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Hand Painted Ceramic Vases for a One of a Kind Mother’s Day Gift

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May 6, 2018 By Rebecca D. Dillon

These hand painted ceramic vases are incredibly easy to decorate. Simply paint, cure and bake and you have a unique, one of a kind Mother’s Day gift she’ll always treasure!

My friend and roommate, Bambi, had several days off last week. Our weather was unseasonably hot for spring last week with highs in the 90s and a pollen count through the roof. So rather than spending time outdoors, we decided to tackle a craft project indoors.

I still had ceramic craft vases that I bought from the Handmade Modern Collection at Target last year that were still in storage. With Mother’s Day right around the corner, we decided to dig these vases out of storage and paint them with ceramic paints. These hand painted ceramic vases make great succulent planters. However, they are also perfect for storing extra craft supplies on your desk.

I’m also pretty crazy about this ceramic geometric hanging succulent wall vase that can be painted as well.

DIY Hand Painted Ceramic Vases

We painted our vases using Liquitex Glossies, a ceramic paint that bake onto the ceramic, which Bambi still had in craft stash. Unfortunately, this particular paint was discontinued in 2016. A suitable substitute for this type of paint would be the Porcelaine 150 Ceramic Paints.

Getting started is easy. Once you have your ceramic vase and decide on a design, all you need are the paints and brushes to get started! We used paper plates for paint palettes as I misplaced mine somewhere during the last move. Pint glasses were also filled with water for rinsing off our brushes between colors.

How you design your hand painted ceramic vases is really up to you. There’s no right or wrong way. I painted my vase with layered blocks of overlapping colors.

While Bambi chose to paint lined shapes and large blocks of color for her hand painted ceramic vases. (She painted two vases!) Once we completed the designs on our hand painted ceramic vases, we set the vases aside to cure for 24 hours.

We then baked our hand painted ceramic vases according to the paint manufacturer’s instructions. Once cool, we removed the ceramic vases from the oven.

I chose to use a gold calligraphy paint pen to add gold accents to my vase.

And there you have it! It’s really that easy to craft your own hand painted ceramic vases! Whether you give your vases as handmade Mother’s Day gifts or decide to keep them for yourself, you now have a unique and functional vessel that’s perfect for your home!

More to Make and Gift for Mother’s Day

If you enjoyed this creative Mother’s Day craft project, then you may also enjoy making these easy DIY needle felted wine bags for Mom this Mother’s Day. Or try one of these other beautiful DIY Mother’s Day gifts.

Can’t squeeze in the time to make your own handmade Mother’s Day gift? Shop from this collection of lovely handmade Mother’s Day gifts on Etsy instead. I’m particularly partial to this floral zipper pouch from Apple White Handmade as well as this Vanilla Escape Organic Skin Care Set from Dab & Dabble. (Both pictured above.)

Discover More from Soap Deli News

For more gift worthy craft projects as well as homemade bath, body, beauty and soap recipes, be sure to find and follow Soap Deli News across all of your favorite social media platforms including G+, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Blog Lovin’, and Instagram as well as subscribe to Soap Deli News via email for future updates, DIY projects and recipes.

Filed Under: DIY Craft Project, Holiday DIY, Homemade Gift Ideas Tagged With: ceramics, crafts, diy, easy, gift idea, gift ideas for women, Mother's Day, Mother's Day gifts, painting, planter, tutorial

DIY Crafts Desk Organizer & Ikea Hack

April 3, 2018 By Rebecca D. Dillon

Learn how to create your own bold DIY crafts desk organizer to create more storage space for your craft and office supplies with this easy & fun Ikea hack!

As if being overrun with soapmaking supplies wasn’t bad enough, I also have a rather large craft stash. Among these items was an Ikea MOPPE mini storage chest. Being short on space since moving in with my best friend this past December, I decided it was finally time to put this storage chest to good use. Thus, this DIY crafts desk organizer became my first Ikea hack.

I love the bright colors I chose to use for this project. As my bedroom/office area is mostly gray, the bold pop of colors really added a bit of the cheer and fun that reflects my personality. (As you may recall my kitchen table makeover from this past summer.)

Additionally, this storage chest makeover freed up additional shelving on my double trestle desk I bought from Target recently. So I really love all the extra desktop storage space I now have as a result of my DIY crafts desk organizer.

While the Ikea MOPPE mini storage chest is currently not available, you can easily recreate this DIY crafts desk organizer idea using a similar unfinished wood storage chest or desktop organizer.

