs attached to match the other white furniture in the room. His desk is usually where we keep papers before they need to be shredded so it gets a bit messy at times! (I covered up any personal info just in case.) To the left of his desk is another small piece of IKEA furniture that has our printer on top of it.

If you are looking straight in from the door we have my IKEA drawer units that I have had for a long time as well as a new piece that I got from my parents. That piece has also been covered in wallpaper and knobs have been added. This is where the bulk of my craft supplies are kept and it has been working well for me!

​I also took the time to label each drawer so that I could remember what was in each one.

​To the left when you walk in is a weight rack that we bought for all of our workout equipment. We used to just have all of our weights on the floor, but this looks much nicer and gives everything a place to be.

​I also added some sheer curtains to the window. It really made a difference to the room and looks cozier now.

​In the far corner near the window we have this white metal bookcase we got from Home Depot. It works great as a place to hold all of our plants as well as some additional craft supplies that don’t fit in the other units such as paper, sanders, big bottles of paint and sealer etc. I also have tubs full of completed crafts over here ready to go for any future craft fairs.

And finally, we have my work desk. This used to be on the other side of the room, but I moved it closer to the window and I love being able to see outside during the day. It is a motorized sit/stand desk and I am really happy with it!

This room serves many purposes, but it is more organized now than it has ever been and I'm really happy with it. What are some tips and tricks you all use in your own crafty spaces? Let me know in the comments below!

 - Rebecca 

​P.S. Today's picture on the homepage is from Pexels user Anete Lusina: www.pexels.com/photo/art-supplies-on-shelves-in-studio-7256933/

Hi Friends! It's Suzanne, Rebecca's momma, and I'm happy to be back here on the PPP to share some ideas of what you can do with a fun but humble crafting supply - washi tape.

First, what is washi tape?  It's a low-tack rice paper tape that comes in a variety of widths, styles and colors. It is also known as Japanese masking tape.  You can get washi tape at craft stores, from online retailers, and even at the dollar store, though the decorative tape at the dollar store stretches the definition of washi tape as it's a little thicker and less translucent than traditional washi tape. 
​
I've gathered a fairly large collection of washi tape over the years because it's a cheap thrill. A roll of washi tape is generally less than $2 and since it comes in so many beautiful colors and patterns it's always fun to pick up a few rolls when it feels like my craft supplies are feeling a little flat.  I’ve gotten some in sets and as single rolls from Michaels and Stampin’ Up!.  Some comes from the Dollar Store, some from Staples, some even from IKEA.  The large wide black rolls are chalkboard tape that can be used for labeling.

​First and foremost, washi tape is used in paper crafting. I've used it on several greeting cards as you can see here. I started with basic white card bases and a piece of 12 by 12 embossed cardstock which I cut into 6 4 by 5 ¼ inch mats. I selected coordinating washi tapes and laid them on a white piece of cardstock to use as a focal image on my card. 

​Since washi tape is low tack I extended the washi over the edge of the card and stuck it down on the back so that when I glued the focal image on the card it would be held in place. A simple stamped sentiment finishes the card. Because the washi tape is so thin, there's no added bulk to cards made with it so they are very mail friendly and requires no extra postage. You can see that I punched out the mat for the sentiment of my card before laying down the focal image so that the mat of the sentiment would match the mat of the card. 

 I've begun working on the third set of these cards and decided this time to add my washi tape directly to the embossed mat. My first choice of washi tape was the one with butterflies on it, but after laying down the first strip I decided I didn't like it. This shows one of the great things about washi tape. 

​I was able to pull it up and put another tape down without ruining the embossed paper. This is because the tape is so low tack that the tape does not immediately bond with paper that's it is adhered to.  

​Paper crafts is not the only thing that you can do with washi tape. On Easter, I realized I’d forgotten to buy decorative napkins. I did however have some pink napkins and some washi tape with Easter eggs on it. Voila - Easter napkins a few moments later!

​Here’s an incredibly wonderful smelling but incredibly boring looking candle made a whole lot cuter with a little bit of washi tape in matching colors to the wax.

​A kalanchoe plant from Trader Joe’s adds a beautiful spot of color to the dining room table but the pot it came in leaves a little to be desired.  Sliding into this glass cylinder vase with some Spanish moss in the bottom and a few stripes of this wood grained tape really elevates the look.  

​Finally, as renters, we can’t make any permanent changes to our apartment.  We can add a little personality, though, with a few stripes of washi tape across a very plain bathroom mirror.  The washi helps to bring a little of the shower curtain color over to the other side of the bathroom.

