Category

Tutorials

Category
DIY Dye Painting // A Well Crafted Party
Photo by Motormouth Studios

A really easy way to transform a table is by customizing the table linens to match your theme. For my Forth of July Meet & Greet event at West Elm I wanted to teach attendees a way to customize fabric napkins in a way that doesn’t end up being overtly patriotic so that they might be able to use the napkins throughout the Summer. I chose to teach a DIY Dye Painting craft that creates fabric napkins with almost a water color effect. I liked the effect so much that I chose to create matching printables with the watercolor look too complete the party. Stay tuned this week to see the free printables.  (sneak peek here!)

DIY dye painting // A Well Crafted Party
Photo by Motormouth Studio
DIY Dye Painting with A Well Crafted Party
Photo by Motormouth Studio

DIY Dye Painted Cloth Napkins

Supplies Needed: (Links are affiliate links. Affiliate link purchases help support this blog.)

Directions: 

*Please be careful working with dye. It wil dye your furniture, clothing, etc. It is very important to protect your space and be careful when painting with this dye. If you are worried about getting it on your hands then use latex gloves to protect them!

  1. Make your dye: Mix 2 Tablespoons of Liquid Rit Dye with 1/4 tablespoon of salt, and 2 Tablespoons of water.
  2. Place several layers of wax paper down underneath your white napkin.
  3. Paint shapes on your white napkin using the dye. The napkin will cause some bleeding of the dye. Small, intricate designs are not suggested for this type of fabric painting.
  4. Let the design dry. The drying process can be as quick as 30 minutes. I let mine sit overnight. The overall print will be lighter than that painted. Some of the dye will also bleed during the rinsing process… making the watercolor effect I was speaking of before.
  5. Rinse each napkin separately under cool water until water runs clear. Put in dryer or hang to dry.
  6. Wash the napkins in a separate load and not with your regular clothing in future washings. The dye may bleed in the next few washings and you don’t want to get the dye on other cloth items.

Some painting ideas…

DIY Dye Painting with A Well Crafted Party
Photo by Motormouth Studio
DIY Dye Painting with A Well Crafted Party
Photo by Motormouth Studio

Finished Product…

DIY Dye Painting with A Well Crafted Party
Photo by Motormouth Studio

 

sunscreen-station-guestpost

I’m excited to be sharing my DIY Sunscreen Station with Today”s Creative Blog! It is a totally customizable station that you can put up near the door of your home so that you are reminded to put on your sunscreen before leaving the house!

I would love it if you took a moment to jump on over to see the tutorial and comment/pin/share the post!

 

I’d like to gain as much Skin Cancer Awareness as possible this month. Hopefully, people all over will take some precautions when it comes to sun safety and save a whole generation from going through skin cancer in the future.

Urban Gardening Mistakes

I do not have a green thumb. I don’t live with a dog or cat, partly because my toddler is enough of a mess to take care of, but mostly because I wouldn’t be a very good pet owner. I’ve always thought I should try and keep plants alive before taking on the responsibility of a dog.

Despite my terrible sense of responsibility, I had a strong urge to learn how to garden, and when my family and I moved into a house with a yard last summer, I decided to risk taking (botanical) life into my hands. I was motivated by seeing friends and coworkers show off their bountiful produce (the size of one coworker’s zucchini was astounding).

I’m a little bit of a scifi nerd, and some post-apocalyptic stories seem more likely than others. And if the grocery stores are all empty, I want to at least know how to grow my own vegetables. Ideally, I’d have a few goats, chickens, bees, and alpacas as well, but I thought I’d start with a veggie garden.

Urban Gardening—Choosing the Plot

I am the epitome of a novice, so this gardening series is not meant to be tutorial, but more “try not to cringe at all Brian’s mistakes.” Perhaps you can learn a little from what I’ve screwed up.

Spring was arriving in Portland, and I was ready to get started. I’d done a little research into how to convert a grass lawn into a vegetable garden. There were different options, like covering the plot with newspaper, letting the darkness kill the grass for a month, and mulching in the newspaper. I had two problems with that option: I didn’t have any newspaper (who doesn’t read their news online? Sorry, print journalists), and I didn’t have a month’s worth of patience. I decided to go with the other option I’d read about – flipping the turf.

We moved to this house from an apartment, so the only tools we had for outdoor work were left behind by the last tenants. I had a sturdy, if dull, shovel, and that was enough for this task. Some people rent a back-hoe for this – I witnessed a neighbor actually tearing up his yard with one – but I’m not that gung-ho, or that full of money. Besides, gardening should be done as much by hand as possible, don’t you think? (I changed my mind later!)

Beginning a Garden Plot

Working Hard on the Garden

Working Hard for the Garden

Finished Plot

As you can see, my brother and I dug a rectangle, about 8 by 10 square feet. No real planning went into the dimensions or the location. It just looked to be the right size, and maybe we got a little worn out. Flipping sod is not for city folk, with flabby city muscles.

My first mistake was choosing the plot location. I didn’t put hardly any thought into the most important element: where sunlight fell in my yard. What a rookie mistake. All I needed to do was spend one day occasionally eyeballing my yard, and marking the extent of sunlight and shadow. The plot I chose is about 40% shady (that’s my very scientific measurement). Shade is okay for some plants, like lettuce, so it wasn’t the worst mistake I could have made. But now I know what I would do differently next time.

In the next post I will tell you about how my laziness and impatience lead to my next mistake. It’s not all bad news – we have successfully harvested spinach, lettuce, and basil, so far, and there is a fat cucumber getting fatter everyday.

Do you garden? If so, what were your mistakes in the beginning?

(Come on… make me feel better!)