DIY Crafts Desk Organizer

What You’ll Need:

Acrylic Craft Paint, in colors of choice
Paint Brushes
E-6000 Craft Adhesive
Tim Holtz idea-ology Foundations
Tim Holtz idea-ology Curio Knobs x 2
Wood Monstera Leaves (or other unfinished wood shapes)
Washi Tape
Mod Podge or Other Craft Sealer, if desired

What to Do:

Begin by painting the outside of each of the box drawers, the cabinet and the wood shapes for your DIY crafts desk organizer. You’ll need two to three coats of paint on all of the surfaces depending on the quality of your paint.

I also painted the inside of the box drawers in contrasting colors. And, because of the footed foundations I chose to use for my crafts desk organizer, I chose to use the bottom drawer on top of my organizer. This in turn gave me additional shelf space on the bottom and created a tray space on top for supplies I use the most.

Once the paint dries, you can add decorative washi tape to your DIY crafts desk organizer as desired. Then spray your storage cabinet with two or three coats of a clear acrylic sealer to keep the washi tape in place or to further protect your cabinet.

Once the sealer dries, use E-6000 to adhere the curio knobs to the the notches in the drawers. You can also use the same adhesive to glue on your painted wooden shapes as desired. If needed you can use masking tape to hold the curio knobs in place until the glue has set up. (Note that it can take up to 72 hours for E-6000 to fully set up.)

Now use the E-6000 to glue the footed foundation onto the bottom of your DIY crafts desk organizer.

Once the glue has cured, you can put everything together. I added some cute decorative cups to the bottom shelf that I found at Target’s Dollar Spot. All that’s left is to fill your DIY crafts desk organizer with your craft supplies and tools!

I used my crafts desk organizer to store my paint markers, pens, markers and pencils.

It also gave me a LOT of extra room to stash all of my washi tape.

Things like decorative favor bags, scissors, glue and baker’s twine also found new homes!

How do you store and organize your office and craft supplies? I’d love to hear your ideas! So be sure to share your organizing ideas in the comments!

For more great DIY ideas and crafts, be sure to follow Soap Deli News across all of your favorite social media platforms!

You can find me on Pinterest, G+, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Blog Lovin’, and Instagram as well as subscribe to Soap Deli News via email for future updates, DIY projects and recipes.

Filed Under: DIY Craft Project, Lifestyle Tagged With: crafts, desk organizer, diy, home office, ikea hack, organizer, organizing, painting, storage, storage bin, washi tape, weekend crafts

Weekly Wrap Up (Week of June 18th-June 24th)

June 24, 2017 By Rebecca D. Dillon

This past week I’ve been busy brainstorming like made for new bath and body recipes and I’m so excited to get started on my new to do list! Some of the projects I plan to share will also be a part of what I’ve coined my Craft & Cocktail Nights that I’ll be having about every other week with my friends. The first one is tonight and we’ll be making DIY nail polishes using a suspension nail polish base, micas and glitters.

In actuality, since I moved back to Roanoke and am once again in close proximity of some of my favorite and true blue friends, I kind of have a craft & cocktail night anyway about once a week with someone near and dear.

Those projects, however, are typically one on one on a night there are no kids and my husband has his weekly band practice. I often use those nights for experimenting like mad. Sometimes those creations make it to the blog. Other times they don’t.

This past Thursday my husband’s band, Virginia Electric, actually had a gig so we skipped the weekly craft shindig for music. I headed out to hear my husband’s band play and my friend Bambi hit a local venue to hear her friend’s band. The Thursday before however, we tried two new fab red wines and painted birdhouses.

It was ridiculously enjoyable. We did get a little crazy though when I thought it’d be a marvelous idea to paint the kitchen tabletop. (If you follow me on instagram it’s likely you’ve already seen that disaster.)

We sort of got WAY into it and the whole incident became a “blow off steam/sensory play” experience. It was quite fun and I recommend everyone do it at least once in their lives – but definitely do it outside.

A post shared by Soap Deli News Blog (@soapdeli) on Jun 16, 2017 at 7:04pm PDT

The tabletop ended up looking like a smear of mud so in the end, I cleaned off the tabletop – leaving only a few streaks of glitter behind that didn’t come off – and slaved a bit over the kitchen clean up. We had started by splattering paint and squirting it onto the table so by the end of the night there was paint on the floor and the walls and randomly in the strangest of places.