I hope this post has given you some ideas on how you could add some life and color to some dull spots in your home.  See you next time!

Rebecca here: today's photo on the homepage is provided by the website building program I use, Weebly. 

Hello everyone! Today we have the tiniest of blogs as I was a bad craft blogger these past few weeks. I did not take any photos of this craft in process as it is really easy to do, but I will explain as best I can! If you are trying to do this craft yourself, I would go to the Cricut website (link below) and follow their directions for how to use iron-on vinyl as that is what I did! My little blog today is more just an opportunity to give you some inspiration :)
help.cricut.com/hc/en-us/articles/360009378254-Everyday-Iron-On-Instructions
(This link takes you directly to the page for their "Everyday Vinyl" instructions but on the left-hand side you will see all their other options such as Glitter, Foil, etc. The Cricut brand vinyl I had specifically was Foil.)

So when my lovely husband bought my Cricut for me, it came with a few sample rolls of vinyl, one of which was iron-on vinyl. I had not used it yet and decided that it was time to give it a try. I bought some small 6 inch by 5 inch canvas tote bags from Hobby Lobby, as well as a few other colors of iron-on vinyl. I bought some Paper Tree brand vinyl to see how it compared to the Cricut vinyl I already had. Both worked really well!

There are a few important things to remember when cutting out iron-on vinyl as opposed to cutting out adhesive sticker vinyl. When cutting a sticker, you want the vinyl face up so that the image is cut out and the backing is left in tact. Iron-on vinyl has the backing on the front so you need to flip the vinyl over so that the good side is down. This will ensure that the back side of the vinyl, which is actually the iron-on part, is cut and the front backing will remain in tact. For iron-on vinyl. you peel the backing off the front once it is ironed down, as opposed to peeling the image of a back sheet like you would for a sticker. You with me?

It's also important to remember to mirror your image if it's something that has one clear orientation like writing. My images for this project were all simple like a sun, flower, butterfly, etc. so the image being flipped was not a problem. But if you are using writing or your image needs to go in one particular direction, use the mirror option so that everything is correctly oriented when you flip it over and get ironing. The mirror option can be chosen when you get to the printing screen in the Cricut Design Space.

Two small things I did which the Cricut instructions did not mention was to use parchment paper when ironing and to add a piece of cardboard inside my bag. Using cardboard allowed a flat base that I could press the iron onto and parchment paper honestly just made me feel better. According to Cricut, you should be able to iron directly on the protective backing for the iron-on vinyl but I was a wee bit stressed so I added a sheet of parchment paper in between. 

I have blabbed on enough with no images to help you understand so here are the 8 bags I have made! hopefully the images will help it all come together. When the iron-on vinyl was adhered, I also made some cute little letter bead and small glass bead charms to hang from the strap. Although you are only seeing one side of the bags, I did cut out 2 of the same images so the front and back have the same iron-on image in the same color. 

Next we have foil gold crown with "shine like gold" charm.

And black galaxy with "reach for the stars" charm. 

Neon orange sun with "shine bright" charm. 

Foil purple flower with "time to bloom" charm. The next 4 are all foil and the lighting is not doing a great job of showing the true color of the vinyl! All colors are much brighter than they appear.

Foil red heart with "love yourself" charm.

Green foil trees with "grow tall" charm. 

And finally, blue foil star with "you are a star" charm.

I also bought some small zipper canvas bags, some pencil case size and some slightly smaller so I will be working on those soon too!

And that's all folks! Sorry this blog was not so in depth, but hopefully this gives you a little inspiration if you are looking to try out some iron-on vinyl! Get crafting everyone!

 - Rebecca 

Today's photo on the homepage is from Pexels user Pixabay:
​ www.pexels.com/photo/green-white-philips-iron-53422/

Happy Saturday friends! Hope you all are having a great weekend so far and enjoy this slightly early blog! Sooooo if you are sick of pour painting this may not be the blog for you. But this one is a little different, I swear!

Anyways, I had picked up a pack of 8 10 inch by 10 inch canvases from Michaels a while ago and decided to give something a try on 6 of them. I did some pour painting on them and then let them dry overnight. 

I tried a new approach with the rainbow one and just added lines of the paint to the canvas as opposed to putting all of the colors in a cup. I was not in love with how it turned out and wished I could have been able to get the colors to blend a little more so the lines were not so harsh. Besides even that, one of the paints I used in that one ended up not having been mixed up enough and dried with some unpleasant chunks that I did not enjoy. So I put that canvas aside and you will not see it again in this blog! I'm trying to see if maybe I can salvage it but that's a problem for another day.

I wanted to try something different and add some stickers to the top of these canvases for a bit of a mixed media effect. I used my Cricut to cut out different stickers for each canvas from adhesive vinyl. Two quick notes: I forgot to take a picture of the sticker I used on the pinky/purpley canvas before adding it so you will just have to see that in the finished project. Please just know that I picked the most tedious design of all time and it took forever to work with! Secondly, you will see a red wine glass and starburst below. I ended up cutting out the exact same shapes in black vinyl because when I tried the red stickers on the canvas they were meant for, there was not enough contrast and the red blended right in.

Once the canvases were dry, I stuck on the stickers and then immediately went over with a fairly thick coat of clear satin varnish. As the canvases have a bit of texture I wanted to seal in the stickers very well so they wouldn't curl up on the edges. I ended up giving each canvas about 3 coats of varnish. 

Once they were dry I wanted to finish the backs as pour painting often leaves the backs of canvases looking very messy. There were some white areas on the back edge where the paint had not reached so I ended up using some regular acrylic paint to fill in those areas with a similar color. 

I then grabbed some shiny and glittery thick cardstock that I had in coordinating colors for each canvas. 

As the canvases were 10 by 10, I cut the cardstock into 9 1/2 by 9 1/2 squares. I first used some SuperGlue around the back edge of the canvas and stuck the cardstock down. I wanted to ensure that the cardstock did not eventually peel up so I ended up using some small screws right into the wood frame of the canvas to secure it in place. I had originally tried a small nail instead, but the nail went right through the paper while the screw did not. 

Now I needed to cover the screws in each corner so I cut out some coordinating paper into 2 1/2 inch squares and then cut those in half diagonally to get 2 triangles. I did that twice for each canvas to end up with 4 triangles, 1 for each corner. I adhered this with some liquid glue that is good for paper to paper adhesion. Finally, I added a sawtooth hanger to the top back of each canvas. Here they all are, front and back!

I ended up putting the sun sticker in the corner and cutting off the edges. I wasn't loving how it would look centered on the canvas.

This one has actually already been claimed by a coworker who is going to purchase it and hang it in her basement. Thank you Stephanie!

This is the one that took ages. None of those little lines and flowers are connected so it was painstaking! I love how the finished product looks though!

This one is much better with the black stickers!

This one I am on the fence about. Sometimes I think it looks elegant and you can tell that its supposed to be the leaves of the tree and sometimes I feel like it looks a bit weird but I'm just trusting that it will speak to someone!

I had 2 more canvases from the pack and decided to make 2 more paintings. These are not done yet but I am working on a pastel one which will have some cloud stickers to look like a sunrise and a bright green/teal one with some vine stickers to be a bit jungley. 

What do you guys think of the combination of pour painting and stickers on the canvas? Let me know in the comments below!

 - Rebecca

P.S. The photo on the homepage today is from Pexels user Steve Johnson: 
​www.pexels.com/photo/paint-bottles-989008/

Hi friends – It’s Suzanne and I am happy to be back on the PPP with a recycled craft idea for you today.
​
When Rebecca’s dad and I sold our home a while ago, I divested of most of the home décor we had, opting to see what our new place needed and knowing it would give me the chance to craft some new things. 

One of the things I’ve been looking at some local shops and thrift stores is a rusty metal pocket, a little something like this . . .

I haven’t been able to find anything but did receive an Amazon package recently that came in a brown paper envelope instead of the usual plastic.  The color, texture and shape got my wheels turning. 
​
First, I cut the top of the envelope even across the top, crumpled it and spread it back out, to give it a little texture.  Then I folded the sealed edges to the back of the envelope and glued them in place.  After that, I folded the opening of the envelope over twice to hide the cut edge and give the pocket a bit of a collar. 

Now it was time to paint.  Using a stiff brush, I brushed on some brown paint, dabbed in some black and then orange to mimic rust.  This wet on wet technique allows all the of paint colors to blend in to each other with no visible lines between them.  I started on the back of the pocket so I could get a feel for how much paint was needed, then moved on to the front.  After completely painting the pocket, I came back over with more orange paint, blending in it to the still wet paint until I got the look of rust I liked.

​Once the paint was dry, the pocket was still a little too brown and not really rusty looking enough for me, so I moved on to another “how to mimic rust” technique – some more paint and cinnamon.  I dabbed on some appropriately named “Rusty Red” paint, mixed in a tiny bit of brown, and when the paint was still wet, sprinkled cinnamon over the whole thing.  Now I was getting somewhere!  