A post shared by Soap Deli News Blog (@soapdeli) on Jun 16, 2017 at 7:02pm PDT

My husband was rightfully a bit miffed. It was quite the disaster to walk in on. And he walked in as I was attempting to mop the kitchen floor – a feat that only made the floor look worse. Think a film of a mud like colored substance everywhere the mop had been. So I got down and dirty with towels and kitchen cleaner and pretty much scrubbed the kitchen floor on my hands and knees along with the table, chairs, walls and even the sides of the cabinets. Thus, should you ever repeat this exercise in complete lack of self control, I highly recommend you take it outside.

The next day there were muddy paint footprints I scrubbed off the wood floor – along with Bambi who had her own footprints she took home with her.

Still, there were and are no regrets because it was the most amazing time! And luckily, having spent quite a few years raising two daughters, my husband was a lot more understanding than I would have been had I walked in on the same disastrous aftermath.

If you want to paint your own birdhouses, this is actually a great project for the family if you skip the cocktail part of it. You can find the birdhouses online at Target.com here. (I hadn’t seen these at my local Target, but they also tend to sell out of crafty supplies and materials there rather quickly.)

A post shared by Lavish- Clean Intentions (@lavishcleanintentions) on Mar 2, 2017 at 8:02am PST

Some other wonderful things I’ve enjoyed this week include this beautiful handmade soap from Lavish Clean Intentions. It’s scented with spearmint and eucalyptus and is one of my favorite handmade soaps shared using the hashtag #soapdelishowoff on instagram this week.

I’ve also found a new favorite white wine – Three Thieves 2015 Pinot Grigio. It’s a steal at $10 a bottle and of course, there’s an additional dollar off per bottle when I buy six at Kroger!

As there’s always a question about using preservatives in homemade skin care products, a great article I recently rediscovered and pinned to my DIY Bath and Body Pinterest board is this one from Soap Queen blog. It will help you answer the question as to whether or not your homemade product needs a preservative. And if so, what is the best preservative to use for your product type.

I’m also in love with the Pork Dumplings Recipe from HelloFresh. This is the second time I’ve ordered this meal with my box as it’s so amazing! I’m cooking this for dinner tonight pre-party. If you’re not a HelloFresh subscriber you can sign up here and get $40 off your first order.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the weekend and that you all have a super creative inspiring week next week! See you then!

Also, if you don’t already follow me, be sure to check me out on G+, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Blog Lovin’, and Instagram for more great DIY ideas. Or sign up to receive new posts from Soap Deli News blog to your email via FeedBurner so you never miss a post.

Filed Under: DIY Craft Project, My Life Day to Day Tagged With: birdhouse, crafts, creative, diy, fun, inspiration, painting, weekly wrap up

Pinterest Inspired DIY Artwork for Home & Office

July 20, 2013 By Rebecca D. Dillon

My co-worker Erica, who made me a set of lovely coasters last Christmas, has been getting her craft on recently to bring some new life to her office here at work. Inspired by projects she discovered on Pinterest, she created a lovely collection of new “attire” for her blank walls. (Please excuse the quality of these pics. I photographed them with my cell phone.)

Erica made these crayon “paintings” from a box of crayons – with back to school right around the corner you can pick these up for super cheap! – artist canvas, a hot glue gun and a hair dryer. Simply use a hot glue gun to glue crayons along the top of a blank canvas, then use a hair dryer to melt the crayons so the colors run down the canvas creating a one of kind work of art.

These works of art were created using square canvases, scrapbook papers, mod podge and paint. Simply cut scrapbook papers to fit the canvas size and use mod podge to adhere the decorative papers to the front of the canvas. Once dry, paint around the sides of the canvas – based on Erica’s paper choices she used brown paint – and lightly brush paint around the edges of the papers on the front. Let dry and hang!

Erica also made a place to hold and organize her important notes and phone lists she uses on a daily basis. She purchased jumbo clothespins, painted them black then glued them to a yard stick. She initially tried to hot glue the clothespins but found that they didn’t hold with hot glue. I recommended E-6000 glue (craft adhesive) since it holds just about everything and it worked like a charm.

For more ideas for art projects, be sure to visit and follow my Art Class Board on Pinterest. For diy decorating ideas and inspiration, follow my For the Home Board on Pinterest. And finally, for home and office organizing tips and diy’s be sure to follow my Home & Office Organization Board on Pinterest.