The texture of the cinnamon really mimics the uneven texture of rust (and smelled delicious).  After the whole thing was covered, I tapped off the excess cinnamon and let the pocket dry for about 15 minutes.
​ 
I wanted to seal the cinnamon in place, so I used some satin varnish over the cinnamon.  

​Once the varnish was a bit dry, I used a heat tool in a couple of spots to bubble the varnish and add to the rusty patina.

​I added a fair amount of hot glue into each edge and pushed in a length of rusty wire as a hanger.  

​Since the many coats of wet paint and varnish left the pocket a little soft, I cut a piece of cardboard (also recycled from another delivery box) and slid that inside the pocket.  

​I pushed the edges of the pocket into the cardboard liner, sandwiching the wire between the liner and the inside of the pocket.  This made the front and back gap just a little.  To make the back lie flat, I folded and hot glued a little pleat into the pocket.  I left the front with its gap.

Note:  I only cinnamon’d the front of the pocket – the back just got a quick coat of the original black/brown/orange combo.
I added a vintage lace trim bow and some eucalyptus branches, and this project was ready to hang on our door!

Rebecca here: Thank you to my mother for this clever, upcycle craft idea! What do you guys think? Let us know in the comments below!

 - Rebecca

P.S. Today's photo on the home page is from Pexels user Pixabay: www.pexels.com/photo/access-antique-bolt-close-277574/

Hi there friends! So we are back to finish up the pour paint resin project, Where we left off last time I showed you what I had done to 4 frames, but also mentioned that I had bought 8 more. Well ..... I went crazy and made 4 more! I'm not going to go too deeply into the pour painting or resin process as I did cover that in the first blog: www.thepatternedpaperplate.com/blog/pour-paint-resin-frames-part-1

I will say that I tried a slightly different approach with the resin for a few and added some sparkles which turned out really nice! You will see the finished product at the end, no worries!

So basically with each side of each frame I did the pour painting, let that dry, added some letter stickers and other details as I saw fit and covered in as many coats of resin were needed to fill the frame indent. I then painted each frame. Of the 8 frames, 2 I painted silver, 2 gold, 2 black and 2 brown. I used some painters tape over the dry resin to help create straight lines when painting. 

Once that was all complete, it was time to make these hangable! I acquired some little eye hook screws from my mother and bought some chain off Amazon. I spray painted half of the eye hooks gold and left the other half silver. I then used a very small drill bit to make pilot holes and screwed two eye hooks into the top of each frame. I used pliers to open up links of the chain to the length I wanted and then attached it to the eye hooks. 

And now, the thing you've all been waiting for ... the finished frames! I'm going to show you all 8 and will show you both sides of each. Sit back and relax! Also please don't judge for how you can see my camera in some of the photos. It is nearly impossible to take a photo of a shiny surface like resin without seeing something reflected back!

Frame 1:

Frame 2:

Frame 3:

Frame 4:

Frame 5:

Frame 6:

Frame 7:

Frame 8:

There they are everyone! I am honestly so proud of these. They were a labor of love and took a while to get finished, but they were worth it! If you have any specific questions about any frames and how they were made, feel free to leave them in the comments below!

And, as always, I'd be happy to sell these if anyone is interested! Feel free to email me at rebecca96@comcast.net if you would like to know more. I would be happy to do sales in the greater Manchester, New Hampshire area. I am still trying to hype myself up to make an Etsy shop and we are not quite there yet :)

Talk to you soon friends!

​ - Rebecca

P.S. Today's photo on the main blog page is provided by Pexels User Thirdman: 
​www.pexels.com/photo/glass-health-research-treatment-7256261/

Happy February everyone! So last blog I decided to give epoxy resin a try for the first time. This week I am starting on a project that combines resin with one of my all time favorite crafting techniques: acrylic pour painting. If you are a consistent reader of the blog, perhaps you are sick of pour painting, but it never fails me and I will not ever stop doing it. That is all. End of story.

Soooooo I was at Michaels and stumbled upon these wooden frames that are exclusively meant to be used for pour painting and resin art. I also bought some additional resin as I had none left over from my first resin craft. Quick update for those unaware: resin is kind of expensive. But besides that, these frames were very cool as they are double-sided, with one side being deeper with a wider frame while the other side is shallower with a thinner frame. 

I am not going to give you yet another explanation of how I pour painted, but the SparkNotes version is that I used my tried and true pre-mixed acrylic pour paints and made sure to move the paint around so that it fully covered the inner sides of the wood frames. I started off with the shallower sides of the frames. If you want an actually helpful tutorial on how to pour paint, I have several blogs about it.

This one was my first attempt at pour painting and used a method that involved having to mix each paint with a pouring medium that thinned it out: www.thepatternedpaperplate.com/blog/acrylic-pour-painting

This one gives an example of how to pour on something other than just a canvas and uses the pre-mixed pour paints that I have come to know and love: www.thepatternedpaperplate.com/blog/pour-paint-coasters-part-one

I let the paint dry for about 24-36 hours as it was a fairly thick layer and then I got started on the details that would be encased by the resin. The brown/white and yellow/orange frames both had some gold mixed in so I decided I wanted to add some gold stickers spelling out some simple phrases. I love the look of mismatched fonts so I used two different gold alphabet sticker sheets and cut out letters that I liked to spell out each phrase. I also want to give a quick shout out to the Dollar Tree for the amazing letter sticker selection. If you are looking for letter stickers of any kind, Dollar Tree has a really good selection, particularly of gold/silver foil stickers, and they are some of the thickest, highest quality stickers I've ever used. I would highly recommend! Also, please ignore how my little demonstration of my words below looks like a ransom note ....

I had watched a few videos about using stickers in resin and I saw that a common concern or issue was that the stickers would become somewhat damp from the resin and would warp or shift around. To help prevent this, I used a tiny bit of SuperGlue on the back of each letter sticker before sticking it down and covering the whole piece in resin. Here are how they looked without the resin once the stickers were glued down. 

These frames ended up needing two layers of resin and I used clear resin to really let the pour painting shine through. I thought that I had used enough the first time, but once it settled and dried, the resin layer was not even with the edges of the frame like I wanted it to be. I did some research and learned that there are really two ways to layer resin effectively: you can either pour a second layer only a few hours after the first when the first layer is still a bit tacky or you can wait a full 24 hours until the first layer is fully dry, then sand and scuff up the first layer before pouring the second. The second layer just needs to have something to grip onto so that the layers don't separate so pouring onto tacky resin or onto a scuffed up layer achieves this. As my first layer was already dry, I went for the sand and scuff up method. I will say that this was somewhat scary as the sanding left very visible marks and scratches in the resin, but once the second layer was poured, these marks disappeared. I will show you how these turned out with the resin added in part two of this blog :)

For the blue and purple frames, I had originally thought that I did not want to do phrases and opted for adding some little clay flower decorations to the first layer of resin. 

Once this first layer with the flowers dried and I realized that I had to do another layer on these as well, I decided that I wanted these to have some phrases too. For these I used some silver stickers all of the same font and did the SuperGlue application again. The purple frame shows what it looks like in between resin coats when everything is sanded down and scuffed, while the blue frame shows how it looks with both coats of resin done. 

And this is where I will leave you on this project! Part 2 is going to cover what I did to the other sides, what I did to the bare wood frames themselves and what I used to make hangable pieces of art actually hangable. 

I am so happy with how these are turning out and I will admit that I already bought four more of the frames from Michaels to make more. As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, if you are getting a little bit bored with seeing pour painting so much, I really don't have anything to say as I don't think I will ever stop doing it :) I have always loved painting and making larger scale art/wall decor, but as someone who is not really that good at drawing or painting actual things like landscapes/people etc., pour painting is such a good way to achieve what I want. It is also a form of painting that really centers on imperfection and uniqueness which is good for me as someone who gets a bit too focused on perfection. It has become a really therapeutic kind of art form for me and I love it! My mother has told me that cutting paper does that for her and she finds it very calming and meditative; for me, that thing has become pour painting.

Also one quick final point: the first few times I actually mixed and poured the resin, I did not wear a mask because I have a general attitude of "screw it" when it comes to my personal safety. However, I would highly recommend actually wearing a mask as resin basically smells like a high school science classroom when its frog dissection week. Very formaldehyde-ish. Once I started wearing a mask while pouring, I did not end up getting a headache. Imagine that. I would even say that a mask, gloves and goggles/some kind of eye wear are your best bet to ensure that you are fully protected. 

Let me know what you all think of the start of this project in the comments below. I can't wait to show you the finished results!

​ - Rebecca 

P.S. Today's photo on the homepage comes from Pexels user Thirdman: www.pexels.com/photo/a-person-mixing-a-resin-soloution-7256844/