Filed Under: Art & Photography, Decorating, DIY Craft Project Tagged With: art, craft project, crafts, decorating, decoupage, diy, easy, frugal, home decor, home office, mod podge, office, organization, organizer, organizing, painting, pinterest

DIY Kitchen Makeover – Getting Started

March 5, 2012 By Rebecca D. Dillon

Moving into a new place always requires a lot of work and a lot of love. But if you really want your place to shine – and not be just another renter – it also requires a little extra elbow grease. I like to treat every place I live or work as if it’s my own. Therefore it receives the same love and care. The one really big thing I want to put some work into first is our new kitchen. It was freshly painted before Scott and I moved in, but in a flat paint and nothing more. Therefore the grease over the stove has bled through the paint and it can’t be cleaned. The cabinets are also a very dull, non-exciting white, and overall the kitchen feels very bland to me. It lacks any kind of personality. My son, Cody, and I decided to start on a few things to give it a cheery makeover until we have more money. First on our to do list was to make a space for notes and honey-do lists for Scott. We decided to apply chalkboard paint to the two outer kitchen cabinets for a little pop and to make it more fun.

Here are the cabinets over the sink before we started. That’s my son, Cody, at the ready with a cordless drill.

Cody took the doors off the cabinets from the actual door. At first we tried to do it the “right” way and remove the hinges from both the cabinet and door, but as it turned out the hinges are attached pretty well to the cabinets courtesy of many layers of paint.

We laid newspaper outside on the back porch and Cody went over each door several times with nice, even layers of Kryon Chalkboard Paint. This was the right cabinet door.

And this was the second cabinet door. He did go back and do the sides as well.

Once the doors dried completely, Cody re-hung them.

After letting them dry for a good 24 hours, we then brightened them up with some chalk.

In the meantime, I’ve also started looking at paint colors to cover the grease in the kitchen and to add a little color while still keeping the space neutral.

These are the colors I have my eye on. (Check out the real deal in Lowe’s stores to get a better idea of the colors. Computer screens I have found vary greatly and even my computer screen doesn’t accurately portray these colors.) I’m thinking the tea stain in a good paint with primer for the walls – it’s only slightly lighter than the colors on the walls now – and the Grandma’s linen for the cabinet structure and remaining cabinet doors. I believe they will tie together beautifully and give the kitchen a little pop without going overboard since we’re renting. We’ve already started on some of the preliminary work. Cody spent much of Saturday pulling nails and screws, tracks that attach to nothing, hooks, etc. left in the walls – of which there were many! So now there’s just hole filler, paint and brushes and rollers to buy and a lot of work ahead!

I’ve also looked all over for spice racks and when I couldn’t find any locally I started pricing them online. I’ve had a love affair for magnetic spice racks for some time, however, I have read multiple complaints about the tins not sealing tightly. In the end I’ve decided to simply buy earth magnets and E6000 glue to adhere to the back of my existing spice containers which I will then store on the side of the fridge in arms’ reach of the stove. (I bought my magnets and glue from CandyTiles on etsy.) As my spice jars run empty I can refill them with bulk, organic herbs I’m able to buy at a discount from Mountain Rose Herbs. And for fun, I’ll decoupage my own hand designed labels to cover the existing herb jar labels. Which reminds me, I need to buy mod podge! I’ll post photos once I get that task completed!

In the meantime, here are some photos what our kitchen looks like one week after moving in.

We’ll be replacing the valances once we have the money and decide on the final wall color. That’s the pantry door to the right.

Another view. You can see there’s no light over the sink. I’m wondering if there’s a battery version we might be able to install there. And then you can see our kitchen radiator under the window.

The stove area along the same wall as the sink. Unfortunately there’s no exhaust vent either and in the winter it can be a tad too cold to open the windows. Any suggestions for options there? As you can see the fridge is right behind the stove so I think the side of the fridge is perfect for putting spices. I also have all handmade magnets on the fridge. There are several fortune cookies pinned to it. My two favorites are: “Happy event will take place shortly in your home.” and “Get your mind set…Confidence will lead you on.”

We have a dishwasher, which is amazing in a house over a hundred years old that’s also a rental. The little alcove behind it is a washer/dryer hook up area.

Does any have other suggestions for improving my kitchen? Thanks so much for taking this little journey with me.

Filed Under: Decorating Tagged With: chalkboard, chalkboard paint, decorating, diy, home decor, home improvement, homemaking, kitchen, makeover, painting